Lorenzo Biscontin
For over fifty years, Pinot Grigio from the Triveneto region has been the emblem of Italian white wine throughout the world.
This happened partly because of the pioneering work, which has continued steadily over the years, carried out by Santa Margherita and partly because Pinot Grigio is … good in itself. That is, it is a simple but not banal wine, which finds its distinctive characteristics in the ease and pleasantness of drinking.
I call it a “smile wine” because when people drink it, they naturally relax and hint at a smile, pure pleasure without the need for complicated tasting analyses.
In the current era of turbo-competition, however, even Pinot Grigio, as good as it is, risked weakening under the attack of competitors, especially foreigners. And it would have been a shame, both for the socio-economic importance of this vine in the Italian and Triveneto wine business (50% of the world’s Pinot Grigio is produced in Italy and 86% is concentrated in the Triveneto) and for the potential it can still express.
Fortunately, in support of Italian Pinot Grigio, in 2017 the DOC delle Venezie was established for the protection and promotion of this wine.
At the head of the Consortium since its foundation is Albino Armani, heir to a historic family of Trentino winemakers, who has expertly created a strategic vision capable of convincing the different territorial approaches that coexist in the largest Denomination in Italy.
The DOC delle Venezie in fact covers 27,000 hectares of vineyards distributed in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and the Province of Trento, for a production of over 230 million bottles per year, produced by over 6,000 winemakers, 575 winemaking companies and 371 bottling companies.
Territories and people who have historically developed different styles and sensibilities in wine production, but to whom the Consortium has been able to give a homogeneous, credible and shared guide.
In the difficult market situation that the wine business has been experiencing for the last two years, the Consortium’s action, also relaunched by the strengthening of the structure with the appointment of the General Manager Stefano Sequino at the beginning of this year, shows slightly increasing values both for the sales of bottled wine and for 2024 harvest grapes’ price.
It is therefore not surprising that the Vinoway Awards Commission, composed of Alessandro Rossi from Partesa, the food and wine critic Eros Teboni, the journalist Leila Salimbeni, the architect Fiorenzo Valbonesi and directed by Davide Gangi, President and Editor of the Vinoway.com magazine, has decided to award Albino Armani as Best Consortium President in the Vinoway Selection 2025.
“For seven years we have witnessed the success of an interregional integration project – the largest at national level – which includes the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions and the autonomous Province of Trento in a single denomination of origin – commented Albino Armani – an ambitious and farsighted that has given life to a territorial synergy never imagined before. I thank Davide Gangi and the Vinoway Selection 2025 Commission for this prestigious award that I would like to share with the Board of Directors and the team of the Consorzio DOC Delle Venezie who have given me the opportunity to chair this working group and who, with me, are committed daily to the path of growth of the identity and economic value of Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie. The coming years will reserve increasingly demanding challenges for us and we will all have to work together with the aim of strengthening the positioning of a unique appellation at a global level”.
