Suzanne Branciforte's Italian Grapevine

Bibenda’s Annual Wine Awards took place at the spectacular Cavalieri Hilton in Rome Saturday night. Now that is a Who’s Who in the wine world in Italy!  Five hundred elegantly attired winemakers, wine handlers and aficionados were served at 50 tables by 50 sommeliers. The book you see featured above, this year in a pristine white cover, is a little bible to keep handy.

Thanks to the superb organization of Franco Maria Ricci, here with yours truly and prize-winning Umbrian winemaker Marco Caprai, the evening was a fabulous tribute to Italy’s premier product – vino!

The room was divided into quadrants – Cantina A, B, C and D – and each section could choose from its own personalized menu of 8 Spumanti, 20 whites, 65 reds, 6 sweet wines and 6 grappas.

And I don’t mean you just chose one of each — it was a wine-tasting heaven! Everyone at the table could personalize his/her choice and once you got to the reds … well, your head was spinning – from the choice, the variety, the quality, the very Italian-ness of it all!