‘Vino’ to offer taste of Italy at Expo 2015

The Italian wine pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan – “Domus Vini” – is offering visitors a multi-sensory journey through the world of Italian wine.

Offering visitors the chance to taste more than 1,300 wines, the pavilion plays on the theme of wine as central to Italian life and culture through “both abstract and concrete concepts, yet always immediately understandable.”

One “room” looks at the different harvests, the next the various landscapes across the country where vines are grown and then “the pressing”.

The “amphora room” features 12 amphorae showing all the various colours Italian wine can achieve, from the palest white to dark purple and orange-red. The room also features an array of wine related artefacts dating back to the very earliest days of Italy’s wine producing history which have been generously provided by the Lungarotti Wine Museum in Torgiano.

A tunnel linking the amphora room to a “sea of wine” features an enormous fresco of Caravaggio’s “Bacchus”.

The sea of wine itself is housed in a room “conceived as Roman ‘impluvium’ and features scenes from Il Gattopardo and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover, while Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte plays in the background.

There is also a “wine aroma room” and another room dedicated to Italy’s regions. With a statue at the centre representing sparkling wine erupting from the bottle, the names of the various DOC and DOCG are inscribed on the bubbles. The room also features one of the three bottles of 2000 Sassicaia, that was sent into space in 2005.

The original statue of “Juliet” has been lent by the city of Verona to the pavilion and she marks the transition from the ground floor to the first floor, the “Wine House of the Future”, where the wines available to taste are housed.

Visitors will be limited to a maximum of €20 worth of wine in two €10 instalments and can taste by region with a team of sommeliers on hand to guide them through the different styles and how to use the wine dispensers.

The pavilion opened last month and will stay in place until the end of Expo2015 on 31 October.