[Recap] Treviso Wine Meetup - November 25, 2017

[ErmesT]

The idea of a Wine Meetup came out on May 25th, in a conversation between @KlaudiaB , @OSAMA and me

(https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Summit-2017/m-p/273694/highlight/true#M48516)

All of us were not selected for LGSummit2017, so I was proposing a MeetUp somewhere in Europe for testing Italian wine, in the same days of the Summit.

Everybody agreed but, a week later, I was invited to the Summit too, so what to do with the Meet-Up?

I promised a MeetUp, we wanted a MeetUp, so finally, here we are: Welcome to the Wine MeetUp

The photoalbum is here, enjoy it

Day 2 - (36) photo walk is here

“My life in a glass”

This is the title that Cristina Garetto, the owner of the winery where we had the first part of the Meetup, wrote in a post sharing this photo. She is, in fact, the lady “inside” the glass, giving us a lesson about wine, a lesson about life.

“Drinking wine”

It is not something to be done alone. Drinking wine is a way for sharing beautiful moments, drinking wine is an experience of friendship

“Life is too short to drink bad wine” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe –

It was with this spirit that we wanted to organize the Meetup.

A good wine is a combination of many factors: Sun, water, soil, experience, hard work, passion. I wrote passion at the end, for everyone to remember this word. This is what we learned, during that day. A good wine can tell you its history.

The Meetup

Meetup is for me a special event, a moment to share experiences and beauty. So, hosting a Meetup, we have tried to transform it in a great experience for our guest. I was so happy, to see people accepting my invitation from a lot of places of Italy, with a guest from Spain too. Of course, having people traveling for a long distance, It was not possible to invite them for one day only. For this reason, we decided for a double Meetup, so for our guests to stay one night (two nights in some case) with us.

The idea was not to drink wine. The Idea was of experiencing wine, learning from some “Wine Master”. We were helped to do this by Germana Munaro, a wonderful Sommelier that organized our day.

The meetup has bee divided into three separate steps:

• A visit in a winery, for learning how they produce wine, and for testing it, guided by the Owner and our sommelier
• A presentation of a book about the “Raboso” wine, at the “Confraternita del Raboso”
• A dinner in a restaurant in the middle of a vineyard, testing local food, with wine suggested by our sommelier.

Of course, as many people had a long journey to arrive in Treviso, some of them arrived on Friday, giving us the possibility for some pre-MeetUp activities. We will see this part later.

Also, it would be nice to have, for each one of the attendants, his/her own point of view.

Accomodations

Having a lot of people coming from very far away (Ayamonte – Spain, 1900 Km; Naples – Italy, 800 Km, Rome – Italy, 530 Km; Norcia – Italy, 480 Km; Milan – Italy, 280 Km, just to mention some) we arranged an accommodation for our guests. @AntonellaGr was doing a huge and great job, in this side, finding the places to stay, making reservations, managing all the communications. I would have been lost, without her.

Kick off

We decided to give the “official start” of the Meetup on Friday evening, celebrating the continuity between this event and the LGSummit2017.

For this reason, when @AlejandraMaria arrived at my home (straight from the airport), for a late dinner with me, Antonella, Gaetano, @manulele81 , and @davide7O , celebrated with us with a bottle of Phantom from Napa, that was part a gift exchange (wine exchange) between Karen and me. So, @KarenVChin was in the Meetup in spirit.

The weather

Weather wasn’t helping us: the rain started on Saturday morning, for ending only on Sunday afternoon, when we were accompanying Alejandra to the Airport. For this reason it was quite difficult to take photos, and to walk around the city. Despite of the rain, the Meetup runs with happiness, always at a very high level of quality.

This is my own thought, of course, but it will be nice to read also the feedback from all the people that were with us, drinking, walking, taking photos, but mostly, sharing friendship.

[ErmesT]

Part 1 – the winery

Official Meet-Up started at 2:30 PM, with Local Guides arriving from East, West, South and North, using a Mymaps shared for the event.

The owners of the winery were on the main door, waiting for us. It was the first time that they heard about Local Guides, so they were very curious about what we do and why we are doing this.

@LucioV , @DanielaBP , @FernandaDesiderata , Mauro Riva, Davide Ceccolini, Luke Rock

Exploring the winery

The original idea was to visit the vineyard first but, due to the heavy rain, we had to give up.

Therefore, we started from the Trelliswork area, where the grapes will remain until April 2018, stored in crates and trelliswork, for the dehydratation process. In April with these grapes, they will make a wonderful wine, with 20 days of maceration and fermentation in barriques.

Well, our experience of wine production started there, meeting the unexpected.

From the trelliswork area, we moved down, underground, to see what we usually expect to see: bottles and wooden barrels. No stainless steel tanks were there, nor fiberglass or concrete tub. Only wood, for the maturation of the wine. Wood coming from different trees: oak, cherry, mulberry, and even pear tree, and much more.

Different wood give a different taste to the wine, and the time of maturation is varying, depending of the different transpiration rate that every wood have. We learned a lot, in the underground, about fermentation and maturation of the wine.

Tasting wine

Tasting wine, with a winemaker and a sommelier telling us the history of that wine, is not simply “drinking” wine. Tasting is smelling, warming, watching, and rolling the wine inside the mouth, feeling the persistence in your tongue.

But tasting wine with Local Guides, well, this is another story. We are (we were) curious, asking, taking photos, videos, ready to learn, and more. Emanuele and Gaetano transformed this experience in an exchange of gifts. They arrived from Norcia with three different types of salami, so the idea of “Treviso wine meeting Norcia food” was becoming real, an experience of blending cultures and sharing friendship.

In the vinery there is a room, prepared for testing wine. We gathered in the room, a lot of smiling Local Guides sitting around a long table with Cristina Garetto telling us the history of each wine.

We started with a Manzoni bianco “This grape variety is the result of the long and thorough search of Prof. Manzoni, who was the headmaster of the Conegliano OEnological Institute in the 1920’s. This grape variety is a cross of Pinot Blanc and Rhine Riesling; it grows well in the dry, poor and stony alluvial soils of the Piave area.” (from the Winery website)

The second step was a Raboso Piave, the real core business of the winery. A red, and very important wine. Full body, long persistence, high personality. “Raboso Piave is a sort of thoroughbread, hard to tame. It reveals its character already in the vineyard, with a very long growing season: it is the first variety to germinate, and one of the last to be harvested. That makes it unique, almost extraordinary among all the Piave grape varieties; its strong and hard nature might be the reason why it was disregarded for some time. To get the best out of it a winemaker must be patient and ready to accept the challenge.” (from the Winery website)

In the original program Raboso had to be the last wine to be served but, maybe due to the nice atmosphere, maybe due to the empathy that was growing up, (tadaaa), a magic bottle of Gelsaia appeared in Cristina’s hands. A rare and very exclusive wine, produced from Raboso grapes, with a blend of fresh (75%) and dried (15%) grapes. A wine that is not produced every year, as they choose only the best quality wine to transform a part of it in Gelsaia. A wonderful way to end the first part of our meetup

[ErmesT]

Part 2 - The Brotherhood of the Raboso Piave

A kind of magic is always needed, in programming a Meetup. So it is quite interesting to know that, in the very same day of our Meetup, the brotherhood of the Raboso Piave, (yes, there is a brotherhood for this wonderful wine) was celebrating 20 years from their foundation, at minutes from the winery. We had no idea about what to expect, when we moved from the vinery to the conference room.

It was a great surprise, for all of us, to find a room full of people, the presentation of a book about the history of the brotherhood, and a conference with, on the stage, the official sommelier of the Italian Prime Minister. We all enjoyed the passion of the people – winemakers, sommelier, wine sellers, and wine lovers – that were there to talk about something that, for most of them, is the scope of their life. Working hard every day of the year, to give us one of the most ancient product in the world: a glass of wine.

We were then invited to a small party, near the conference room. Well, I say “small party” because in the Meetup program there was a dinner, one hour later, so we were mostly watching, or testing a few appetizer. In fact, the “small party” was a real dinner, from starters to main courses, again with sommelier and a lot of wine, mostly Raboso and Prosecco.

[ErmesT]

Part 3 - The dinner

Dinner was an actual part of our Meetup, not only a way to complete a beautiful afternoon.

The natural destination, I would say, for a wine Meetup, the moment in which the wine is landing on a table ready for a feast. In that moment Germana Munaro, the sommelier, became an Orchestra director, suggesting the right wine for every dish.

We started with a Prosecco, because the sparkling wine is perfect to clean the mouth from previous food, and is a light wine, good for starters and appetizers. Then we moved to a red wine, in a natural “crescendo” of taste and flavor.

Even before the dinner, we were surprised by the beauty of the place, a restaurant built in the middle of a vineyard. The variety and quality of wine’s bottles, exhibited in a cellar visible from our table, was quite impressive.

The dinner, a beautiful moment of learning and friendship at the same time, in the magic atmosphere that only a glass of good wine can create.

At the end of the dinner, we are all happy. Tomorrow is another day, another Meetup is scheduled for tomorrow.

But it is another Meetup, I will write tomorrow about it.

Hope you have enjoyed the story

Ermes

A special thanks to Germana Munaro. Grazie Germana, da parte di tutti noi

[LucioV]

Was a great experience @ErmesT ! Thanks to you and @AntonellaGr for being so great in welcoming us!

Great to meet @AlejandraMaria !

Thanks again to @manulele81 for bringing us some real treasures from Norcia!

I’m waiting eagerly for the video recap, meanwhile I would like to share here my little 360 video from the wine experience of saturday (sorry, no subtitles available at this moment) with THREE out of 150 #lgsummit17 selected LGs:

Ebbrezza Meetup, Cantine Cecchetti

And thanks again to Ermes for this beautiful gift: https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/No-money-can-buy-this-masterpiece/m-p/550244#M151584

[FaridTDF]

Un gran post @ErmesT .

[YK1001]

So @ErmesT , in future, when we need wine advice for meet-ups, we know where to look for!

Thank you for sharing!

[KarenVChin]

Great recap @ErmesT . If you didn’t mention about the heavy rain, no one outside of the meetup would have known about it.

Looks like you had a lot of fun indoors. Plus since you were all together in enclosed areas I’m sure you got to talk and learn more about each other and your individual tastes in wines.

So happy to read that you, @AntonellaGr & @AlejandraMaria had great conversation and enjoyed my red wine from California with your homemade meal. Your photos and Alejandra’s big smiles says it all!

Cheers,

Karen

[KarenVChin]

@ErmesT ,what’s missing are the food photos! What delicious foods did Germana paired with all this great wine and prosecco?! Lots of local farm-to-table ingredients from your area? Any Local Businesses you all help could put on Google Maps?

Inquirying minds demand to know this. = )

Cheers,

Karen

---

@ErmesT wrote:

Part 3 - The dinner

Dinner was an actual part of our Meetup, not only a way to complete a beautiful afternoon.

The natural destination, I would say, for a wine Meetup, the moment in which the wine is landing on a table ready for a feast. In that moment Germana Munaro, the sommelier, became an Orchestra director, suggesting the right wine for every dish.

We started with a Prosecco, because the sparkling wine is perfect to clean the mouth from previous food, and is a light wine, good for starters and appetizers. Then we moved to a red wine, in a natural “crescendo” of taste and flavor.

Even before the dinner, we were surprised by the beauty of the place, a restaurant built in the middle of a vineyard. The variety and quality of wine’s bottles, exhibited in a cellar visible from our table, was quite impressive.

The dinner, a beautiful moment of learning and friendship at the same time, in the magic atmosphere that only a glass of good wine can create.

At the end of the dinner, we are all happy. Tomorrow is another day, another Meetup is scheduled for tomorrow.

But it is another Meetup, I will write tomorrow about it.

Hope you have enjoyed the story

Ermes

A special thanks to Germana Munaro. Grazie Germana, da parte di tutti noi

---

[KarenVChin]

I see red grapes @ErmesT ! By chance was there any mention during the weekend of Lambrusco vs Prosecco? I realize this grown in a different region and it’s red vs white.

A good friend brought over a bottle for curiosity few weeks ago to sample since she knows I love to try new international sparkling wines. Color was a deep red, slightly sweet.

I always enjoy learning about how things things are made and the production process. Great photos!

Cheers,

Karen

---

@ErmesT wrote:

Part 1 – the winery

Official Meet-Up started at 2:30 PM, with Local Guides arriving from East, West, South and North, using a Mymaps shared for the event.

The owners of the winery were on the main door, waiting for us. It was the first time that they heard about Local Guides, so they were very curious about what we do and why we are doing this.

@LucioV , @DanielaBP , @FernandaDesiderata , Mauro Riva, Davide Ceccolini, Luke Rock

Exploring the winery

The original idea was to visit the vineyard first but, due to the heavy rain, we had to give up.

Therefore, we started from the Trelliswork area, where the grapes will remain until April 2018, stored in crates and trelliswork, for the dehydratation process. In April with these grapes, they will make a wonderful wine, with 20 days of maceration and fermentation in barriques.

Well, our experience of wine production started there, meeting the unexpected.

From the trelliswork area, we moved down, underground, to see what we usually expect to see: bottles and wooden barrels. No stainless steel tanks were there, nor fiberglass or concrete tub. Only wood, for the maturation of the wine. Wood coming from different trees: oak, cherry, mulberry, and even pear tree, and much more.

Different wood give a different taste to the wine, and the time of maturation is varying, depending of the different transpiration rate that every wood have. We learned a lot, in the underground, about fermentation and maturation of the wine.

Tasting wine

Tasting wine, with a winemaker and a sommelier telling us the history of that wine, is not simply “drinking” wine. Tasting is smelling, warming, watching, and rolling the wine inside the mouth, feeling the persistence in your tongue.

But tasting wine with Local Guides, well, this is another story. We are (we were) curious, asking, taking photos, videos, ready to learn, and more. Emanuele and Gaetano transformed this experience in an exchange of gifts. They arrived from Norcia with three different types of salami, so the idea of “Treviso wine meeting Norcia food” was becoming real, an experience of blending cultures and sharing friendship.

In the vinery there is a room, prepared for testing wine. We gathered in the room, a lot of smiling Local Guides sitting around a long table with Cristina Garetto telling us the history of each wine.

We started with a Manzoni bianco “This grape variety is the result of the long and thorough search of Prof. Manzoni, who was the headmaster of the Conegliano OEnological Institute in the 1920’s. This grape variety is a cross of Pinot Blanc and Rhine Riesling; it grows well in the dry, poor and stony alluvial soils of the Piave area.” (from the Winery website)

The second step was a Raboso Piave, the real core business of the winery. A red, and very important wine. Full body, long persistence, high personality. “Raboso Piave is a sort of thoroughbread, hard to tame. It reveals its character already in the vineyard, with a very long growing season: it is the first variety to germinate, and one of the last to be harvested. That makes it unique, almost extraordinary among all the Piave grape varieties; its strong and hard nature might be the reason why it was disregarded for some time. To get the best out of it a winemaker must be patient and ready to accept the challenge.” (from the Winery website)

In the original program Raboso had to be the last wine to be served but, maybe due to the nice atmosphere, maybe due to the empathy that was growing up, (tadaaa), a magic bottle of Gelsaia appeared in Cristina’s hands. A rare and very exclusive wine, produced from Raboso grapes, with a blend of fresh (75%) and dried (15%) grapes. A wine that is not produced every year, as they choose only the best quality wine to transform a part of it in Gelsaia. A wonderful way to end the first part of our meetup

---

[JeslynL]

This is my first time seeing the inside of a winery, even though only through photos. Thanks for the experience, @ErmesT !!!

[LucioV]

@KarenVChin you have to try the Raboso It’s really a great wine!

OT: LOL, I’m the only not Google/Connect moderator in this thread Wine attracts moderators D

[ShafiulB]

@ErmesT Wow !! Wine meet up ?!!!

Its really a amazing meet Drinking wine is not easy here…

Keep enjoying yourself Local Guides …

Happy Guiding !!!

[ErmesT]

Thanks @YK1001

And @FaridTDF

We tried to offer to our Local Guides friends an experience to remember.

Something special for very special people, and I hope we got it. I still waiting for the feedback in here from the big group of smiling LG that was there.

---

@YK1001 wrote:

So @ErmesT , in future, when we need wine advice for meet-ups, we know where to look for!

Thank you for sharing!

---

Ermes

[ErmesT]

Hehe @KarenVChin

We didn’t have photos of what we didn’t had the possibility to see.

---

@KarenVChin wrote:

Great recap @ErmesT . If you didn’t mention about the heavy rain, no one outside of the meetup would have known about it.

Looks like you had a lot of fun indoors. Plus since you were all together in enclosed areas I’m sure you got to talk and learn more about each other and your individual tastes in wines.

So happy to read that you, @AntonellaGr & @AlejandraMaria had great conversation and enjoyed my red wine from California with your homemade meal. Your photos and Alejandra’s big smiles says it all!

Cheers,

Karen

---

The atmosphere inside was so warm that we really forgot the rain. We will talk about rain in the recap of the second day, that was mostly outside.

You are right, the smile of @AlejandraMaria

arrived in Treviso after a long journey, with a bottle of Phantom in her hands, don’t need to be explained

Ermes

[ErmesT]

Thank you @JeslynL

for your words. Please remember this post if you are planning a future trip to Venice. It would be a great pleasure to be your Local Guide, in exploring the area (there is much more than Venice to discover) and in tasting wine.

Ermes

[MariaBi]

Ciao @ErmesT

Sarebbe stato molto bello e sicuramente inebriante esser lì con voi;)

[LucioV]

Ahahaha @MariaBi “inebriante” è la parola giusta!

[ErmesT]

Hehe @MariaBi

Vedo che il nome “Ebbrezza meetup” non ti è sfuggito.

Allora ti rivelo un segreto, anzi due.

1. Sto meditando seriamente su una eventuale replica primaverile, magari 10 km più a nord (prosecco)
2. Il volo da Londra a Treviso dura un’ora e 50, e atterra a 5 km da casa mia.

Magari anche @LuisRG

Potrebbe essere interessato

Ermes

[OSAMA]

OMG @ErmesT it’s now 6 months since 25th of may it’s like a dream , and look who attended not me or @KlaudiaB

Great @AlejandraMaria from Spain & amazing kudo couple

@LucioV , @DanielaBP

One day we will meet All

Who’s know maybe at Summit 2018

I love My LGFAMILY