The Masi Wine Experience is in the international spotlight as it is awarded the Global Winner prize in the Best of Wine Tourism 2019, the competition dedicated to the world’s best wine tourist initiatives in the wine growing areas of the ten world wine capitals.
After the official awards ceremony held at Adelaide in Australia, the Verona Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of the Great Wine Capitals network, presented Masi with the coveted award at a ceremony held at Tenuta Canova in Lazise del Garda, the site of the museum whose originality and spirit of innovation won the award from an international jury in the face of stiff competition from the world’s most famous centres of wine tourism. This result confirms Masi’s status as centre of excellence for Italian products and also its commitment to spread the fame of Veronese wine around the world.
Masi Wine Discovery Museum is the jewel-in-the-crown of Masi and of Lake Garda, Italy’s most important tourist destination. It provides an experiential pathway of discovery for wine and at the same time for the values of the company and its territory. The visitor starts the journey in a room dedicated to viticulture, with particular reference to its influence on the quality of a wine: through climate, terrain and grape variety, with man as the co-ordinator and engine of the process, equipped with intelligence, technique, taste and passion. The visit continues with winemaking techniques: the focus is on Appassimento, Masi’s famous area of expertise. The visual highlight of the tour is a visit to the inside of a mammoth wine vat where 7 days of the fermentation process are condensed into an exciting and unique 3-minute sensory experience through images, smells and sounds taken from the fermentation process itself. The tour finishes in the “family living room” where the walls display the history and actuality of Masi and the Boscaini family who have been its drivers and custodians since 1772. Learning, exploration and entertainment are all part of the Masi Wine Experience, Masi’s culture and hospitality project for the general public, designed to reach out and involve its audience emotionally and culturally by opening the doors of its historic headquarters in Valpolicella and the other centres of hospitality where the Masi philosophy is the guiding light.
The award was presented by Great Wine Capitals, the network of ten capital cities of wine in the world’s top winegrowing regions: Adelaide (South Australia), Bilbao (Spain), Bordeaux (France), Lausanne (Switzerland), Mainz (Germany), Mendoza (Argentina), Oporto (Portugal), San Francisco - Napa Valley (USA), Valparaiso - Casablanca Valley (Chile) and, representing Italy, Verona. Over 384 wineries took part in the competition, all of them chosen by the individual wine capitals.
The jury citation for the award of the Prize was: “For having created a new interactive experience as part of the Masi Wine Experience tour in the wine museum at Tenuta Canova, thereby augmenting the possibilities for wine tourism in the Verona area and confirming the company’s commitment to the spread of the culture of Italian wine.”
"The Masi Wine Experience is a recently-begun project with great strategic importance for the Masi Group. Wine and everything that surrounds it helps to generate the emotional involvement that consumers are seeking ever more frequently. The format of the Masi Wine Experience is therefore designed to provide this involvement through location in authentic places with strong links to the identity of a company that expresses the values of seven generations of vinegrowers and winemakers. From acclamation by clients we have progressed to local, national, and now global recognition in little more than two years. The Best of Wine Tourism award from the Great Wine Capitals network confirms the validity of the path we have chosen and provides strong encouragement for future projects, amongst which is the next Masi Wine Bar in Cortina – which opens at Col Druscié high up in the Pearl of the Dolomites, the world capital of skiing, in collaboration with the Tofana company."
The Best of Wine Tourism Global Award is one of a series of prestigious prizes won by the Masi Wine Experience; others include: the Social Media Hospitality Award and TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence for Tenuta Canova; Booking.com’s Guest Review Award; and the Holiday Check Award for Possessioni Serego Alighieri.
