Do Bianchi on Italy Design & Wine 2016

By Adam Japko | October 14, 2015

Mr. Do Bianchi himself, Jeremy Parzen, was our first and only choice for organizing and leading the gastronomic and vinous stops on our Design & Wine Italy 2016 tour. As a personal friend, Italian wine luminary, and past speaker at the Design Bloggers Conference, we sat down with Jeremy and asked a few questions about his background and his unique approach for putting together this trip of a lifetime that is now open for registration. While Jeremy’s focus is primarily on the gastronomic activities, the full agenda including featured design destinations and food and wine highlights is included on the tour website.

Esteem Media: What do you want people who are interested in this tour to know about you professionally?

Parzen: I’ve been writing about Italian wine and food for more than 15 years and I’ve been writing about Italian culture and history for even longer. My passion for all things Italian started with Italian poetry and then grew to include enogastronomy. Now wine and food have eclipsed Italian literature!

Esteem Media: What’s your emotional and experiential relationship with the region we will be visiting?

Parzen: I lived, studied, worked, and played music professionally in the Veneto for the better part of a decade, including regular gigs in Venice and many days spent poring over old books and manuscripts at the San Marco library there. The Veneto and the Venetian Renaissance have so much to offer in terms of a cultural experience.

Esteem Media: Can you contextualize the progression of the wine regions we will be visiting from Proseccoland to Valpolicella?

Parzen: We are going to start with sparkling and end with sparkling, with some fantastic red wines in between — just like a great Italian meal! Our first visit is to Proseccoland where the humbly but mighty Prosecco is made. Then Valpolicella for big red wines. And the the fine sparkling wines of Franciacorta for an elegant finale.

Esteem Media: What about the tour are you most looking forward to?

Parzen: It sounds silly but the event I’m most looking forward to is eating at Lino Fritto the super hip “bacaro” or wine bar in Venice. They serve “cichetti” there, the Venetian version of tapas. They’re closing the whole shop for us and I can’t wait to share that experience of fried fish bites in Venice. Joe Bastianich is providing the wine for the event from his own winery.

Esteem Media: What makes our trip, and your food and wine agenda component, truly unique?

Parzen:The thing that really makes it unique is that it is an insiders trip for design, wine, and food. Basically what I do for a living is travel from winery to winery, from restaurant to restaurant in Italy to learn more about Italian enogastronomy. I’ve been doing it for 15 years and I know the good places!!!

For more information about participation and registration for the week long Italy tour from Venice to Verona kicking off on April 30,2016 please click here to visit the tour website.