07-11-2014
Helmuth Koecher is the president and founder of the Merano Wine Festival, which in 2014 turns 23. Every year the wineries participating are selected by ten tasting committees: in this edition there will be over 500 producers invited, between Italian and international ones. Identità Golose has been collaborating for some time with the Merano Wine Festival: the next event will be the Roma Food & Wine, which will take place on the last floor of Eataly from November 29th to December 1st
Since 1992, very many things have changed in the wine world and in the market, perhaps even the rules of the game. In these years, the Merano Wine Festival, which today opens its 23rd edition, has been a constant, an appointment capable of telling and describing the borders and the content of wine production in Italy and abroad. It is therefore natural to ask Helmuth Koecher, founder and president of the event, about his take on the evolution of the market throughout these 23 years: «When we began this adventure with the Festival, Italian wine producers were mostly focused on quantity rather than quality. It was at that same time that the attention began to move to the search for quality. It’s no surprise that in ’92 we only invited in Merano 40 wineries: indeed, there were still few people producing high quality wines in Italy at the time.» Luckily, the journey of the Merano Wine Festival could accompany a constant growth in the tension towards excellence: «Both with regards to food and wine, in these year’s we’ve seen with great pleasure the development of a growing conviction on the importance of quality. Technological progress has had its influence, but the most significant element is the fact that wineries today want to present high quality products to the public. According to ISTAT data, today in Italy there are 120K registered bottlers. The fact that at the Merano Wine Festival we only present 350, makes it possible to understand how our selection has become difficult. This year there were around 1,000 producers among the candidates and we didn’t exclude almost anyone prior to our analysis, the demonstration that the average level is decisively high.»
One of this edition’s appointments is the Merano WineWorld Economic Forum, a whole day dedicated to the sustainability in the wine world
The Merano Wine Festival 2014 poster
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by
Journalist, based in Milan. At 8 years old, he received a Springsteen record as a gift, and nothing was the same since. Music and food are his passions. Author and broadcaster at Radio Popolare since 1997, since 2014 he became part of the staff of Identità Golose Instagram: @NiccoloVecchia