Vinitaly 2026

A more personal story this time. But it's still about wine and passion. My passion for wine started quite early. I have several childhood photos with a glass of wine, memories of standing somewhere with my dad in a field to taste a sip of Moelleux, and so it went from one thing to another.

But serious wine tasting started at Christmas. Bottles my dad received at home in beautiful wooden crates, which definitely sparked a kind of curiosity. That then transitioned into drinking along, which then transitioned into buying my own wine, which eventually transitioned into visiting tastings.

Years later, the idea came to build my own wine webshop and to be able to visit wine fairs with it. Flash forward, it started around 2013. Our first trip to ProWein and a few weeks later Vinitaly.

So, it's that time of year again, the time when we drive back and forth to Verona. By now, it's kind of a second home.

What is Vinitaly?

Vinitaly is a wine fair, and not just any wine fair. No, this is the pinnacle for lovers of Italian wine (and Bordeaux and Italy just happen to be what I started with). In 4 days, you have the chance to visit roughly 5000 Italian wineries, tasting perhaps 5 to 10 bottles across the board, here and there some consorzio's, so in short, 50,000 bottles.

You guessed it, you'll never manage that. Of course, you don't have to, because you have to be selective somewhere. Besides, your body can only handle so much, which is why you also spit out (almost all, because some things you also have to experience in terms of finish) all the wine. "What a waste," you might think. But believe me, we do about 150 bottles a day. You can't do that without spitting.

What do you do there then?

For a large part, it's:

• discovering new things
• being able to taste bottles you would otherwise never taste
• getting a feel for new vintages
• revisiting many wineries, for those vintages, but also to see how their style has/hasn't changed
• and of course, enjoying good food and a beautiful city

What am I looking forward to?

Every year there are a few things I look forward to, and sometimes it's a recurring thing, sometimes something specific for the year. This year I'm looking forward to a few specific things:

• Brunello 2021
  Coming onto the market this year, 5 years after vintage, we primarily taste this in the Brunello consorzio booth. 2021 is a good vintage for much of Italy. Now, in my opinion, 2020 was the best year ever for Brunello, so it's hard to beat, but I'll find out.
  
• Etna (Rosso)
  With climate change, it's getting harder and harder to keep wine fresh. Etna Rossos come from a considerable altitude, which helps preserve freshness. In any case, it's still an undervalued wine if you ask me, and I'd love to discover more about it.
• Possible 2024 gems
  In terms of weather, 2024 was a bad year for Italy, wet here and there, not warm. That in itself is a sign of bad wine. But we've seen this before in 2014. What happened then is that good winemakers also show their skills, in combination with possibly using their top grapes in the 2nd and 3rd wines. You often see that top wines are sometimes not made at all because the grapes are not good enough for them. However, sometimes they are still better than the grapes that typically go into "lesser" wines. So sometimes gems hide among them (in this case, fantastic value for money, and a fresher year so less ripe fruit, and potentially good longevity due to higher acidity).
• Maffei
  
  
  This doesn't have much to do with wine, but more of a personal tip. If you go to Verona, book a table at Maffei, order the steak tartare! It's reasonably coarsely chopped (so you actually taste meat) and comes with a scoop of mustard ice cream. Yes, it sounds strange, but it's fantastic.

And then?
Once the fair is over, we'll return with a huge number of tasting notes and I can then see what we should and can add for you.

Ciao!