Vinitaly 2014: The most creative stands in the Piemonte Pavilion, Round 1

These are the most creative stands in the Piemonte pavilion at Vinitaly 2014, Round 1. Also see Round 2, The Most Welcoming Stands and Round 3, The Most Social Stands.

Love is in the air…and in the glass, and on the wall: Consorzio di Brachetto d’Acqui

Wineries are masters at subtle colors, elegant lines, and earth tones in their marketing. A natural product calls for natural imagery. The stand for the Consorzio di Brachetto d’Acqui, however, stands out immediately for its bright colors, warmth, and most of all its masterpiece of graffiti art. We asked the stand’s architect, Fabio Chiriotti, about his vision for the stand.

“Brachetto d’Acqui is a youthful drink, and we wanted to show that in our stand,” he says. The graffiti art was created by two 18-year-old students from Turin, a city that is itself young and vibrant. “Torino is one of the most colorful cities in Italy, and it has a lively graffiti art scene, great music, and industry that brings work.” Fabio’s idea was to tell the kids minimal details about the design he wanted: the red of Brachetto, “Made in Italy” written somewhere, love as an image, and to demonstrate the territory. They carried the art the rest of the way. The result is a long mural with a bottle of Brachetto d’Acqui front and center, a man pouring the bright, red wine into a glass as it spills out into hearts surrounding a woman, her back mysteriously turned. “Made in Italy” is written in cursive over a ribbon of green that blooms into a grape leaf, symbol of the territory. Hanging on the wall is a TV playing a fast-forward video of the two artists creating their work. 

Bringing the soul of the earth to you, literally: Dolcetto di Dogliani, Clavesana

One can’t help but to stop, admire, and take a photo of the Clavesana stand. Some dirt crumbles out of the platform, hemmed in by long, vertical ropes, to which dirty work boots are tied and dangling. This is another stand that leaves the normal elegance of tasting rooms behind, though for all the dirt underfoot, its tables and saturated pictures of the winery and fields bring sophistication.

Winery director Anna Bracco began by explaining her winery and what she wants Clavesana to stand for: Dolcetto di Dogliani. The Clavesana winery produces Barolo, Barbera d'Alba, Moscato d'Asti, Roero Arneis, and more, but the Dolcetto variety is the apple – er, grape – of their eye. Their tagline is, in fact, Siamo Dolcetto, "We are Dolcetto." The variety is perfectly adapted to their location, where the temperature drops during the night, cooled by the mountains and higher elevation than many hills of Nebbiolo in the Langhe. Not 20 years ago, Dolcetto was being passed over by foreign and domestic markets for bigger and better-known names – Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera. Anna Bracco knew they had to work on the marketing, on one hand, and the quality of the wine on the other. They did, and today the Clavesana winery produces 50% of the Dogliani production.

“The stand was born from this work,” she explains. “The dirt was brought up by our agronomist from our property in Clavesana – it was tough work. We use the ropes in the vineyards to bind crates of harvested grapes to the wagon. If they weren’t bound together, they would tumble out as the wagon goes over the hills. The boots are actually our workers’ boots.” And the dirt on them is surely pure dirt of Dolcetto di Dogliani terroir (seen below after a day of high heels passing over it).