Slow Food NYC website

SLOW FOOD, SLOW WINE, WELLNESS

If you are living in the 21st century, you know the importance of wellness and healthy lifestyle as it integrates with the wellness of our planet. You also know that ecology is tied with food production, that increased carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is threatening all of our ecosystems, that ultimately every country is interrelated regardless of whether it is a failed state with a tiny carbon footprint or a prospering one responsible for chemical mega poisoning.  Whether you are connected to enhancing  the current paradigm shift, changing the negative impact of corporations, fighting against GMO salmon and wheat and corn and adulterated processed foods like pink slime, or whether you are a part of the problem, turning a blind eye to all of it, the quality of what you eat and drink over the next ten years will determine whether you stay well, or build up toxins that will eventually wreck your immune system shortening your life span.

Conte Brandolini Winery is located in Vistorta, a small “borgo” within an agricultural estate in the heart of Western Fruili. The winery embraces Slow Wine concepts.

Nino Negri Winery’s “5 stelle’ Sfursat di Valtellina DOCG.” The winery embraces Slow Wine concepts.

BIRTH OF SLOW FOOD AND SLOW WINE

Did you know that this idea of countering toxic food intake and supporting healthy eco-agronomy actually began to boil over in the 1980s in Italy? As the economy of Italy improved in the 1970s-1980s and tourism burgeoned, Italian chic gave way to the lure of American globalism. Italy’s once fabulous cuisine was being thwarted by pandering to fast food franchises. Its ancient culinary traditions centering around home made and locally farmed deliciousness were being overrun by processed, chemicalized, adulterated convenience foods. If this continued, the land of sumptuous eating and wine-making would be no more. A vital aspect of Italy’s historical culture was at stake.

The Slow Food and Slow Wine website

Many understood the country was under a cultural siege and one of these was a culinary writer and journalist. Fast food was anathema to Carlo Petrini, who first came to prominence when he campaigned against the fast food chain McDonald’s opening near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Petrini’s successful activism prompted him to found a “slow food” and eventually “slow wine” movement initiating and establishing the importance of “eco-gastronomy.”  In 1989 Petrini’s Slow Food nonprofit determined to influence producers and consumers in a paradigm shift away from processed, bland, unhealthful, chemical-ridden foods that Petrini recognized were destroying the gastronomy of the world. He spearheaded global advocacy starting in Italy to redirect food production back to Italy’s glorious agricultural past.

In two decades, his dream of protecting the biodiversity of the land and the cultural food traditions of Italy  caught the imagination of many who saw the common sense of his platform. The movement has spread to more than 130 countries. The U.S. has the second largest chapter behind Italy which is the leader in the Slow Food and Slow Wine Movement. Just how does the movement make its impact guiding consumers’ food selections? Represented by the symbol of a snail (see the example given in the New York City Slow Food blog) restaurants or products approved by the Slow Food movement display the organization’s snail logo in their window or on their packages. Slow Food has also burgeoned into Slow Wines and wineries in Italy and elsewhere have employed the principles initiated by Carlo Petrini over two decades ago..

Assiduous grape selection after the harvest at the Nino Negri Winery…embracing the Slow Wine concepts.

SLOW WINE

The Slow Food precepts have encompassed the area of wines and wineries. Wineries in Italy and elsewhere have employed the vital factors initiated by Carlo Petrini over two decades ago. You will be able to taste Slow Wines from the wineries pictured here and many others at a grand tasting event in NYC. This year the Slow Wine Guide 2013 is presenting its latest edition on January 28th in New York City, January 30th in Miami and February 4th in San Francisco. To celebrate, Slow Wine and Vinitaly International are hosting this grand wine tasting.

SLOW WINE AND VINITALY INTERNATIONAL WINE  TASTING EVENT (NYC)

For this wine tasting evening, Slow Wine’s collaboration with Vinitaly International offers an exceptional opportunity. Vinitaly holds the largest annual wine event in the world in Verona, Italy. Vinitaly’s expertise and presence assures that January 28th will be an unforgettable night in Italian wine tasting and education for New York City oenophiles and Slow Food and Slow Wine NYC members.

Slow Wine Guide, 2013 Attendees of the grand wine tasting event in NYC will receive a free copy of the Slow Wine Guide 2013 ($25 value)

Sagrantino grapes from the multiple award winning Arnaldo-Caprai Winery, which embraces Slow Wine concepts.

The  Slow Wine Guide  highlights the extent to which wineries follow the slow food, slow wine concepts.  What’s a slow wine? Thirst Wine Merchants in Fort Greene Brooklyn describe it perfectly.  It’s wine made from vineyards without pesticides or herbicides, and without chemical additives or flavors. Slow wines are made sustainably, organically, biodynamically. They are made on a small scale, from grapes grown in low-yielding, dry-farmed vineyards. Slow winemakers make their careful selection of grapes and harvest them by hand. No laboratory yeasts are used. Ambient yeasts allow the fermented grapes to naturally unfold revealing their distinct terroir (place of origin). New oak barrels (if necessary) are used with circumspection. The winemakers who follow these methods do it as has been done for centuries. There is no necessary certification, because winemakers believe this is in the best interest of preserving a tradition and making a great wine. In fact, this is the way my family members make wine, cherry liquor and lemoncello in my ancestors’ home town, Bagnoli del Trigno, Italy.

The vineyards of the Arnaldo-Caprai Winery, Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s 2012 European Winery of the year.

If you attend this Slow Wine tasting event, you will receive the added benefit of trying approved Slow Wines using the complimentary Slow Wine Guide 2013 to make your selections for future purchase. You will be tasting graciousness and supporting a movement which has taken hold and which will continue to grow exponentially as it gains critical mass against mechanized, adulterated, industrialized food and wine.

ABOUT THE SLOW WINE GUIDE

Like the 2012 guide, this year’s Slow Wine guide does not use a point system to evaluate wines. Instead, according to the Slow Wine US Tour article, wineries are judged “in their entirety, taking into consideration the wine quality, typicity and adherence to terroir, value, environmental sensitivity and ecologically sustainable viticultural practices.” wine connoisseurs, US industry producers, Italian wine aficionados and just your average oenophiles. Last year, The Slow Wine Guide 2012 debuted its first ever English-language edition in what was a compilation of expert reviews of Italian wineries, examining their production as it related to region and a myriad of other factors. This year’s Slow Wine Guide 2013 presenting its latest edition on January 28th in New York City, promises to offer interesting revelations and additions to last year’s guide.

SLOW WINE GUIDE SYMBOLS

Because Slow Wine was conceived to indicate the reality of the present Italian wine “landscape,” the guide presents reviews of 400 different wineries. Each of these wineries in Italy has been visited by Slow Food experts and their evaluations employ these symbols:

• The Snail (Slow Food symbol) indicates a cellar that has distinguished itself through its interpretation of sensorial, territorial, environmental and personal values in harmony with the Slow Food philosophy.
• The Bottle is attributed to cellars which reveal a consistently high quality throughout their range of wines.
• The Coin indicates great value.

A wine from the Nino Negri Winery, embracing Slow Wine precepts.

The Conte Brandolini Winery has been in the Brandolini family since 1780. The Brandolini estate is beautiful and boasts a lovely villa and gardens.

The Slow Wine guide is published by Slow Food Editore (the publishing arm of Slow Food Italy) and distributed in the U.S. by Chelsea Green. Following the events, the book will be available for purchase nationally on Amazon.com and select retail stores throughout US.