SOMM COMMUNITY HAS UNIQUE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY AT VINITALY.USA, OCTOBER 26-27
by Lars Leicht
American sommeliers, wine buyers, and hospitality professionals love nothing more than a chance to visit Italy, but the next best thing is when Italy visits America. Organized by Veronafiere, in collaboration with the Italian Trade Agency, the 2026 edition of Vinitaly.USA offers this exact opportunity. Through tastings, masterclasses, and B2B meeting opportunities with Italian vineyard and winery owners, the SOMM community has a rare networking opportunity this month: to savor and learn about Italian wines, and connect with the professionals who sell them.
Taking place October 26-27 at Pier 36 in New York City, Vinitaly.USA will encompass two engaging days of exploration and education, celebrating the excellence of Italian wine. With over 300 exhibitors, 2000 visitors, and countless wine labels, the 2026 edition is already making waves across the big apple. Last year’s success in Chicago introduced two key concepts, which the organizers are now reintroducing to New York:
wine2wine Vinitaly Business Forum: the most important Italian wine business forum with a program tailored specifically for the North American market, created to follow the evolution of Italian wine beyond the Italian market.
wine2wine is a two-day training, development, and networking event designed for wine producers, marketers, buyers, and professionals.
Italian wine producers are passionate about their products. They will not wait passively for the market to come to Italy: they want to meet the market head on. That’s the idea behind bringing wine2wine to New York.
wine2wine connects Italian producers with international buyers, wine educators and professionals from across the globe, supporting the next generation of wine professionals through partner-school scholarships, and adapting to an evolving world of wine by providing a forum for real-time data exchange, trends and analysis.
wine2wine has always looked beyond the glass, connecting wine with territory, culture, enotourism and marketing. Now, as Italian wine faces unique challenges in the face of unprecedented global headwinds, wine2wine is taking the conversation directly to the heart of one of the world’s most important wine markets.
The focus of this 13th edition is on highlighting the people who shape Italian wine. The program will be structured around four main pillars:
Train the Trade
Sharpen the Method
Deepen the Expertise
Activate the Experience
These pillars reflect a broader vision of wine education: not as an isolated academic exercise, but as a practical, commercial and cultural force capable of shaping how Italian wine is understood and marketed in the United States.
Coming to New York is the next logical step in doing what wine2wine has always done: bringing Italian wine closer to the markets that matter, understanding how those markets approach Italian wine, what they are looking for, the tools they use, the categories they like best, the challenges they encounter and the information they need to tell the story of Italian wine more effectively.
Vinitaly International Academy (VIA): training programs and tastings curated by international experts to deepen knowledge of Italian wine by exploring its regions, indigenous grape varieties and company stories.
The scientific focus of Vinitaly International Academy is on the characteristics of Italy’s native grape varieties and the biodiversity of the 20 regions, their respective history, culture and specific businesses.
The teaching staff is highly qualified: their credentials include both degrees from Vinitaly International Academy and Master of Wine, Master of Sommelier and WSET levels. Every activity is carried out in collaboration with the most distinguished professionals working in the Italian Wine Industry.
The Vinitaly International Academy Community also includes the main organizations in the wine industry: consortiums, promotional bodies and institutions contribute to the creation of a true VIA ecosystem.
Vinitaly International Academy (VIA) is considered the gold standard of Italian wine education, offering a complete educational path with standardized courses that will teach professionals and educators to master the diversity of Italian wine in a rigorous, organized manner. VIA’s main objective is to foster a global network of highly qualified professionals such as Italian Wine Ambassadors and Italian Wine Experts: in turn, they will support and promote Italian wine throughout the world. VIA’s ecosystem, comprising the main institutional bodies and associations in the Italian wine industry, strives to be the conduit between the leading players in the Italian wine scene and international professionals.
US Wine professionals are encouraged to apply online for attendance: https://app.vinitalyusa.com/external-registration/77d83677-1bfa-4bff-bf4a-4d924840b926?taxonomyId=cfad2338-1d92-4761-b32d-ea01f5df2c10
This article is brought to you by the Italian Trade Agency.