The Merano Wine Festival returns for a five-day celebration of wine and food from 6-10 November 2020 in Merano, South Tyrol. The 2020 festival features 526 wineries participating in many events, both producers and visitors will be given more space at the 2020 event.
In an effort to create a safer environment for patrons, organizers of the Festival have worked to redevelop the event’s programming due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the producers exhibiting in shifts and two time slots for visitors (the first from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and the second from 2:30 to 7:00 p.m).
The theme of the 2020 edition is focused on the Festival’s origins and entitled “Merano WineFestival, Back to the Roots” and with respect to the traditional ethos of the event will feature:
Naturae et Purae – the bio&dynamica section dedicated to sustainable production and natural, organic, biodynamic, orange and PIWI wines; Wine – The Official Selection that will take place in the Kurhaus and will feature 122 Italian and international producers on 6th and 7th of November and as many again on the 8th and 9th. Foods Spirits Beer – The Official Selection will involve the same system of dividing producers between different days, with shifts of 100 at a time. The WineHunter Area will also change and, other than the presence of the Kursaal on the podium, it will relinquish its usual display spaces and transfer to the lounges of Merano hotels. A digital lounge will also be created in this area, which will allow visitors to interact with the producers. Catwalk Champagne is also confirmed for November 10th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the world’s most famous bubbles accompanied by stylish culinary creations.
The festival’s health & safety plan includes measures like expanded registration and check-in procedures, checking body temperatures prior to entry, making masks and hand sanitizers compulsory to all attendees, putting no more than two visitors at each table and spacing them at least 1 meter apart, and specific directions for entry and exit. In addition, all the producers and staff taking part will need to show a negative test result for Covid-19, issued in the four days prior to their attendance at the event, thereby ensuring a safe environment for the visiting public.
There will be special events orbiting the Festival: Catwalk Bollicine organised together with Milan Wine Week in the shops of Merano; a Gourmet Tour in and around Merano, of the restaurants where you can find the wines in The WineHunter Award guide; the presentation of “Georgia: the Origin of Wine” and the Symposium dedicated to the CAP, Common Agricultural Policy; and once again, the programme of The WineHunter Hotel Safari in selected city hotels and The “fuori-salone” Merano WineCitylife open to everyone. Lastly, an online platform is being developed with a digital meeting space for producers and visitors where a 100% Digital Festival could take place, and complete digitalisation of the event in case the lockdown is re-imposed.
The WineHunter Award Guide with the official Merano WineFestival award will be turned into a magnificent book for the first time this year. Tickets are currently on sale at this link here.
