President’s June newsletter message

Carissimi ICCNZ Members,

Since our last Opportunita’ issue, a lot has changed and we are enjoying catching up with members, attending tradeshows, wine tasting, product launches and our very popular Chamber’s Aperitivo where our members can meet and network for business opportunities.

In April we held our AGA2022 online, where His Excellency Ambasciatore Francesco Colagero, did the opening address to our members and emphasised that now is the time to restart. Reconnecting should be our main goal for the future months. With that in mind, we have an exciting event calendar planned for the second half of the year.

During the AGA2022, the new Council was also elected and I was pleased to be reconfirmed as President alongside Francesco Petrilli and Belfiore Bologna as Vice Presidents for Auckland and Christchurch respectively. Chamber’s Treasurer will be carried by Ricardo Dieana. Councillors are Alex Campbell, Dario Tommasi in Auckland and Flavia Spena in Nelson.

For the role of Secretary-General, Roberta Salamon will continue her duties of engaging with members and managing the Council’s agenda in achieving our ambitions and deliverables.

Last month saw several networking opportunities for our members, first up with the launch of the new Maserati supercar MC20, next, we had the first visit to New Zealand by Gambero Rosso International where 30 top Italian wineries and over 100 wines were tasted, creating distribution and importing opportunities. During this event, 5 Top Italian Restaurants were recognised for their amazing food and wine offering – congratulations to all involved.

Finally, we were privileged to hear first-hand from two winemakers who visited their NZ distributors with two events held, Chamber’s Aperitivo with our member JK14 Wines held at Cornelia and a Winemakers Dinner held at Puglia Restaurant organised by member Sapori D’Italia.

We look forward to continuing to support and highlight our members in the future months.

Cordiali Saluti,