The focus, of course, is on barbatella (vine scion or rootstock) and there's a good reason for it, as Rauscedo is the global centre on which vineyards from all over the world rely: Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo (Rauscedo's Nursery Cooperatives), since its constitution in 1933, has been giving birth to the world's largest nursery complex, with 80 million grafted vine plants produced yearly, making Friuli Venezia Giulia the number one nursery hub in the world. Globally, VCR operates in 35 wine-growing countries.
Rauscedo is also home to one of our business partner, Cantina Rauscedo, who will be taking part to the event.
Wine & food tastings and workshops: Enoteca, Piazza dei Sapori, Arena del Gusto
At the festival's Enoteca visitors and wine lovers will be able to taste wines grown thanks to the barbatelle “made in Rauscedo”. More than 150 labels from Italy and from wine areas around the world will be available for wine tastings, bringing those grape nectars back to their roots.
ONAV-National Organization of Wine Tasters will introduce its “Laboratori del Gusto” (taste workshops): three wine tastings' sessions with local, Italian and international wines. Info and submissions: [email protected], tel. 339.4178660. Here are the dates:
October 7, 8.30pm: Trento DOC, Mountain's Sparkling. Wine tasting of 6 spumanti from Trentino
October 8, 10.30am: Resistant Varieties' Predisposition to Sparkling Method (or spumantizzazione). Wine tasting of 8 spumanti (sparkling whites) in collaboration with VCR
October 9, 4pm: Malvasia Istriana. Masterclass with 7 local wine makers.
But a glass of good wine needs some good food to match. Arena del Gusto (flavours' arena), managed by Le Radici del Vino Association along with other associations, will put on display the typical Friulian cuisine and its main dishes, an exquisite chance to enjoy traditional food made by locals: open on Friday night, and both for lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday (click here for the menu). And at the Piazza dei Sapori (flavours' square) foodies and visitors will get the best out of delicacies coming from all over Friuli Venezia Giulia. Openings: on Saturday 4pm-10pm, on Sunday 8am-8pm.
Two popular vine varieties in Friuli will star in two different contest: one for the Sauvignon (only producers from the Grave area) and the other one for the native variety Ribolla Gialla (producers from all over the region). Ribolla Gialla Festival opening times for wine tastings: Friday 5.30 pm-10pm; Saturday 4.30pm-10pm; Sunday from 9am on.
A series of meetings with wine&food personalities will also be open to the public: on Saturday with winemaker and oenologist Roberto Cipresso and Fabrizio Nonis, an expert butcher explaining his “etik-meat” concept; on Sunday Giannola Nonino will be the star of the day, talking about the world-renowned, award-winning grappa maker Nonino's family brand, based in Friuli. Plus, on Sunday, focus on Friuli Venezia Giulia's nature with two conferences.
And for winemakers, the 7th edition of the Fiera Agricola Viticoltura d'Eccellenza (Excellence Viticulture's Farming Fair) will showcase what's new and best as to plant nursery and vineyards, technical tools and equipments, plus providing a series of technical speeches (click here for the full schedule). Opening: Friday 4pm-9pm; Saturday 9am-9pm; Sunday 9am-9pm.
Plus during the three days' festival, Le Radici del Vino wine festival will provide visitors with kids' activities, live music, theatre performances, local crafting booths and also a non-competitive march, on Sunday, with a beautiful route among the local vineyards (infos here).
Many exhibitions will try and tell the story of Le Radici del Vino's territory and its renowned “barbatelle”. At the dedicated corner “Come nasce una barbatella” (how a rootstock is born), some of Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo's members will give a live demonstration of their daily job and how a graft actually works.
The multimedia area “Lo spazio della barbatella” will educate visitors on the historical side of the matter, telling through videos and poster boards how the lethal phylloxera first came to Europe in the late 19th century, how winegrowers coped with it by adopting the technique of grafting European vines on American rootstocks, and how such technique then spread and evolved into nowadays barbatelle.

3,056 hectares growing area, 1,200 hectares of nursery and 4,000 grafting combinations, 210 members and 1,300 employees. These are the key numbers to Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo nowadays, but it established its success over a century of hard work.
The first kernel of a vine nursery activity came to be in 1920, when the area surrounding Rauscedo was economically depressed and characterized by massive emigration flows towards other parts of Italy (but mainly abroad). At that time, the invasion of phylloxera in Europe made the future of viticulture dark and uncertain. A certain Mr. Sartori, an officer of the Royal Italian Army and former agronomist of the Itinerant Teaching Post of Agriculture in Padua, a few years earlier had helped some villagers to improve the technique of table grafting. The local farmers immediately learned and absorbed these new skills, in the hope of developing their livelihoods. Little by little, a small business began and later, around 1929-30, the idea that associated forms of business would solve many problems and increase productivity at profitable prices took hold. That’s how, thanks to the commitment of people such as Pietro D’Andrea, a passionate promoter of the nursery business, Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo was born in 1933. A company which has been able to transform a barren land into the number one district for production of grafted vine plants in the world: now VCR's distribution network provides customers on all strategic wine markets, from Spain to Greece, from France to the USA and Russia and worldwide.
A long story that eventually contributed to build our business partner Cantina Rauscedo's own network of local winemakers: in 1951 the whole town reunited under one cooperative meant to collect all the grapes harvested in the area. Now, in Cantina Rauscedo's wine cellars, every year rest the grape harvest's fruits coming from 1,200 hectares of vineyards belonging to its many associates.
All photos taken from Le Radici del Vino's official Facebook account