Wine tourism in Trentino: Councilor Giulia Zanotelli's strategy

Wine tourism in Trentino has long ceased to be a mere appendage to winery operations, and has become the preferred narrator of an entire landscape. In this lucid and insightful interview, Giulia Zanotelli—Councillor for Agriculture, Promotion of Trentino Products, Environment, Hydrogeological Protection, and Local Authorities of the Autonomous Province of Trento—traces the coordinates of an evolution that is, above all, cultural.

In his words, wine sheds its role as a mere commercial product to take on that of an ambassador: a "liquid bridge" capable of uniting the toil of mountain viticulture with the beauty of hospitality, through the protection of the territory and the excellence of its restaurants. What emerges is a vision of a "Trentino system" far removed from standardization, where authentic experience, concrete support for small artisan businesses, and, above all, the education of new generations become the founding pillars. A strategic and human journey, designed so that each visitor takes home not only the memory of a fine bottle, but the face of the person who produced it and the inescapable desire to return.

In recent years, Trentino has begun to consider wine tourism not just as an opportunity for individual wineries, but as a component of the regional strategy. What level of maturity has this approach reached today?

Today, Trentino considers wine tourism for what it is: not a sideline to the winery, but a lever for promoting the region. Through wine, we tell the story of agriculture, the landscape, and the work of its people.

Over the years, we've made significant progress and built solid foundations: a vibrant network of producers, diverse and recognizable winemaking regions, and a growing ability to connect wine with other tourism offerings. We've also consolidated this path from a regulatory perspective. Now the challenge is to take a further leap forward: to create a system. This is the direction we're also pursuing with the Trentodoc Festival, which takes wine beyond the wineries and fosters its connection with restaurants, hospitality, and production regions, with approximately 170 events.

One of the challenges of wine tourism is transforming a winery visit from a simple tasting into an experience that tells the story of a region. What characteristics, in your opinion, should a truly Trentino wine tourism experience have today?

It must start with the wine, but not stop there. A "truly Trentino" experience must allow the visitor to understand why that wine is made there. It means describing the vineyard, the landscape, the agricultural work, and the traditions. But also the capacity for innovation.

For this reason, I believe that the producer shouldn't simply be the person who presents a label, but the person who guides visitors through the history and unique features of their region. This is also the philosophy we wanted to reinforce through the provincial regulations on wine tourism.

Today, the winery is more than just a place to sell products; it also offers vineyard tours, educational activities, tastings, and the opportunity to pair wine with local food products. A wine can be paired with a mountain cheese, for example, or a typical local dish. This way, tasting becomes a way to fully experience the region.

Wine tourism necessarily connects agriculture, tourism, culture, catering, and local promotion. How complex is it, from an institutional perspective, to build a truly shared strategy across different sectors and stakeholders?

This is a complex path, but it is also the only possible one. Wine tourism, by its very nature, cannot be governed by a single sector. It fosters synergy between agriculture and the entire hospitality system. However, we are not starting from scratch: Trentino has a network of expertise and professionals that over the years—also at the urging of this provincial administration—has successfully developed shared experiences and paths. The challenge today is to enhance these experiences within a unified vision of the region, preventing them from remaining isolated initiatives. The Wine and Flavor Routes have played and continue to play an important role, as have the wineries, the various supply chains, and the tourism promotion associations with the local associations, reviving an active role for the Protection Consortium. The fusion of different worlds allows us to create experiences that truly capture Trentino's authenticity.

Trentino boasts a significant network of wineries, winemakers, and producers, but not all necessarily have the same resources to invest in hospitality. How can the public system support even the smallest businesses without standardizing their offerings?

The first thing to avoid is for wine tourism to become a competition based solely on investment capacity. There are both established businesses and family-run businesses: it would be unfair to ask everyone to offer the same experience. The Province's role is to support businesses, especially those with less investment potential, by supporting initiatives in hospitality, training, and promotion.

Our special autonomy has given us the toolbox and resources to respond specifically to the diverse characteristics of Trentino's production system. We do this through dedicated promotional activities, implemented with Trentino Marketing, participation in international trade fairs and events, co-marketing projects, and specific initiatives to support wine tourism. These strategies allow us to support businesses without imposing a single model. We do this through specific interventions and calls for proposals funded with provincial resources and—in the future—with EU resources from the CMO wine.

But there's an investment I consider even more important: the investment in people and expertise. Because having a beautiful winery isn't enough to promote quality wine tourism.

Wine can become a gateway to discovering a region, but the region itself can also be the reason a visitor chooses a particular winery. How important is it for Trentino to transcend the single experience and build itineraries and connections between multiple realities?

Wine can be the reason you choose a destination, but also the starting point for discovering it. And the opposite is also true: those who come to Trentino for other reasons can also discover our winemaking heritage through the region. This is why we must promote itineraries that integrate the wine experience with what the region has to offer.

Wine tourism can help us promote even lesser-visited areas, through authentic experiences rooted in our rural identity. It's a way to showcase a Trentino region that often remains off the beaten track. The challenge, therefore, is to transcend the rationale of a single initiative and build a broader offering.

Contemporary tourists seem to increasingly seek authentic experiences, human contact, and the opportunity to understand what they're visiting. How much must the way Trentino wineries present their work change to meet this demand?

Today's visitor wants to understand what's behind a bottle, meet the people, and understand the choices that underlie a product. That's why the story can't be merely technical or commercial. It must be able to explain what it means to cultivate a vineyard in a mountainous area, the challenges, the choices, and the work that go into it.

We must be able to emerge from our shell to share our authenticity. Trentino can boast a generation of talented winemakers capable of sharing their experience in the field. The Edmund Mach Foundation represents an important asset in this regard; but training cannot be considered a point of arrival: it must accompany the evolution of the sector over time, especially in its ability to welcome and communicate.

The Province (alongside the various training organizations in the area) is also doing its part in this regard. We support opportunities for professional development and growth. Because knowing how to make good wine is essential, but knowing how to tell the story is equally important.

Another crucial aspect is the relationship between wine tourism and hospitality operators: hotels, restaurants, guides, consortia, and tourist boards. What link in the supply chain does Trentino need to strengthen most to make the experience more integrated?

Rather than identifying a weak link, I'd argue for the need to strengthen the connection between the various components of the offering. Tourists don't think in watertight compartments: they choose where to sleep, where to eat, what to visit, and what experiences to enjoy. For them, it's a single experience of the region. Let's therefore look at integrated hospitality.

The next frontier is to make wine tourism a natural part of Trentino's tourism offerings, not something added to a holiday. An even more profound step is therefore needed: building a true culture of the product and the region. And this means starting with our children, fostering their awareness of the value of local produce. The new generations will be the consumers, operators, and ambassadors of the Trentino of tomorrow.

Looking to the coming years, what projects or initiatives does the Province intend to pursue to transform the work done so far into a truly structured strategy for Trentino wine tourism?

The work of the coming years will primarily focus on providing Trentino wine tourism with a more structured strategy and direction. "Wines and Mountains" is a concrete step in this direction: it brings together four events linked to Trentino's signature wines and the regions that express them, with shared promotion and communication. This is not to standardize them, but to make them more recognizable as part of a single wine tourism offering.

2026 also marks an important milestone with the new wine tourism governance, which will coordinate this journey and support the work of the organizing committees over the next three years, together with Trentino Marketing, the Consorzio Tutela Vini del Trentino, the Strada del Vino e dei Sapori, and the Trentino School of Management. The goal is to establish shared strategic guidelines, coordinated communication, and a greater capacity to build experiences. The project will continue in 2027 with four events: DiVinNosiola from March 21st to April 4th, the Mostra del Teroldego Rotaliano from May 21st to 23rd, the Rassegna Müller Thurgau Vino di Montagna from July 1st to 4th, and La Vigna Eccellente on September 30th and October 1st.

The challenge is to transform four events and so many different territories into a recognizable offering, without losing their identities. This is the step that can make wine tourism an increasingly strong component of our tourism offering.

Precisely with this perspective of discussion and an increasingly broad vision, I will be present at FINE #WineTourism Marketplace Italy to give a talk entitled "Territory and Identity in the Development of Wine Tourism." It will be a valuable opportunity to share best practices and outline the future direction of the sector, alongside representatives from other Italian regions, bringing Trentino's voice and experience to this high-profile debate.

I'd like to close with a perhaps more personal question: when a visitor leaves Trentino after visiting a winery, tasting a wine, and getting to know the region, what image or sensation would they like them to take with them?

I'd like it to carry with it the feeling of having had an authentic experience, one that leaves a lasting impression and makes you want to return. Perhaps not just to drink that wine again or discover a new one, but to rediscover that place and perhaps imagine living there longer.

If at the end of the journey the visitor thinks, "That wine truly speaks of the place it comes from," then we've achieved our goal. And I like to think that this ability of wine to describe a territory has deep roots: just think of Mozart and his "Pour the wine! Excellent Marzemino!" in Don Giovanni, tied to the tradition that holds him captivated by Marzemino during his stay in Rovereto.

If I had to sum it up in one word, I'd like it to bring with it a bit of Trentino: not just the memory of a wine, but the faces of the people you meet, a landscape, a story, and above all, the desire to experience that same feeling again.

Key points:

• From product to territory: Wine tourism is not a sideline for the winery, but a strategic tool for sharing the landscape, culture, and agricultural work of Trentino.
• Authentic experiences and storytelling: A winery visit should go beyond a simple tasting session to reveal the profound connection between wine, the mountain landscape, and local gastronomic traditions.
• System and network strategy: It is essential to overcome isolated initiatives by building a close synergy between agriculture, tourism, catering, protection consortia, and Wine and Flavor Routes.
• Support for small businesses and training: The Province supports less structured businesses with dedicated resources and priority investments in human skills and reception capacity.
• New governance and major events: The "Wines and Mountains" project brings together four identity-based events coordinated by a single director together with Trentino Marketing and the Trentino School of Management.