Italics Wine Club launched by Indo- Italian Chamber at Bangalore

ITALIA Restaurant at The Hotel Park, Bangalore was the partnered venue last week for the Launch of Italics Wine Club where about 40-50 guests were invited to join the  Club which is  part of the several such clubs to be opened in all the 72 world cities where the Chamber has offices-in 56 countries. A sumptuous Italian buffet was laid with 3 wines including Prosecco and a Chardonnay and a  Sangiovese from Emilia Romagna.

These wine clubs will organise continual dissemination of relevant information about Italian gastronomy and would focus on wine dinners with Italian ingredients and cuisine, paired with Italian wines, many from the Gold members of the IICC.  There would be occasional opportunities to meet with the visiting winemakers and taste special Italian wines at nominal costs. It will also provide opportunity for some members to visit Italian wineries and possibly spend more time with the winemakers than a casual visit.

The first course of Alfiere-Italico Level 1 was also conducted during the next two days with Claudio Maffioletti, Secretary General  of the India-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, spear-heading the faculty that also including Luca Bernardini- teaching staff in Mumbai for the Italian language and culture courses and Cav. Subhash Arora, President of the Indian Wine Academy.

Luca started by talking about the History of food and wine in Italy and the whole of Europe and the areas from where the wine culture emanated, giving very interesting insights by concocting wines from two different periods of history to taste. It was a revelation when he talked about food habits and how they changed over the centuries and said that the rich used to thrive on foods cooked with expensive spices imported from India for which the Indian merchants were paid with 50 tons of Gold annually. Later, he also talked about the basics of organic and natural wines.

Claudio emphasised that the course was not only about Italian wines but culture, history, food and wine gastronomy and generally an overview of Italian lifestyle. Over the two days, he took the full house students to a virtual journey through the Northern Italian regions like Piedmont (Piemonte) and Lombardy  Lombardia) and the South Italy including Puglia, Campania , Lazio and Sicily with emphasis on the wines of the regions and the classic wine match with the popular local dishes.

The complex subject of Appellations was covered by Arora who also talked about understanding the labels. He also conducted guided tastings on both days; the wines included Prosecco Brut from Sartori on first day followed by Zonin Brut on the second day. There were also 3 more wines each on both days- a couple of them really excellent. They were also paired with snacks and the food-wine match was discussed and/ or tasted in detail-including the lunch dishes on both days. The sessions were very interactive where Arora answered questions of miscellaneous nature from students in order to make them relaxed and knowledgeable about wine and shared his experiences of Italy and Italian wines and travels. An extensive use was made of audio visuals through slides.

Another interesting feature where the program differs from similar certification perhaps was that there was a group role plying sessions meant to be a confidence building exercise. The sessions were also useful to discuss and remove any doubts in the field of wine at a rudimentary level.

Those attending the course were given Certificates of Participation. After passing an examination to be conducted by an independent International Certification Agency, ICMQ on November 11 at Bangalore, each successful candidate would get the Level 1 certificate recognised internationally. The participants were from diverse background and a majority of them were already in love with Italy, its culture, people, landscape, monuments, history or simply the food and wine gastronomy. The course has also a lot of study material pre-loaded on the Net and the students are expected to go through the basics before attending the class. This material also forms the syllabus for the course.

The majority were keen on completing all 3 levels and visit Italy next year. There were a couple of students who had done various levels of WSET and one is already on his way to appear for his WSET Dip exam in London next month, indicating that this course complements the wine knowledge-focusing solely on the Italian gastronomy, history and culture, however.

Onward to Delhi and Kolkata

After successful Launch in Mumbai and Bangalore, stage is now set to introduce the course in Delhi next month, soon to be followed in Kolkata and subsequently in other cities wherever the Italics Wine Clubs will be opened.

The Second Level Course would be launched in Mumbai around March next year. One unique aspect of the course would be that in order to participate in Level-2 one must have visited Italy in the last two years. This would, ostensibly ensure that the participants are seriously interested to soak in the Italian culture and gastronomy. The Chambers is also considering organising a tour for those interested, at special subsidized prices next year.

Generation X and the Millennials might not be familiar with ‘La Dolce Vita’ of the 1960’s in Italy but successful participation in Level 1, 2 and 3 of Alfiere Italico-Wine and by becoming active members of the Italics Wine Clubs being launched in Mumbai. Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune or even Goa, might just taste La Dolce Vita of the current era.

For further details, please contact directly Ms. Valentina Moschetti at v.moschetti@indiaitaly.com

Subhash Arora

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