Six wine journalists from the United States and China will visit Puglia from June 15-20th on the “Wines of Puglia IV” educational press tour, organized by the Movimento Turismo del Vino Puglia as part of the COM 2013 – 2014 promotional programme.
For almost six years, the COM has supported the wine-growing sector with funding for promotional activities in countries outside the EU, helping local wineries to internationalise via a common strategy for all European countries. This has contributed substantially to the Region’s GRDP, since the wine export trade (together with the agro-food sector in general) is one of the most important sectors of Puglia’s economy.
The tour will bring to a close the promotional events of 2013-2014, taking the journalists to discover many aspects of the region’s wine and culture. It will also be a chance for them to get to know the local traditions and to meet the local wine-growers and restaurateurs, presenting Puglia’s riches to wine journalists from two of its key wine markets.
“Thanks to the collaboration of a group of prestigious wineries belonging to the MTV Puglia and support from the EU’s COM funding for promotional activities - says Sebastiano de Corato, President of the Movimento Turismo del Vino Puglia – the Consortium is continuing its internationalisation programme to promote the Vini di Puglia brand abroad by hosting journalists from non-EU countries. We are sure that our guests will be captivated by this rich itinerary of winery visits and meetings with the producers, and that they will then convey their impressions to their readers, thus helping to increase interest in Puglia’s wines and territories in their own countries ".
Eight wineries have chosen to take part in this educational press tour and to represent the achievements of the region’s wine-growing sector: Carvinea of Carovigno (Br), Castel di Salve of Depressa di Tricase (Le), Duca Carlo Guarini of Scorrano (Le), Tenute Eméra of Lizzano (Ta), Mottura of Tuglie (Le), Rivera of Andria, Tormaresca of Minervino Murge (Bt) and Vigne&Vini of Leporano (Ta). The guest will enjoy wine-tasting and winery tours, giving the journalists the opportunity to take a close look at the most important aspects of the region’s wine-growing sector, especially its native grape varieties.
The Wines of Puglia IV project covered the 2013-2014 period, and the MTV Puglia Consortium signed the region’s most important project - involving 13 participating wineries and over 1 million euros – within a total regional budget of 7.1 million euros. The project called for fairs, wine-tasting, seminars, advertising and promotional campaigns directed mainly at traders (buyers, importers, Ho.Re.Ca. managers) retail chains, distributors and wine media in the target countries: Canada, China, the USA, South-East Asia, Switzerland and Norway.
The Movimento Turismo del Vino Consortium is already at work to implement the new “Wines of Puglia V” project; the COM 2014-2015 notice was published just a few days ago, making over 5.5 million euros of funding available. The new project is even more substantial than the previous one, enabling greater investments and reaching a wider range of countries, including the possible involvement of Russia.
THE JOURNALISTS TAKING PART:
The international guests on the tour are renowned journalists. Two guests arrive from New Jersey in the USA: Wine Media Guild member Jonh Foy writes for “The New Jersey Star-Ledger”, and is a wine, gastronomy and restaurant expert with over thirty years’ experience of wine reporting, while Adele Capela is a wine importer and freelance writer for the Italian-American “Italian Tribune”. Wine, food and travel expert Deborah Grossman comes from the USA’s West Coast, and is a freelance journalist, writing for such important publications as Wine Enthusiast, Drink Me, The Culinary National Review, the San Francisco Chronicle and Napa Valley Life. The other three tour participants are from China: journalist Gary Chu writes about wine, food and cigars for Style Weekly (Guangdong Region), Yangcheng Evening News (Guangzhou) and Modern Weekly; the two Hong Kong guests are Pavan Shamdasani, a young freelance journalist and established collaborator with TIME, CNN, South China Morning Post and Prestige magazine, and Mark Hammons, connoisseur of fine food and wines, and editor and founder of Tasting Kitchen (TK) magazine, which specialises in reviewing Asia’s best restaurants.
PROGRAMME >>
