About The Competition

The pleasure of discovery something unexpected and unpredictable.
The incredible discovery of something pleasant while searching for something else.
The luck that takes the form of discovering valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for or while looking for something else.

This is Serendipity.

The term is an everyday one in the English language nowadays but its origins are antique and charming. The first who used this term was Horace Walpole, an english writer that inserted it in a letter wrote on 28th January 1754.
 Walpole uses "serendipity" to describe the unexpected and pleasant discovery of a painting of Bianca Cappello by Vasari.
Walpole didn’t invent the term, he got inspired by a traditional Persian fairy tales called "The Three Princes of Serendip". The fairy tales tells the story of three young princes that found out by chance unexpected thing during their heroic adventures. 

More recently the term "serendipity" entered the scientific universe too. It is often applied to inventions made by chance rather than intent. We could say that in quite every discovery, like in any other aspect of our life, there's a casual element. That casual element is called Serendipity.

This was the inspiration for the birth of the 1st International Oenological Competition “Serendipity Wines”. The organizers aim at giving the chance to people to discover all those wines that are difficult to meet  in the everyday life.
Serendipity Wines  was born to foster the unexpected and pleasant meeting with special wines that move, touch and surprise.

More specifically, the categories of wines admitted to the 1st International Oenological Competition “Serendipity Wines” are dessert, fortified and aromatized wines. All these wines were called in many different ways in the last years: meditation wines, relaxation wines, conversation wines ... we definitely prefer to call them Serendipity Wines. Unexpected wines that positively surprise you and move you during and after the tasting.

The International Oenological Competition “Serendipity Wines” is promoted by the Association Road of Valcalepio Wine and Bergamo’s Flavors under the supervision of Organisation de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV) and with the technical partnership of Centro Studi Assaggiatori di Brescia.

The structure of “Serendipity Wines” is quite full and aims at describing not only the wines enrolled in the competition but the hosting region too, that is Bergamo Province. During the three days the schedule of "Serendipity Wines" is full of touristic tours, guided visits to both cultural and historical sites and wine cellars and wineries. The format of "Serendipity Wines" is quite a demanding one but it's aimed at resuming the variegated and multifaceted panorama of Bergamo region.  "Serendipity Wines" takes place on a three days time: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday is the Welcome Day with a touristic tour of the region during the afternoon and a Welcome Dinner at night.  The most important (and full) day is Friday. The day starts with the tasting committees summoned to judges the samples of the competition early in the morning. Friday afternoon is focused on visiting the region again and the day ends with the Gala Dinner.
On Saturday morning a technical-scientifical conference foreruns the proclamation of the awarded wines of "Serendipity Wines". During the afternoon those same awarded wines already tasted by the committees are available to the public for a tasting. The public tasting desk will be open on Sunday too, even after the official closure of “Serendipity Wines”.