WORK|OUT European Students’ Review

SPILL THE WINE

The Criticalwine movement: an Italian attempt to build a new European “food language”

   | Paolo Magaudda (Bologna). Food is another kind of language. And among European countries the differences between food codes, traditions and customs are as wide as those of the languages we speak. Building Europe also means thinking about the “food languages” that characterises our continent. Italy can of course have a share in order to build this new language.
   One of the most acknowledged attempt to define this food language has been Slow Food, a movement born in 1985 as a protest against the opening of the first McDonald’s in Rome. In the meantime, the biennial Slow Food event Salone del Gusto presents an astonishing variety of “linguistic” discoveries.
   In 2003 a another even more radical food movement gave way to conceive food and especially wine in a new way: the Criticalwine movement. They fight agianst the commercial and marketing strategies of the Italian wine industry. Indeed, in the last years, wines have become more and more exclusive goods for the rich who like to spend a lot of money to drink. Wine became a product rated in specialised magazines and beautiful guides by “experts” who give votes to the best bottles of wine that might cost even 100 euro. So wine has become a question of fashion and marketing trends.
   But wine is also culture, tradition and, first of all, it is a product of people and the regions where they live and work. This is the main argument of Criticalwine argued in many events that usually take place in the independent scene of the “centri sociali”. The most representative happening in 2005 will be held in Verona, April 7-11, in order to protest against Vinitaly, the biggest mainstream and commercial Italian wine exhibition.
   The social and ethical ideas raised by Criticalwine constitute an important Italian contribution to build a more equal and sustainable “food language” in Europe.

| www.slowofood.it, www.criticalwine.org