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Italy appoints DOP and IGP Wine Committee president
Oenology professor Michele Zanardo will return to the role of president of Italy’s Comitato Nazionale Vini DOP e IGP.
A freelance oenologist and a contract academic specialising in wine legislation at the University of Padova, Zanardo first joined the committee in 2008, serving as vice-president until he was appointed to the role of president from 2018 to 2021. After this point he served as vice-president of the outgoing 2021-24 committee, which is headed up by the University of Milan’s Professor Attilio Scienza, leading vine genetics expert and chief scientist of the Vinitaly International Academy.
Next year Zanardo will formally take up the post of president once again for a three year term.
Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, and a key ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, signed the decree appointing Zanardo to the role and commented: “I would like to congratulate the new members of the committee and Professor Michele Zanardo, appointed president of this prestigious consultative body. We are further strengthening the wine sector, working on production specifications, which are essential to guarantee quality and excellence on international markets.”
The committee’s purpose is to protect and promote all Italian wines with DOP (Denominazione d’Origine Protetta) or IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) status.
In his previous term as president, Zanardo steered the committee through the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when the Italian wine industry could have easily been decimated, but instead it managed to largely weather the storm – the Vinitaly-Nomisma Wine Monitor showed that while the value of Italian wine exports fell by 4.6% in 2020 (compared to 2019), this was relatively minor compared to the global decline of 10.5%.
“We continue to invest in the extraordinary potential of our wines, ambassadors of the Italian agri-food heritage, which stand out for their innovation and identity, recognised and appreciated in Europe, and around the world,” Lollobrigida added.
Other appointments to the committee include Ministry of Agriculture representatives Pietro Gasparri, Andrea Rossi and Piero Amorese, and, representing wine industrialists, Gabriele Castelli and Unione Italiani Vini general secretary Paolo Castelletti.