All That Glitters is Bottega!

I love visiting the Bottega stand at Vinitaly – it’s so glamorous! Besides, Prosecco makes me happy. This year was special: Bottega was celebrating 40 years of distilling and winemaking. Founded in 1977 near Treviso in the Veneto region, the company has continued to expand.

Leaders in brand recognition, who doesn’t know these shiny bottles of bubbly? We all know Bottega Gold. Doesn’t James Bond drink this stuff? He should! Love the Bottegra Rosé Gold too! Isn’t pink fun? Bottega knows all about fun! The gold Jeroboam that was opened for the celebration certainly was impressive!

This is a distillery and winery that has all the Italian stars in its line-up: having begun with grappa, they added Prosecco, then Chianti, Amarone, Brunello di Montalcino, limoncino, and more.

It all started here, with the grappa:

Get a load of the pearl-studded bottles of Amarone, so trendy! And the lozenge-shaped liquor bottles for the limoncino? Got to have one of those in your freezer! But one of my all-time favorites is the Swarovski-speckled bottle:

 

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend! Or is that Bottega?

This should be the official drink on the night of the Oscars… And the award for best packaging goes to…  Bottega! Not that they haven’t won awards – they have, and plenty of them. For what’s inside the bottle! But feast your eyes!

Bottega is also a leader in the Duty Free market, present in over 130 countries throughout the world. This is a major player in the beverage sector, my friends.

I celebrated Bottega’s birthday by trying some of my old favorites, and some new products just being released onto the market.

While famous for the bubbly, their dry wines like the rosé Pinot Grigio or the Sauvignon are lovely, versatile easy-to-drink wines. The Wine of the Gods (Vino degli Dei) Amarone, on the other hand, weighing in at 16.5% is a meal unto itself. Lunch in a glass. With an appropriate name, this wine is for contemplating loftier things.

But I really enjoyed the new products: the Vermouth has yet to be bottled and released. Who knows what creative packaging will become the home for this tasty treat? A good 80 herbs go into this aromatic wine, perfect for an aperitivo. And the super-consultant for this project was none other than Lamberto Vallarino Gancia, of the famed Piedmont winemaking Gancia family. With Vermouth making a big comeback, Bottega is ready to ride the wave. In a word: yummy.

Going back to distilling, Bottega has made an Italian gin, Bacûr. In dialect, the word means copper, and its shiny bottle confirms that. If all gin were this tasty, I’d drink more of it!

And what a cute cocktail, with the juniper berries floating in the glass. Refreshing. I can see this on a hot summer evening…

Talk about great gadgets! How about this Bottega Gold Vespa? Vroom vroom!!