It seemed impossible to repeat the success of last year, when more than 250 journalists had come to the preview, but Benvenuto Brunello confirms and exceeds its records. This year, 300 Italian and foreign journalists came to Montalcino to preview the 2014 vintages of Brunello which, despite the difficulties, proved to be up to its reputation thanks to the excellent work of the producers in the vineyards, the 2013 reserve, Rosso 2017, Moscadello and Sant’Antimo. The press was joined by over 3,000 wine professionals and wine lovers, who literally invaded the complex of Sant’Agostino and the tasting stalls.
“We are satisfied with the results obtained and this success is the worthy conclusion of a year, 2018, in which we have seen an increase in the number of visitors to our territory – commented the President of the Consortium Patrizio Cencioni. More and more tourists, enthusiasts and experts come to Montalcino throughout the year and not only concentrated in the periods of the harvest or in summer, which makes us believe that we are not only able to offer a unique product in Italy and in the world, but that we are increasingly able to ensure an offer suited to the needs of a high profile visitor, who seeks the uniqueness of a 360 ° experience.
To enrich the program of the preview two conferences that have attracted the interest of the public present. In particular, the comparison between Brunello and French wines has brought out the advantage of the French created in the past to “keep at bay” the pounding Italian cousin, who has yet to grow in terms of numbers but not quality.
Saturday was then the day of Alex Zanardi, who won everyone over with his passion, his sympathy and his overwhelming determination and who gave the Consortium the commemorative tile of the 4-star harvest of 2018.
Also this year the event has been the subject of a lot of social media attention that the participants of Benvenuto Brunello have been able to verify in person thanks to the presence of the Social Wall, where for all 4 days were shown the content uploaded online by users. Alex Zanardi reached Sting: if last year the English singer-songwriter had been the protagonist of the commemorative tile and had led to a boom in social content with the official hashtag #WelcomeBrunello2018, five times the numbers of the previous year, the attention of journalists, operators and tourists visiting Montalcino in 2019 has not been less: thanks to the presence of Alex Zanardi, in fact, #WelcomeBrunello2019 has been used in 800 posts only on Instagram, on the same levels as last year. If we also consider Twitter, where the ugc dedicated to the event have brought Benvenuto Brunello 2019 among the trending topics thanks to the contributions of users who have come to Montalcino from all over the world, we can confirm the power of this event also on the social networks.
The validity of the entrance fee formula for wine lovers has been confirmed, whose feedback testifies to the strong interest in the world of wine lovers for the Brunello product.
The Leccio d’Oro 2019 prizes, awarded to the Enoteca di Ghino di Pienza (Siena) for the category “enoteca Italia”, the Reale restaurant in Castel di Sangro (L’Aquila) for the category “ristorante Italia”, the Hedonism Wines in London for the category “enoteca estero” and the Ozio restaurant in Tokyo for the category “ristorante estero” were also presented on Saturday.