The wine ambassador of the Veneto region
Angelo Peretti is an Italian journalist and wine writer based in Veneto. He has been involved in the Italian wine sector for more than thirty years as a writer and as a strategist for several Italian wine appellations. Angelo is the editor of the Italian wine magazine InternetGourmet.it. Irene S. Lavine, a well-known US author, once wrote in her Forbes article: “Angelo Peretti might well be considered the wine ambassador of the Veneto region”.
Angelo Peretti has written several books about Italian wines and food pairings. His latest book “Esercizi spirituali per bevitori di vino” (“Spiritual exercises for wine drinkers”), published in June, 2023 by Edizioni Ampelos, tackles an unprecedented narrative journey into the wine world. Through ninety short chapters written in alphabetical order halfway between the story and the essay, Peretti aims to lead his readers to rediscover the emotional and intellectual — that is “spiritual” — sense of drinking and living. His stories are based on more than thirty years’ experience in wine and gastronomy, enhanced by the drafting of hundreds of articles and various strategic plans for wine appellations.
Drinking wine is a pleasant philosophical exercise of life…
Every chapter of the “Spiritual exercises for wine drinkers” was inspired by novels, anecdotes, poems, songs that have to do with anything other than wine. A Playboy interview with the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, is an opportunity to talk about the fears of ordinary people in the face of the sacred monsters of wine and public life. A letter written by the star designer Giorgio Armani during the first wave of Covid-19 makes us reflect on the elegance and rudeness of certain wines and certain individuals. The memory of the first astronauts on the moon helps us understand how the sense of being part of a community constitutes the foundation of both civil coexistence and the typicality of the wines of a given territory. The author intends to help the readers fully enjoy the pleasure of sharing a glass of wine with their loved ones. He believes that the best wine is the one that helps people talk about their life: “Drinking wine is a pleasant philosophical exercise of life, which anyone can enjoy; since we all possess the awareness of living, no one can be called inexperienced”, Peretti says. Each chapter is dedicated to two wines, an Italian one and another one coming from wine regions throughout the world (France, Germany, Spain, the United States, Greece, Israel, Hungary, Portugal, Lebanon, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Austria) – in total, 180 wines. Each wine is selected due to its ideal connection with the content of the related chapter.
To transform wine into meditative art
For his book “Esercizi spirituali per bevitori di vino” (“Spiritual exercises for wine drinkers”) Angelo Peretti has won the Michele D’Innella prize by Touring Club Italiano and Vinibuoni d’Italia and the third prize in the Essays section in the Mario Soldati literary contest. The leading Italian newspaper “la Repubblica” defined “Esercizi spirituali per bevitori di vino” as “a pairing that combines oenological skills and encounters, music, art, literature, winemakers and philosophers, very personal yet universal thoughts. In short, a sort of miracle. How to transform wine into meditative art. Without ever betraying – God forbid! – the pleasure principle”.