The Grandi Langhe event, held annually at the end of January,  was a major success this year.  Roughly 500 wineries from the Langhe, Roero and other areas of Piedmont showed their wines, and about 5,000 trade professionals (sommeliers, buyers, bloggers, journalists) were on hand to imbibe the new vintages of some of Piedmont’s best-known wines. This edition also saw, for the first time, producers not just from the Langhe and Roero wine production areas, but wineries of the Alto Piemonte, Canavese, Colli Tortonesi and Monferrato. Tongue in cheek, you might say the event is becoming more a “Grandi Piemonte” than a “Grandi Langhe”, but in fact the latter wine production areas maintain their dominant, well-deserved, role as the title of the wine show is in fact “Grandi Langhe e il Piemonte del Vino”.

The event, organized by the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani, along with the participation of the  Consorzio Tutela Roero and the Consorzio Piemonte Land of Wine, was a runaway success and a real feather in the cap of new Consorzio president Sergio Germano (of the Ettore Germano estate in Serralunga d’Alba), elected to the post just last year. According to Germano “…This was our first time expanding to other denominations; there were some understandable concerns in doing so, but ultimately presenting ourselves as a united front, much like the “Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne” is an added value for everyone, producers and visitors alike. Thanks to the collaboration with Piemonte Land, which is the Consortium of Piedmont Consortia, we were able to present and offer visitors this new format. Clearly, this required us to leave Alba and move to Turin, and holding the event at the OGR complex in Turin, which better meets our needs for more space and better logistics was also beneficial. This year we also created the private hall space, in which members of the press could taste about 700 wines from 300 producers in a quieter, more peaceful environment”.