What is a wine experience? There are probably as many experiences as there are people who take part in them.

Each experience is different concerning curiosity, motivation, preparation, and expectations. And also concerning the people who offer it to us and with whom we share it.

A wine experience is…

An aperitif with friends can still be an experience, where conviviality takes priority over the drink. Conversely, a wine experience focuses on what we drink compared to whom we are sharing. However, the latter aspect is not secondary because those who take part in a wine experience usually expect to be gratified.

The world of wine offers many ideas for formulating engaging experiences.  A guided tasting is, for example, a deeply involving experience that deeply involves.

What happens in a wine experience

The expert guides the participant in a sensory experience that makes him attentive and aware. The senses are suddenly slowed down and put under observation. And we realize that we see, smell, and taste a glass of wine at a different level.

In a word, we feel on a deeper level because we bring full attention to our actions.

This experience changes again if we bring it into the context and the territory where the wine is processed.

It is no longer just a question of tasting one or more wines and grasping their characteristics. The question becomes: why do we go to the cellar?

Let’s go in search of that so-called ‘terroir‘ as rich as it is difficult to tell in a short time. We Italians who have words for everything have not yet managed to coin the correct translation.

The magic of knowledge

I find it very funny and pleasant when at the end of an event, which contemplates the tasting, the explanation of the territory, and the wine, the guest tells you: “Do you know that through your story, everything becomes exciting and understandable? And then it is more appreciated?” I smile. Of course, I know. Thanks to my stories, I seek the empathy of my guests.

The stories of wine have been made up of people for centuries and go towards people. They are empathic, ironic stories, sometimes funny. They are stories of territories. My aim is, wherever in the world the guest finds the wine in the restaurant menu, he/she must reconnect to “that memory”.

In the winery, the guest meets the producer, and he recognizes his commitment.  And when it comes to tasting, the importance is no longer only on the wine. It has converted on the relationship between the drink and people.

A never-changing ritual

A ritual repeated for tens of centuries celebrating the “welcome” to the guest by putting the glasses together: it is the gesture of welcoming itself, which overcomes emotional and linguistic barriers and prepares for sharing.

It is this magic of the encounter that has led me, after many years, to merge the knowledge of wine and the vocation to communication in a unique wine tourism option. Welcome the request of knowledge and explain without trespassing into technicalities. The precise intention is to reduce awe towards the world of wine and increase awareness, even in consumption.

One last thing, an authentic wine experience does not end with a tasting. According to the customer’s wish, it can continue over time, study, update himself, as much as the harvests we have in front of us.

Cheers!