The New York Franciacorta week – a now yearly Big Apple event featuring gala dinners, masterclasses and tastings – has just come to an end.
June 12th – A grand opening on Tuesday 6 June featured an Italian-style gala dinner. In the attractive setting of Slowear Store on Lafayette Street, in the heart of Soho, exceptionally turned into a gourmet restaurant for the occasion, 50 VIPs – top journalists, New York society figures and American influencers – were wined and dined. It was a characteristically Italian menu combined with various types of Franciacorta. Franciacorta and Slowear, two brands with Italianness, heritage and craftsmanship in common which have been working together for years now to promote and raise awareness of Italian excellence the world over.
The event’s second day began with an exclusive experience for sector experts: a tasting of 12 Franciacorta base wines focusing on the characteristics of Franciacorta’s soils and the sustainability projects currently under way in the area. Guided by Silvano Brescianini, President of the Franciacorta Consortium, and May Matta-Aliah, US Franciacorta Ambassador, the tasting involved 50 sommeliers from New York’s most important restaurants. This base wine tasting was followed by a tasting of the various Franciacorta types, including millesimati and riserva.
And the Franciacorta event ended in grand style on Wednesday 7 June with a consumer event, in conjunction with the prestigious wine magazine Wine Enthusiast. It was an aperitif led by Jeff Porter, writer at large Italy, whose guests were given the chance to taste various types of Franciacorta together with a range of finger food creations invented specially for the event. The evening’s attractive backdrop was the Williamsburg Hotel Water Tower offering breathtaking views over Brooklyn.
“We were honoured by the presence of Consul General of Italy in New York, Fabrizio di Michele, who we would like to thank for attending events at which we were able to present Franciacorta and its products to the press and consumers with a special focus on our biodiversity soil conservation work and sustainability across the production chain. The USA is the largest wine market in the world and the event was thus undoubtedly a great opportunity for development and growth”, said Silvano Brescianini, President of the Franciacorta Consortium.
The Franciacorta Consortium is the body which guarantees and monitors Franciacorta production standards, as the first Italian wine produced exclusively with the bottle refermentation process to have obtained the Protected and Guaranteed Designation of Origin (DOCG) denomination in 1995. The Consortium’s work takes various forms ranging from safeguarding its brand and region, promoting its products via ongoing work on its production regulations and denominations, consumer information campaigns and promoting Franciacorta as an expression of an area, a wine and a production method. Founded on 5 March 1990 its head offices are in Erbusco, in the heart of Franciacorta. The Consortium is headed by Silvano Brescianini and has 122 wine estate members.
