Giglio Porto - Ravenna: a journey of passions

The 12th edition of "Giovinbacco, Sangiovese in Festa", the food and wine event organised by Slow Food and Tuttifrutti with the co-participation of the Municipality of Ravenna. Like every year, it will be held at Pala De André and will attract thousands of visitors also from neighbouring provinces. Once again this year the Giovinbacco will award the Best Romagna Sangiovese Riserva 2011 and the Best Albana DOCG 2013 (forgive the event's official website giovinbacco.it if, by a typo, it attributed the DOC instead of DOCG to albana on its home page)... but I'll talk about the Giovinbacco awards later...

I decided to write this article after reading that this year's guest of honour is theGiglio Island... a choice also made for the Micoperi company from Ravenna that salvaged the Costa Concordia. I went to Giglio Island a few years ago... and my parents have been going there assiduously every year since I was in high school... thanks to this I have been able to drink and eat Giglio Island products all these years! But I will talk about that in the near future....

I know I'm a bit off-topic, but here are two photos of the salvage of the Costa Concordia taken by my father himself...

Cute piadina d'Oro Award 2014 organised by CNA and Confartigianato... I'm really curious to see who will win!

But let's come to my article... I sincerely like the Giovinbacco... I just don't agree with the awards. I personally think it is totally inappropriate to establish, for example, the "Best Romagna Sangiovese Riserva 2011"And now I will also explain why. The idea of the prize was beautiful, as was the idea of the popular jury of 100 people combined with a qualified national jury presided over by Fabio Giovedoni, editor of the Slow Wine guide for Emilia Romagna and Marche, Mariella Caputo, sommelier and AIS (Italian Sommelier Association) lecturer at the La Taverna del Capitano restaurant in Massa Lubrense (Na) and Giuseppe Meglioli, oenologist and national councillor of ONAV (National Organisation of Wine Tasters).

To explain why I take this position, I start by telling you about the 2011 Sangiovese Riserva in competition:

Now, I am not questioning the fact that none of my personal trinity of Sangiovese di Romagna D.O.C. Superiore Riserva is among the names mentioned because I know that the criterion by which they appear does not affect the quality parameters of my choices.

What I really don't understand is why in 2014 the Best Romagna Sangiovese Riserva 2011 should be awarded. First of all, let's give them the correct denomination: Sangiovese di Romagna D.O.C. Superiore Riserva 2011. 'Romagna Sangiovese' is a definition we say... leave it to the Germans! In any case, the sense of what I want to say is this: given that the vote is the sum of the popular jury and the expert jury, the 'popular' jury will hardly know how to interpret the potential of a wine in a couple of years' time, to assess its state of evolution, etc. etc., and therefore the expert vote will literally be 'contaminated'. Now I understand that the initiative to create even a 'popular' jury of 100 tasters is a wonderful marketing ploy to involve the public, but I find it counterproductive from the point of view of enhancing the local wine heritage. Where does this consideration come from? An exceptional Sangiovese di Romagna D.O.C. Superiore Riserva currently on the market may be vintage (if we are lucky) 2008... 2009... to exaggerate 2010... but not 2011! Too young to be called that! So how can you ask a 'popular' jury to award today wines that will be ready tomorrow? For a sommelier, this could be called practice... but really... a professional sommelier studies and drinks a lot and takes special courses for this! You cannot ask nor demand this of the 'popular' jury. Or are you telling me that the Sangiovese di Romagna D.O.C. Superiore Riserva in the race are Ready after just 3 years?

I would add that among the wines in the competition there are several excellencies... but not all of them are excellencies... and moreover it is a sample of 30 wines among all the Sangiovese di Romagna D.O.C. Superiore Riserva... how do you define the Best Romagna Sangiovese award? I believe that for such a strong definition it would be necessary for all the wines of this denomination produced in Romagna to take part in the competition... also because in this way we end up penalising producers who are not present... that perhaps the 'people' of the non-expert world do not know... and who then end up believing that only these wines exist and that among them there really is the best (mind you, I'm not excluding this a priori... I'm just saying that in a competition where a 'best' has to be chosen, all participants should be present and not just a small sample of them).

You can now buy my book dedicated to aspiring sommeliers, sommeliers and winelovers or scroll down the page to continue reading the article.

All my notes on wine and food in one book.

.I leave you with a little curiosity... do you know where the term seems to derive from sangiovese? The most 'accredited' legend has it that it owes its name to the Capuchin fathers of Santarcangelo di Romagna who, inspired by the hill (Jupiter) on which the convent stands, and the intense ruby colour of the wine, decided to call it the Blood of Jupiter, from which the name sangiovese.

Cheers 🍷

Chiara