Ok, I am going to go "all' Americano" on this one. I have been blogging my heart out for, oh, I don’t know, let’s say four years now. Seriously. The beat is Italy. Italian wine. I have gotten lucky and I have a good amount of people around the world coming to On the Wine Trail in Italy to read these posts. I am dialed into the industry, both in Italy and America. So what’s the deal with the knuckleheads who run things at Vinitaly? You know, the ones who put together seminars and decide topics, and such? At Vintialy those who make the decisions, decided it would be about time to finally put together a WINE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS seminar. So guys, why no love for the American bloggers?Franco Ziliani got in touch with me early on and invited me and a slew of bloggers, Italian and American and from around the globe to his opening event in the Puglia pavilion on rosato wines. Someone knows that there are folks who write about Italian wine outside of the Italian culture and language. You now, the ones who help drive export sales and stimulate the Italian economy?
The internet is English centric, at least for the Western world. Hell, even the Chinese have figured out the “worldwide web” works better in English. I blog about Italian wine for four years now, have been a loyal Italian wine ambassador in America for 30 years. I’m an early adaptor, have figured out how to plug into Facebook, Twitter, Twitpic, Flickr, Friend Feed, Webshots. So who is in charge over at the press office at Vinitaly? Why did I find out about this event after it was all over? The internationally-inclusive nature of the seminar was, how do I say it, so very 19th century. Pirandello would be so proud of y'all.
Oh, niente signore. Farle vedere che se noi oltre la illusione non abbiamo altra realtà, è bene che anche lei diffidi della realtà sua, di questa che lei oggi respira e tocca in sé, perché – come quella di ieri – è destinata a scoprirlesi illusione domani.
I got on Twitter and asked around.
@ItalianWineGuy What's up with the knuckleheads who planned the #Vinitaly social media/blogging panel? What, don't American wine bloggers get invited?
These folks, Tweeted back:
@robbin_g and it was a complete snoozer!
@vinoiskeeno @italianwineguy it was ridiculous.
@WineOnTheRocks@italianwineguy Vinitaly and Organisation... not the best blend - uuuhhh, I mean - no comment!
Where was@tirebouchon?@ViniSMargherita?@brunellomaker?@mondosapore?@slgold ?
@Vinoalvino?
Yes, where was Franco Ziliani? If anyone is the Alder Yarrow, Eric Asimov, Steve Heimoff, Dr Vino and Tom Wark all rolled up into one uber-Italian blogger, it has got to be Franco Ziliani – why wasn’t he invited, involved?Italian bloggers Filippo Ronco of TigullioVino, Vinix and Giampiero Nadali of Aristide Blog were there. Hell, they were presenters. I even got a Re-Tweet from Giampiero as I was writing this – he’s plugged in!
Note to folks who make the decisions at Vinitaly: thanks for including the good old USA. Crawl out from inside your 19th Century cave and wake up to the new global world order. It’s flat – it’s transparent – and you all are failing. Time for another Risorgimento, people.
Funny how Italy looks to America to buy their wines, in good years and bad, in years of crisis and scandal as well as in years of plenty. Many an Italian wine consultant is driving around Italy in Maseratis and Porsche Cayennes, courtesy of the money they have made selling wine to America. It’s equally mystifying that Italy, once again, is myopic when it comes to learning about how these things work. Once again, Italy falls back into their outdated cultural pecking order, a world in which only the Alto-Borghese have anything of value to say and the rest of us folks down below, the Terrones, are there to simply shut up and serve their masters.
Shame on all y’all. I give Vinitaly an “F” on their report card for the lame WINE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS seminar they held. As we say in good old America, “F ‘em Danno!”
written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy