Special Opportunity to Discover Italian Culinary Culture

The Italian Wine Festival 2023 was recently held in Ho Chi Minh City as part of events to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the National Day of the Italian Republic (June 2, 1946 - June 2, 2023). Vietnam Business Forum conducted an interview with Mr. Enrico Padula, Consul General of Italy in Ho Chi Minh city, regarding this event.

Could you please tell us about the importance of this festival?

The Italian Wine Festival comes at a crucial time, we are all reconnecting after the pandemic with our life and the wine is definitively an important part of it. At least in Italy wine is part of our culture of conviviality, of sharing a meal and staying together. It is therefore important that we on only retake our lives as they were before the pandemic, but that we improve the quality of our living together.

 What is the highlight of the festival?

The festival attracted the participation of more than 50 producers with more than 150 of the most famous Italian wines, along with a series of events dedicated to Italian wines in Ho Chi Minh City.

This year’s event is centered around a very special Italian wine, the Prosecco. In Italy, Prosecco is a ubiquitously used wine and outside Italy, it is most often drunk as an apéritif. It should be drunk young preferably within three to five years of its vintage. In Vietnam, since the new century Prosecco has led to the growing appreciation of Italian wines.

 How can the wine cultures of the two countries come closer together?

The wine culture in Italy is linked to conviviality, to staying together, and it is as well connected to meals, lunch and dinner. Wine is not separated from the dishes, it is consumed together, the flavors of wine and food have to be in harmony. Here I see some differences with Vietnamese culture, where wine has traditionally a more ceremonial role. I think our two wine cultures can be brought together, each keeping its identity, but each enriching the other.

How can Italian wine businesses expand the Vietnam market through this event?

The Italian Wine Festival supported by the Consulate General, the Embassy, the Trade Commission, and Gambero Rosso aimed to further strengthen the knowledge about Italian wines among discerning consumers and beyond. Only a better knowledge of wines enables the superior quality of Italian wines to be fully appreciated.

This festival is also an opportunity for Italian wine businesses to introduce their products, seek cooperation opportunities, connect trade and expand the market in Vietnam.

By Thu Huyen, Vietnam Business Forum