Slowine USA

Slow Wine USA

The new Slow Wine Guide to the Wines of California was both a challenge and a gamble. The Slow Wine project was born eight years ago when Slow Food, the international foodways movement, decided to publish its own guide and break away from the Gambero Rosso and its Vini d’Italia (Wines of Italy), which the two groups had co-published for 25 years. At the time, it was Italy’s most important wine guide.
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Slowine California

The time is right

Perceptions of gastronomy’s cultural value have changed radically since the Slow Food international movement was founded in the late 1980s in Piedmont, Italy as a champion of traditional foodways threatened by Italy’s growing appetite for fast-food.
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Slowine California

The editors

When he first decided to launch a new Slow Wine Guide to the Wines of California, editor-in-chief Giancarlo Gariglio reached out to veteran wine writer and educator Jeremy Parzen, author of the popular blog Do Bianchi, devoted (mostly) to the wines of Italy, and his fellow professor at Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Piedmont, where the movement’s publishing arm is also located.
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Slowine California

The methodology

When our editorial team first got together on a Skype chat to discuss the parameters for inclusion in the guide, the biggest question we faced was whether or not organic farming practices or certified organic going to a baseline criterion. In Slow Wine’s guide to Italian wines, organic farming isn’t a requirement for inclusion.
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Slowine California

The prizes

The SNAIL PRIZE is awarded to wineries whose values (high quality wines, originality, respect for the land and environment) align with the Slow Food movement. Quality-price ratio is another factor that our editors consider.
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