ENOFORUM Italy 2023, all the Innovation of the Wine World

A success far beyond the highest expectations, in a few words this is the synthesis of the 20th edition of Enoforum (the 12th in Italy), the international technical-scientific congress of the wine sector that was held from May 16 to 18, 2023 at the “Vicenza Convention Centre” of the Italian Exhibition Group.

Particularly satisfied Gianni Trioli, president of Vinidea, the company organizing the event: “It was not easy to repeat the figures of the 2019 edition, the last one held in presence in Italy before the pandemic, and yet we have managed to surpass them: 1,300 technical participants, 135 papers (30% by foreign researchers), 55 companies presenting the latest technological innovations. With these numbers, Enoforum is confirmed as the largest congress of the sector throughout Europe”.

Enoforum, organized by Vinidea in collaboration with SIVE (Italian Society of Viticulture and Enology), Assoenologi and Unione Italiana Vini, has become over the years the technical-scientific congress of reference at European level dedicated to innovation in the field of viticulture and enology, areas in which all the novelties coming from public and private research worldwide are presented. The main peculiarity of the event is the ability to bring together in the same context the three pillars of the wine world: the wine producers, the research world and the suppliers. .

During the three days of the congress there were two conference rooms (one dedicated to international research, with simultaneous translation, and the other to Italian research), a tasting room, a demo room, a poster area, a press area and an exhibition area for interaction with the main companies in the sector; in short, an unprecedented edition in terms of the quantity and quality of the information presented:

135 papers on the most recent innovations for the vineyard and the winery presented by:
60 speakers, from Universities or public Research Centers,
40 foreign speakers, from 10 wine-producing countries of the world, thanks also to the videoconference modality.
26 speakers of the Enoforum Award(*)
7 research projects: regional, national and European
20 posters on new technologies and knowledge, in addition to those presented orally
55 companies have presented the innovations resulting from their research and development activities.
10 tasting sessions, to understand the sensory effects of innovations
10 demos to learn how innovations are used in practice
35 exhibitors to learn more from company experts
Countless networking opportunities to meet hundreds of colleagues from all over Italy.
An opportunity to get to know local wines and products, as evidenced by the partnership with Consorzio Durello, protagonist of tastings and Master Class.

(*) The Enoforum Award was conceived as a global competition to offer the scientific community the opportunity to present innovative research related to the wine industry. In this edition, more than 100 research papers from around the world were submitted and underwent an initial evaluation by an international scientific committee. During Enoforum Web Scientists, held on March 13, the 36 top-ranked papers were presented orally. All participants were invited to evaluate, in real time, the papers presented to determine the winner and the finalists.

Unanimous was the satisfaction not only of the participants, who moved from one room to another trying to attend as many activities as possible, but also of the guest speakers, who highlighted the quality of the proposed contents and the perfect organization. In particular, Gérard Liger-Belair, head of the Effervescence & Champagne Research Unit at the University of Reims and world authority in the field of “bubbles”, who opened the proceedings on the third day of the congress, commented, “I am particularly grateful to the organizers for inviting me to Enoforum, and I am really impressed by the size of the event, the quality of the presentations and the perfect organization: I doubt it would be possible to do the same in France.”

All those who were unable to attend or who missed a presentation need not worry: all the recordings of the presentations will soon be published (in Italian and English) in the digital magazine Infowine.com, with priority access for Premium subscribers.

Created in 2000 in Montesilvano (PE) on the initiative of Vinidea and SIVE, Enoforum has been gaining importance over the years and enriched with international editions in Portugal (Infowine Forum), Spain (next edition in April 2024), the United States and soon in Chile (November 2023) and even in France (Sparkling Wine Forum). It was also, in the spring of 2020, the first fully online congress because of Covid-19 replacing the Spanish edition in presence planned in Zaragoza. The previous Italian presential edition, held in Vicenza in May 2019, was attended by more than 1,200 congress participants.