Ovada: Wine and Truffles - Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 November 2016 Ovada (AL)

Sipping Dolcetto in the company of the finest and tastiest white truffles: in the characteristic historic center of the Monferrato town, the hugely successful event dedicated to local excellences returns

"Ovada: Wine and Truffles" reaches its seventh edition this year. The event organized by the Pro Loco of Ovada and of the Monferrato Ovadese with the collaboration of the Enoteca Regionale di Ovada and under the patronage of the Municipality of Ovada is enriched this year with numerous events linked to the two flagship products of the Ovada area: the Dolcetto di Ovada (Ovada Docg and Dolcetto d'Ovada Doc) and the white truffle.

Numerous wine producers have again joined the event this year, which represents a rare but important moment of contact and exchange with the public: during the day on Sunday, in the courtyards and under the most characteristic arcades of Ovada's historic center, the producers will await visitors, who will have the chance, by buying the event's glass, to taste the area's best wine production. Wines of great quality that today, more than ever before, have won numerous accolades from the leading experts in the field, symbolic products of the Ovada area's winemaking vocation, explained by those who every day carry forward the area's tradition with passion and great expertise.

The event's other star is also tied to the Ovada area: the white truffle - Tuber Magnatum Pico. Within the splendid setting of the Loggia di San Sebastiano (Ovada's old parish church), the trifolau will display their highly fragrant white truffles of exclusively local origin.

The "Concorso Tartufo Ovadese" also returns with Ovada Wine & Truffles. On Sunday 20 November, at the Loggia di San Sebastiano, in addition to the usual Mostra Mercato dei Tartufi Bianchi delle Colline Ovadesi (White Truffle Trade Fair of the Ovada Hills), the best Ovada Truffles will be awarded (1st, 2nd and 3rd place).

A technical jury will examine all the characteristics of the prized white truffles to designate the best ones. To be admitted to the competition, the truffles must weigh a minimum of 100 grams and will be judged by a special jury that will assess their aroma, shape, color, size and all the elements that serve to distinguish the truffle qualitatively. The competition is reserved exclusively for truffle hunters admitted to the Truffle Trade Fair. The jury will examine the competing truffles between 9:00 and 10:30. The verdict is to be considered final. Opening to the public is set for 10:00 and will continue until the truffles run out and in any case until late afternoon.

Piazza San Domenico will also host a Market of typical local products: cheeses, jams, fruit syrups, honey and chocolate.

A colorful little train will take visitors to discover the town's most characteristic and hidden corners, and there will also be entertainment for the little ones.

In Piazza Garibaldi an area will be set up to entertain the little ones with an inflatable slide.

This year the event will be preceded by a series of initiatives involving the bars of Ovada which, with the collaboration of the Enoteca Regionale di Ovada, will offer visitors, starting from 29 October and throughout the month of November, the best labels of Ovada Doc and Ovada Docg from the Ovada area. New this year is a convenient shuttle bus connecting Ovada station to Piazza XX Settembre, giving everyone arriving in town by train from Genoa or Acqui Terme a convenient connection to reach Ovada's historic center. The Ristorante Pro Loco will be set up at the Centro Polisportivo Geirino, opening: Saturday 19 November from 19:00 and Sunday 20 from 12:00. Traditional dishes will be served.

If the wines produced on the gentle hills of the Monferrato Ovadese are among the most famous in Italy, the white truffle of this area is certainly no less so: Gioacchino Rossini called it "the Mozart of mushrooms", a judgment also confirmed by the research carried out by Raoul Molinari and Giordano Berti on chronicles dating back to the Middle Ages, as well as on letters from 18th-century travelers: everyone agrees on the extraordinary aroma and quality of the white truffles of these lands, a true delicacy highly appreciated already in the past. The event dedicated to wines and truffles is always a bit like the meeting between Bacchus and Jupiter: if Bacchus is the god of wine, according to the Roman poet Juvenal, the origin of the truffle is instead due to a lightning bolt hurled by Jupiter near an oak tree.

Also thanks to Jupiter's mythology, aphrodisiac qualities have always been attributed to the truffle as well.

Toward the Estates General of Dolcetto 2016 "A study day on the excellences of the Monferrato Ovadese"

On Saturday 19 November at 15:30, at the Enoteca Regionale di Ovada e del Monferrato, the now customary moment of reflection and study will be held on the eve of the important Ovada Wine and Truffles event, organized by the Pro Loco of Ovada and of the Monferrato Ovadese, which will take place on Sunday 20 November through the streets of the town. This year the theme to be developed is that of the peculiarities of Dolcetto, a great grape variety of the Piedmontese tradition that deserves to be rediscovered; the appointment will be entitled "Toward the Estates General of Dolcetto". It is precisely in this spirit that the Associazione Enoteca Regionale has decided to involve the other two areas of Piedmont that have earned DOCG recognition, Diano d'Alba and Dogliani.

For the first time the Ovada area places itself at the center of the growth experience of this grape variety, precisely to demonstrate how the whole territory is increasingly acting concretely to bring Dolcetto back to high levels of recognition, thanks also to an ever-growing level of quality. The appointment on 19 November will see the participation of Gigi Brozzoni, editor of the Guida Veronelli, Maurizio Gily, lecturer at the Universita del Gusto di Pollenzo, and Pietro Stara of Intravino. These three experts, besides being recognized nationally, have more than once shown attention to and knowledge of our area, and at the same time will be able to ensure a high-level and interesting debate, which will be moderated by the journalist from "La Stampa", Daniele Prato.

To follow, a very interesting guided but "blind" tasting of ten wines from the three Denominations, which will be the occasion to compare and understand the differences and uniqueness of the great products that we will be able to get to know better. "With this event we believe we can achieve two goals: to give the important Ovada Wine and Truffles event a moment of study and in-depth analysis, and also to begin a comparison with the other two areas suited to Dolcetto; we are sure that this is only the first occasion for exchange among our realities," states Stefano Ferrando, vice president of the Enoteca Regionale di Ovada e del Monferrato.

FOR INFORMATION:

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