Relais Duca di Dolle, Rolle di Cison di Valmarino (Tv)

The first edition of the Charme Sommelier Training School has come to a close, a three day practical course taking place at the Bisol family's Relais Duca di Dolle, In the heart of the Prosecco hills.  From Monday 10 to Wednesday 12 November, some of the world's most prestigious wine names were involved as lecturers: Important journalism names such as Camilla Baresani and Alessandro Regoli, significant names in the sommelier world such as Alessandro Scorsone and Dino Marchi, wine marketing experts like Michael Benson nad Carlo G Valli and famous writers and Industry opinion leaders Gelasio Gaetani d'Aragona Lovatello and Patricia Guy.

The eighteen participants left with great satisfaction, having been able to learn the techniques and secrets to become an expert entertainer and authentic communicator of wine.  The participants, who came from all areas of Italy, from Lombardia to Sicily, from Veneto to Calabria: being open also to non-professional Sommeliers, were able to understand the excellence of the Altamarca Trevigiana and enjoy the "Charme" dinners organised at the Villa Cipriani in Asolo and the Gellius restaurant in Oderzo.

“It was a real joy to see the students so involved and satisfied by these three days at the Duca di Dolle” commented Gianluca Bisol, creator of the Charme Sommelier competition and member of the Bisol family.  “It was an honour to host in our territory these great names of the wine world: the important lecturers of the Charme Sommelier Training School, in some cases for the first time in the area, were fascinated by the beauty of the Valdobbiadene hills, that have defined this a truly “charming” territory.”

The second edition of the Charme Sommelier Training School will take place in March 2009 and will once again be directed by Prof. Gianni Moriani, lecturer at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, also director of important formation programs among which is the Master in Food and Wine Culture which will commence next year in Valdobbiadene.

For Further information: Elisa Villanova - tel +39 0438 789173 - elisa.villanova@jada.it

Roma Selection Event

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Final at the Relais Duca di Dolle

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The four sommeliers selected for the final of the first National edition of Charme Sommelier yesterday evening during the gala dinner at the Grand Hotel ed Des Palmes in the Sicilian capital, were all directly from Palermo.

The event, that, from 2008 has become a national event, saw Maria Antonietta Pioppo (who won the special press selection prize) Rita Ferrara, Giuseppe Butera and Antonino Currò.

The jury of the most "charmant" sommeliers in Southern Italy was made up of journalists from the specialised press and the public that participated in the event together with members of the regional AIS associations.  The twenty finalists will participate on 21 September, in the concluding event at the Relais Duca di Dolle in the heart of the hills of Prosecco.  "For us, this is a very important moment - explained the President of AIS Sicity, Camillo Privitera - because we can verify how well the Association has worked in the training of new sommeliers".

The twenty sommeliers that will participate in the Final at the Duca di Dolle, among which will be the four sommeliers from Palermo, will have the possibility of attending the Charme Sommelier Training Course and to participate in high level industry trade shows.

"We are very happy with the excellent reaction we have received in Palermo - said Gianluca Bisol, Managing Director and creator of the Charme Sommelier competition - it shows us how important it is to reach Sicily in the diffusion of the wine culture".

They challenged each other at the event on Thursday 4 September that took place at the Hilton, Rome in the presence of numerous members of the Roman press and the entertainment industry including Franco Oppini, Linda Batista, Alessandro Haber and Enzo De Caro.

The event was a dinner format, during which a jury of experts, presided by Gianluca Bisol, observed and studied the movements of the candidates asking them specialised, technical questions.  The guests at the dinner evaluated their service during the dinner according to the criteria of the competition.

Here, therefore are the names of winners of the Charme Sommelier selection in Rome:

- Daniele Brizzi from Civitavecchia
- Stefano Isidori  from Fermo Porto San Giorgio
- Alessandro Oddo from Firenze
- Rudy Rinaldi from Campobasso
- Giuseppe Tedesco from Firenze
- Angelo Di Costanzo from Napoli
- Cristina Sacchetti from Pescara
- Cosi Camilla from Firenze (Special Press Selection)

The same format will follow in Palermo (14 September at the Grand Hotel ed Des Palmes) and Milan (19 September at the Westin Palace).  From these three events 20 sommeliers will be selected to participate on 21 September 2008 at the Final at the Relais Duca di Dolle in the heart of the hills of Prosecco.

On 27 Februrary 1987 the Grandi Vini Export Consortium was born, the first Italian consortium for export formed by companies from the most representative italian regions.

Grandi Vini unites the Tuscan Carpineto and Mantellassi, the Bologna based company Umberto Cesari, the Piedmont company Michele Chiarlo, Garofoli from the Marche, Tommasi Viticultori from Verona, Friuli based winery Pighin and Bisol, VIticulturists in Valdobbiadene since 1542: eight  Italian wine families, with the same passion for the quality and for the territory, who decided therefore to bring together their experience and their resources, perceiving extraordinarily intuition, the importance of developing a network and proposing themselves as a united front in foreign markets.

Complementing each other, similar in structure and company philosophy, in fact, each is a niche winery, the Grandi Vini Group has brought a true Italian style to the tasting of wine worldwide.  Grandi Vini offers a rich variety of winemaking excellence from six Italian regions, which today is present in over forty countries, from Europe to the United States and Asia, where the group registered, in the first trimester of 2008, an sales increase of 53%.  Carpineto, Mantellassi, Cesari, Chiarlo, Garofoli, Tommasi, Pighin and Bisol are offered on the wine lists of some of the best Asian restaurants and are present in the prestigious 5-star hotel chains in the major cities of the continent: Hyatt, Sheraton, St. Regis, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Raffles Hotels are just a few of examples.

There are already one hundred candidates signed up for the first national edition of Charme Sommelier: in fact, the limit of 100 Italian Sommeliers has been reached to compete at Rome, Milano and Palermo in order to be admitted into the final at the Relais Duca di Dolle and to contend for the title of Charme Sommelier and Sommelier awarded by the Press.

The dinners are open to the public (limited numbers) and this public will be able express their judgement on the Sommeliers in competition, participating personally in one of the most original and long awaited  wine events in the country.

On the occasion of each of the three Charme Sommelier selection events, a jury of expert journalists will declare, by their separate evaluation,  a finalist: therefore, from the evenings in Rome, Palermo and Milan, a total of three of the Sommelier finalists to participate in the final at the Relais Duca di Dolle on 21 Septembre 2008, will be selected by the press.

The journalist jury, with fine palates and experts in style and food and wine, will elected the finalists observing their style of service and posing technical questions on the wines and their territories: beyond their competency, the sommeliers will be evaluated on their posture and command of non verbal language.

Finally, the journalists present at the final will nominate, through their judgement, the Charme Sommelier that will earn the Press Prize.

 Wednesday 11 July, the Relais Duca di Dolle at Rolle hosted the first edition of the Charme Sommelier at which  the jury presided over by Gianluca Bisol, managing director of Bisol Desiderio & Figli, considered various aspects to nominate those sommeliers who demonstrated the most  charme. The  more than one hundred guests present, also expressed thei judgements and contributed declaring the two winners:

Male Sommelier Winner
Marco Visentin, sommelier from the Service Group of Treviso

Female Sommelier Winner
Serena Capuzzo, sommelier in Tencarola (Pd)

“I participated in the event, in part as a joke and in part as a bet, but I was mainly encouraged by the true passion I share! Commented Visentin “This synergy between Bisol and AIS, that together manage to formulate the best way for the client to taste nature, is excellent.  We need to mark this date on the calendar”.