Costa Cruises announces a partnership with the Wine Bank in Pollenzo to produce a new sustainable and organic wine list
Costa Cruises and The Wine Bank in Pollenzo, the Italian cooperative company founded by Carlo Petrini, the Slow Food Chairman, which for several years now has been actively supporting Italy’s oenological history, signed an agreement to produce a new wine list on board the ships of the Italian company.
Making the most of the cooperative’s sound experience, Costa Cruises has selected the best wineries that reflect the best of Italy’s wine heritage, in order to offer its guests a new wine list, with over 100 carefully selected labels from the most respected labels in Italy and from around the world, made in an environmentally friendly way and the perfect accompaniment to the traditional Italian cuisine served on board.
The new wine list includes wines from no less than 19 Italian regions and countries such as France, Portugal, Spain, New Zealand, Australia and the USA. The wine selection is divided into 4 different categories, identifiable with the help of a small logo next to each category: guests can choose between sustainable wines, organic wines, territory wines and wines that pair well with Italian regional dishes.
In particular, the sustainable wines have been selected from wines made by wineries who adopt farming methods that have the lowest possible impact on the environment and that safeguard biodiversity.
Among these wines, guests will find, for example, the Roero Arneis Pradalupo DOCG di “Fontanafredda” from Piedmont, the Friuli Colli Orientali Sauvignon DOC di “Le Vigne di Zamò”, the Pinot Nero dell’Alto Adige di “Elena Walch” and many others.
With a view to respect the ecosystem, the new wine list features biodynamic wines too (included in the “sustainable wines” category), whose farming methods only accept preparations that support the soil’s fertility and that take the lunar calendar into consideration when it comes to tending operations.
The results is an authentic expression of the Terroir of origin, namely the intertwine of elements as climate, environment and human factor that distinguish a wine, as perfectly represented by the Gavi DOCG “La Raia” from Piedmont and by the Teroldego Rotaliano DOCG di “Foradori” from Trentino Alto Adige.
The organic wines, on the other hand, have been selected from those that do not contain synthetic chemicals and that come from grapes grown without the use of genetically modified organisms, in accordance with European guidelines. This selection includes, among others, the Albana di Romagna Vigna Rocca DOCG di “Tre Monti”, the Frascati Superiore Racemo DOCG “L’Olivella” dal Lazio, the Chianti Classico Riserva Berardenga DOCG di “Fattoria di Fèlsina” from Tuscany, the Aglianico del Vulture Il Repertorio DOC “Cantine del Notaio” from Basilicata.
Besides the new selection, there will, of course, be Italian and international wines that are genuine icons, such as the Trento DOC Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore Extra Brut, the Bolgheri Sassicaia di “Tenuta San Guido” and the Champagne Brut AOC “Dom Perignon”.
The new wine list is already available on board ships in the Costa fleet and reflects the superb quality that the Italian cruise company and the Wine Bank both have in common.
Established in 2001 in the cellars of Agenzia di Pollenzo (Province of Cuneo, Italy) and in collaboration with the University of Gastronomic Sciences, the Wine Bank is committed to selecting and storing each year in its nineteenth-century cellars bottles of the best vintages from wineries that adopt a winemaking philosophy that safeguards the criteria of ecosystems as much as possible.
It’s an ambitious project and thanks to this partnership Costa adds another feather to the cap of its lavish range of food and wine that focuses on “Italy’s finest”, with the aim of offering its guests only the very best of Italy.
