Alberto Piras

Born in Milan in 1986 – almost 1987, it was the 27th of December – he was nominated Best Sommelier by the 2016 Guida Identità Golose. This award, like many others (Best Sommelier in Italy for Aspi in 2011, Sommelier of the Year for L’Espresso’sGuida I Ristoranti d’Italia in 2016...) celebrate an already brilliant career despite his young age.

"At almost 30 it’s as if Alberto Piras was achieving the success he has deserved for a while, when his career was interrupted by a scooter accident. He owes everything to his willpower, his stubbornness and his great masters, in France and in Italy.": this was the reason given when he was awarded by Identità. It refers to an unhappy night in February 2013, while our congress was taking place: at the end of his shift he had a terrible accident - eight days in a coma, a long rehab, lots of therapy. He’s determined, and took hold of his life once again.

At the time he worked at Cracco’s, in Via Victor Hugo. He discovered his passion for sommellerie at catering school Carlo Porta in Milano, intrigued by his teacher, the great Giuseppe Vaccarini. Then a first internship in 2004 in an important hotel in London. This was followed by Il Lago at the Four Seasons des Bergues in Geneva, Il Vino in Paris, with patron Enrico Bernardo (Best Sommelier in the world in 2004), and then the return to Milan, first at Claudio Sadler’s, and then at Cracco’s.

After the forced break, since 2014 he’s part of the team at Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia, and shares with Stefania Moroni, with chefs Alessandro Negrini and Fabio Pisani and maître Nicola Dell’Agnolo the projects in progress of the restaurant’s new generation.