Over 800 wineries will give life to the first edition of Sana Slow Wine Fair, the international event dedicated to good, clean and fair wine, scheduled in Bologna from 26 February to 1 March, organized by BolognaFiere, with the artistic direction of Slow Food, the collaboration of Società Excellence and the participation of FederBio.
A world tour to the sound of great wines. But not just any great wines, but labels (the catalog already has over 3700, and the number will rise to 5000) which respond to three clear principles, the same ones that guide the Slow Wine Coalition and which are written in the Slow Manifesto Food for a good, clean and fair wine: it's about environmental sustainability, landscape protection and the cultural and social role that wineries can play in the territories where they operate.
There will be producers from every corner of Italy and hundreds of foreign realities. They already said yes cellars of Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Macedonia, Montenegro, Holland, Peru, Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United States e South Africa.
The Fair will be based on the three fundamental principles established by Slow Food: environmental sustainability, social impact and landscape protection.
Let's start from the first: respecting the environment means, among other things, saying no to chemistry in agriculture: no herbicides, in other words. An example of this is Paraschos, a winery located between San Floriano del Collio and Olsavia (Gorizia), in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Today, the company is led by Alexis and Jannis, sons of the founder Evangelos who arrived from the Greek Thessaloniki to study at the University of Trieste. «Dad began to take an interest in wine because he was fascinated by the farmers and winemakers of the Collio who, in the seventies and eighties, worked the land with respect, and certainly never dreamed of introducing herbicides into the vineyards. They are the ones who gave him that love for the land that makes him want to pass it on to his children and not just exploit it. For us, first came organic, sustainable, ecological agriculture, if you prefer, then came the wine».
However, environmental sustainability also and above all means biodiversity: the soil is nourished by the wealth of plant varieties, enriching itself and then returning these qualities to the fruits. Agricola Felline, a company from Manduria (Taranto) that grows Primitivo… and more, thinks the same: «We try to let that spontaneous vegetation that often grows in our dry-stone walls develop» explains the owner Gregory Perucci. «In this way, the vineyards become a living habitat for a diverse flora and fauna: fruits, flowers, herbs, grasses and vegetables thrive on living soils… Butterflies, birds, insects, reptiles and countless soil organisms also inhabit the vineyard. This interaction ensures a stable, largely self-regulating ecosystem that we believe brings genuine terroir balance and quality.
Using clean energy and reducing waste is another aspect to take into consideration in the environmental assessment of a company, as recalled by Lorenzo Marotti Campi, son of the founders of the homonymous winery in Morro d'Alba, in the province of Ancona: «Our The cellar has a solar system that allows us to achieve almost total energy independence».
Another important aspect concerns the human sustainability of the company: «We pay salaries above the average, because we need to establish long-term and trusting relationships with the people we work with» says Lorenzo Marotti Campi.
Jill and Steve Matthiasson, of the Matthiasson winery in Napa, California, also work according to this principle: «We don't hire seasonal workers – explains Steve -, all of our 17 employees have stable and lasting jobs. We have deliberately designed our business this way, and it helps that we have different vineyards with different grape varieties that ripen at different times." And even when unforeseen events upset routine, the entrepreneurial couple found a way to overcome the moment: «About two-thirds of our sales depend on restaurants and so, when the Covid-19 pandemic exploded and restaurants closed, the our sales have stopped. We moved as quickly as possible towards guided tastings on Zoom, and fortunately our initiatives in this field were quickly picked up and reviewed by national magazines. This saved our business."
The third principle that guides the Slow Wine Coalition, and consequently the Sana Slow Wine Fair which represents its first international meeting, concerns the defense of the beauty of the landscape. The vine is the crop that more than any other contributes to defining the appearance of hilly and foothill areas and for this reason it is essential that winemakers take care of it. «Our father worked as an agronomist for many years, he passed on to us the passion and dedication to the vineyard, and thanks to him and our grandparents we grew up in contact with nature» says Maria Rosa Bordini, who together with her sister Enrica and he inherited the Villa Papiano di Modigliano (Forlì-Cesena) company founded by his father Remigio from his brothers Enrico and Giampaolo. «We have dreamed for years of building a life project together centered on nature and the vineyard. In 2000 we found this perfect place, with an ecosystem capable of transmitting this uniqueness even in the wine we produce». An earthly paradise nestled in the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines, a treasure to be preserved and protected, also making it productive. As long as it's a respectful production.
