FLORENCE, ITALY – The artist Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, who own the winery Tenuta Il Palagio near Florence, will open “Anteprime Toscana 2018”, at Fortezza da Basso in Florence. This opening event of the festival, where 16 Wine Protection Consortiums from Tuscany present the first tastings of their new vintages, is on Saturday 10 February, and held in conjunction with BuyWine, the largest commercial event for Tuscan wine. The two events are organized by the Region of Tuscany in partnership with PromoFirenze, a special agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence.
Sting and Trudie will officially open proceedings for the week-long Anteprime di Toscana and will visit the stands of 11 wine consortiums. On the Saturday morning, the following consortiums will uncork their best bottles of the new vintage: Carmignano, Casole d’Elsa, Colline Lucchesi, Cortona, Elba, Maremma Toscana, Montecarlo di Lucca, Montecucco, Pitigliano and Sovana, Val di Cornia and Valdarno di Sopra. At this event, with distinguished guests opening procedures, operators and journalists from all over the world will taste the first wines of 2017 produced in the territories of the leading consortium producers: Chianti, Chianti Classico, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino.
Also at Fortezza da Basso (Spadolini Pavilion), BuyWine, the largest commercial event for Tuscan Wine, will be held on Friday 9 and Saturday 10 February. Now in its 8th year, 215 wineries from the territories covered by all regional designations will meet 190 buyers from 39 countries, with half of them attending the event for the first time.
The countries most interested in Tuscan Wines this year are the United States, Canada, China, Denmark, South Korea and Brazil, and BuyWine has also attracted new buyers from Azerbaijan, Colombia, Morocco, Lebanon, Peru and Thailand. After years of absence, operators from Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine are making a welcome return.
Of the Tuscan wineries (90% of those present already has an international presence), most come from Siena (78) and Florence (59), but all the territories are represented and 65 of the wineries are organic.
This success in numbers follows the superb results of past years. From the feed-back of those who attended last year, 50% of sellers and buyers stated that they were able set up at least one.