DiWineTaste: 100!

 It was an end of summer evening - it was exactly September 9th, 2002 and the computer's clock read 10:10PM - when the first version of the site and the first issue of DiWineTaste were delivered to the web. That night, my lifetime friend, the friend of life, Stefano Passerini was with me, and who for many years worked for DiWineTaste and with whom I shared the adventure of this publication. Just one click and the site was visible to the net and, with it, the first issue of DiWineTaste was available for downloading and reading on a computer. The “launch” of the first issue was celebrated few minutes later: a Marsala Vergine 1987 was the wine we had for that great event, wine of my heart and in my heart since ever as well as one of Stefano's most favorite wines. This is how, by recalling my memories, DiWineTaste's adventure started, an adventure that, as a matter of fact, was started few months earlier, although the initial idea was in my mind two years earlier.

 At those times, it was 2000, I was in the United States of America, and one day I had the idea of founding a publication about wine culture and reviewing. The professional competences of that time - I spent 22 years of my life designing software - have oriented me to the possibilities offered by Internet, therefore excluding, from the very beginning, the printed paper. A monthly publication of wine culture and reviewing available on the Internet only, something whoever could read on his or her computer or, if he or she wanted so, to print it. I am still convinced of this choice, even after about ten years and one hundred issues, even though - I admit it - this choice was not understood in the beginning by the people working in the wine field. Still today, there are many wine producers who are not taking in consideration Internet and web, only few of them have understood the potentials these tools can offer and how they can be useful to their job. Things are now better than ten years ago, however I believe, in this sense, wine and wineries have still a long way to go and have to understand many things.

 By remembering DiWineTaste at the beginning of its history, today everyone would hardly recognize it. For many months - and maybe our most trusted readers will remember that - DiWineTaste was available in PDF format only and one year later, it will be possible to read it on a browser by means of regular web pages. Nevertheless, despite DiWineTaste can be read in any web browser, most of our readers prefer to download the PDF version. And this, I proudly say it, confirms my initial choice was not completely wrong. The web site is changed quite a lot since 2002. From the simple possibility of downloading the magazine in PDF format, today the functions and services offered to our readers have increased considerably. Even the number of readers, fortunately, has increased in ten years. From the few hundreds of readers counted for the first issue, today DiWineTaste counts an average of 145,000 monthly readers, divided between Italy and the rest of the world.

 We certainly walked a way and there is still a truly long way to go. After all, every journey has a beginning and sometimes it never ends, in the sense that every journey inevitably leads into another journey. People who know me, also know my interest for oriental culture and philosophy, Chinese in particular. In the editorial of the first issue of DiWineTaste, I mentioned a famous quote of the Chinese philosopher Lao Zi author of the fundamental Taoist book Dào Dé Jing, a quote - I admit - I like to frequently mention in the things I do. In chapter 64, Lao Zi wrote «a long journey begins from a first step». And that was the first step of our journey and which frequently led us in places we never thought of going to and, from there, to begin a new journey. Of course, in each stage we got to know new things - also thanks to the continuous support and suggestions from our readers - not all of them were positive, but they however let us understand the right way to go or to change what we were doing.

 Since the beginning of this activity I have always had the very same goal: to have a free and independent publication, with no influence of any type, not even of economical nature, in order to give our readers a free opinion about the wine we review. In these one hundred issues, we have tasted and reviewed about 3800 wines of more than 600 producers, 220 brandies of more than 80 distilleries and brands. All the wines and distillates have been blind tasted, and the only thing we asked producers was sending samples to us. No fee, not even “obscure” ones in the form of a paid reports or editorial help. Our editorial and ethic vision have always been the same: to create a free and independent publication. And to better clear this concept, we have never accepted explicit and paid advertising from wine producers to be shown in reserved and well recognizable spaces. The readers, first of all, and the respect we owe them for trusting us each month and for the fact they visit our site and read what we write.

 Readers, first of all. It is to our readers we owe most of the results we got from our editorial adventure. To the old ones - and we have many readers who read our magazine since the first issue - to the new ones: to each one of them my personal thanks, for your support and appreciation. And also to all the producers - who let us express a free opinion about their wines or accepted our invitation to take part to our events - who showed us their appreciation and trust for our job. All the wines we reviewed in our Guide have strictly passed from our glasses, always blind tasted, as we have always believed that expressing an opinion about a wine of which it is known both the name and producer is not so serious, too much prejudicial, not reliable at all. We have never been interested to step up into the pulpit and to brutally shoot any producer, with the silly arrogance to believe we are infallible or authoritative. Because it is also a matter of respect, to respect what we do not understand because it however is the result of a job and a passion, just like ours, just like the one of anyone else. And this is the spirit with which we arrived to issue one hundred. A goal of which we certainly are proud of, aware of the fact we need to say thanks to you - dear reader - who are reading these words. One hundred times thank you.