February is a good month for Italian wine aficionados in the U.S.
Two of Italy’s most important references for food and wine, Slow Food and Gambero Rosso, are hitting the road to present the new 2012 editions of their wine guides, Slow Wine and Vini d’Italia respectively. Each of the tours will stop in three U.S. cities: New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
The launch of the Slow Wine guide represents Slow Food’s 
first-ever wine guide in English. The guide, first published in Italian in 2011, adopts a new approach to wine criticism, considering a variety of factors in order to evaluate wines and wineries in their entirety: wine quality, typicity, adherence to terroir, value for money, environmental sensitivity and ecologically sustainable viticultural practices.
Slow Wine 2012 will kick off the tour in New York City at the Metropolitan Pavilion on Monday, January 30th. The next stop will be at Spiaggia in Chicago on Thursday, February 2nd, and the tour will conclude on the west coast in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center on Saturday, February 4th. Visit the website for more complete information regarding each venue, tickets, and the wineries and wines that will be present.
Gambero Rosso follows close behind with its Tre Bicchieri World Tour presenting the wines that received the prestigious Tre Bichieri (3 Glasses) award in the 25th Edition 2012 of the long-esteemed Vini d’Italia guide. This year 375 wines were awarded, among which 92 classified as Tre Bicchieri “Verdi” (Green), recognizing wineries particularly sensitive to environmental issues. The US portion of the Tour will start on the west coast in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center on Wednesday, February 15th, move to the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York on Friday the 17th and finish up in Chicago at the Union Station on Sunday, February 19th.
Giacomo Borgogno & Figli winemaker Andrea Farinetti will be present at all of the events, pouring the Langhe Nebbiolo No Name 2005 and Barolo Vigna Liste 2006 for Slow Wine and the award-winning Barolo Vigna Liste 2006 for the Tre Bicchieri tour. This will be the sort of “coming out” celebration for the 2006 vintage of Barolo Vigna Liste, the prestigious cru from the Liste vineyard in Barolo, as it has not yet been released in the U.S. market except to the mailing list customers.
Franco Massolino will be present in all three cities of the Tre Bicchieri tour pouring the Barolo Vigna Rionda Riserva 2005, while Le Macchiole will be pouring Scrio 2008.
For those of you who live in or near one of these three cities (or are willing to take a road trip for really great wines…who’s not?!), this is an excellent opportunity to taste some of Italy’s most amazing wines at some pretty chic venues.
Salute!