The US tour organized by Consorzio Vini di Romagna will stop in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. This road show clearly aims at strengthening the presence of wines from Romagna in the US market, which is currently the fourth country importing italian wines after the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. «The US market is providing great recognition to Italian wines and in 2013 our products have recorded unprecedented sales – Giordano Zinzani, President of Consorzio Vini di Romagna, says. Being a protection consortium, we need to act in countries in which our product is already present or is at least recognizable. At present, 35% of Romagna DOC wines is exported».
The first stop of this 'stars and stripes' tour will be Boston, where the “Wine-Riot” is scheduled on 25th and 26th October, an event which is mainly addressed to end consumers. It has been designed to bring beginners and above all young people closer to the wine world, tapping into 'social' technology and communication. 20 different Romagna DOC wines will be presented to 3,000 expected visitors, who will be also able to download free of charge wine-related apps on their mobile devices to be used as reminders. These reminders are read even one year later when making purchases.
On 28th October and 30th October wines from Romagna will fly first to Chicago and then to Los Angeles, where two workshops will be held, involving about 300 North American import and distribution operators. Here, the main players will be 9 Romagna-based wineries which will be officially supported by Consorzio Vini, to convey the idea of a fully mature and unitary area. The “US caravan” will joined by wine makers coming from the whole production area of Romagna DOCs: Palazzona di Maggio from Ozzano, Tre Monti and Cantina Poletti from Imola, Poderi Morini from Faenza, Rontana from Brisighella, Celli, Bissoni and Tenuta La Viola from Bertinoro and Randi from Bagnacavallo.
Moreover, a tasting event for catering operators organized by Los Angeles sommelier association will take place on 30th October in the evening. At restaurant Terroni, 35 Romagna DOC wines will be matched with traditional dishes from Romagna and Los Angeles. «It is the first time that we meet California sommeliers – Mr Zinzani points out – with whom we are going to start a fruitful collaboration aimed at enhancing the popularity of our wines: high quality wines, which have no reason to envy more celebrated labels. However, our products require significant and ongoing efforts to make them popular beyond the Italian borders as well».
