2020 has been nothing short of crazy and when measures came in to avoid socialising, as an events organiser, I found myself facing a real challenge.
I love organising events of any type but getting people together to discover the wines of my favourite Italian winemakers with good food and chat gives me a different type of satisfaction. These are the types of events where people go home with new friends, new stories to tell, a new favourite wine, and a smile on their face.
I started wracking my brains to come up with new events formats and quickly realised that the only way we could carry on enjoying a shared wine experience would be if we were drinking the same wine at the same moment. We might be physically distant but if we could talk and share the experience of tasting the same wine, we would still be able to enjoy a collective experience and the best person to do this with us would be the winemaker.
I shared my idea with Benni of Senti Vini. We met as he distributes some of the member wineries of Italia del Vino Consortium, is young, dynamic and smart, making him the perfect partner for such a project. His portfolio includes many producers I know personally so I selected 6 wineries and 2 labels from each to create different options for enjoying the dinners.
Quaranvino Dinner Dates then turned into a programme of online wine dinners hosted by myself and special guests Klaus Lentsch, Alessandro Medici, Daria Garofoli, Paolo Librandi, Giuseppe Nicolis and José Rallo. Starting on 28th March, the dinners will be held every Saturday and Wednesday at 8pm until 15th April.
Wine lovers who are bored-at-home just need to click the link, choose the wines they want to receive and then join the online dinner via a conf call link. The only thing I can’t provide is the food!
The most ingenious part? These wines can be shipped anywhere in the EU meaning that events are no longer limited to Munich. Guests can invite their friends in Belgium, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, the list goes on making Quaranvino Dinner Dates experiences that can be shared with friends in far-off lands.
As for the winery-owners, after weeks being quarantined in Italy, they now get the chance to do what they love: meet people and communicate their passion for their wines and their land..
In a moment where we’re told to increase distance with one-another, I managed to find a way to reduce it – all whilst enjoying Italian wine. Quaranvino Dinner Dates..
I look forward to having dinner with you soon.
Watch my video with more details on how it works.
