Bollicine del Mondo was born from a thought I shared with Paolo Marchi, at the end of a journey in the United States for Identità America, towards the end of 2018. As soon as we landed in Italy we talked with our friend Andrea Grignaffini, an authoritative wine and food expert. The time had come to take, together with Identità Golose, which had been more and more dedicated to gastronomy, a different and original journey, that would stimulate us to explore new places and new worlds, this time through a sparkling wine, the utmost expression of conviviality and travel.
Nothing similar to what other authoritative colleagues had developed over time, but exploring, on tiptoes, the extraordinary world of bubbles. Year after year, including the pandemic, we shared the evolution of this idea with Claudio Ceroni who supported us and offered us the resources to create this truly revolutionary project. In the meantime, we formed a team of 14 experts in the field, including myself. All passionate and competent, from Italy and abroad. Our desire was to tell of a world that would enhance the across-the-board territorial character of sparkling wine production. The research led us to pick 500 wineries and as many wines which, in our opinion, are worth tasting at least once in a lifetime.
With this app we want to allow readers to travel through a rather varied map of sparkling wines. We want to make them discover the history, tradition, the generational passage, the grapes and the destination, and perhaps bring a testimony of a dream come true. The language is simple, professional, but never too uptight, giving a full story in only 1300 characters. In the case of more technical wine words, there's a glossary in alphabetical order that will solve any doubt. Fifty-five percent of the 500 labels portrays Italian sparkling wine, while the remaining 45% encloses wineries from Europe and the rest of the world.
For sure, France, with wine regions like Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Loire and Jura represents 29% of this 45%. The remaining wineries are from Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Albania, Romania, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Israel, Turkey, India, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Asia.
Then we decided to analyse some Italian and foreign regions in depth. In the Non solo Territori [Not just territories] section you will find 21 travel itineraries presenting the biodiversity of this world. Every review is signed and every collaborator described with passion and dedication the recommended bottle. The reviewed bubbles can be bought from the wineries directly, from specialised stores and online. Nothing is impossible to find. We wanted to present this world thanks to the extraordinary regions we know and we can be proud of, with the goal of rediscovering appellations or places and turn on the spotlight to often-forgotten or undervalued regions. Enjoy the journey!
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso