Over the last couple of weeks Academia Barilla partnered and sponsored a couple of gourmet events in New York and in Tuscany, and will participate to a third event in Los Angeles, California, scheduled for the month of July.

The fil rouge that connects the three events is Italian wine, at its more elevated expression.

The first event has been the presentation of a book by author Sergio Esposito at the Italian Cultural Institute in NY. The event, held on May 5 in collaboration with Italian Wine Merchant, of which Sergio Esposito is Owner and funder, was centered on the recent release of the book “Passion on the Vine - a memoir of food, wine and family in the heart of Italy”, and had a few gourmet tasting moments on the side, to which Academia Barilla’s Italian Food Specialist Rosario Procino participated with a gourmet food tasting moment in favor of the event participants.

Last week Academia Barilla took part of an high-profile charity gala event at Corte del Vino, an event held at Fattoria Le Corti in San Casciano Val di Pesa (in the countryside outside Florence) to fund research on children’s tumors (through the Milan-based Association 7° piano and the Meyer Children Hospital of Florence) through a charity gala lunch and auction of very precious items.

Among the items on auction donated by top Italian collectors were precious Italian wine bottles with more than 20 years, a 6-liters bottle from 2005 serigraphed in gold (auction base: 5,500 Euros), the famous 3-liters bottle of Sagrantino 1997, awarded as one of the 12 best bottle of the historical last decade of the 20th century, or the famous 9-liters bottle of Apparita 2004 (both auction base: 1,500 euro), the 5-liters Zonin Acciaiolo, with the label engraved in gold by a Venetian glass master, or the Contini Bonaccossi Vin Santo di Capezzana 2000, awarded as best dessert wine in the world by the International Wine Challenge, in a 3-bottle box created specifically for this charity auction.

Beside the top section of the wine auction, other prizes has been part of the Corte del Vino charity auction. Four Seasons Firenze donated a spa treatment weekend at their location among the Franciacorta Vineyards in Chianti, and another signed by Henri Chenot in a resort previous residence of Prince Corsini in Maremma, southern Tuscany.

Academia Barilla supported the charity event by donating for the auction two days of dedicated cooking classes at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy. Other top auction items as jewelry pieces and fashion exclusive clothings were donated for the auction by private donors.

From Chianti hills to Hollywood hills with the LA Wine Festival, scheduled in Los Angeles, California for the next month of July. The LA Wine Festival, today at its third edition, takes place at the Raleigh Studios right in the heart of Hollywood, and is organized by wine expert and celebrity Joel M. Fisher, PhD.

Professor Fisher, among other top wine expertises and qualifications, is wine columnist for the Culinary Connection of the Chefs de Cuisine Association of California, professor at Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, wine instructor for the Culinary Arts Department of the Art Institute of California, sommelier for the Escoffier Association of Southern California, and wine host for CRN’s What’s Cooking Show.

We will be blogging more about the LA Wine Festival, as Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Expert Francesco Zimone already scheduled his presence at the Los Angeles event; so save the date if you live in southern California: July 12 and 13 at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, LA. See you there!

Remember to drink wine responsibly and, most of all, to make sure to pair good wines with good gourmet food - we will surely talk soon about the wine and food pairing subject.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 12:32 am and is filed under academia barilla, academia barilla events, academia press office, culinary school, food industry and media, gourmet events, italian cookbooks, italian culinary specialist, italian food, tasting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.