It was March 21, 1987 when 39 mayors met in Siena to give life to the National Association of Wine Cities. They were the mayors and administrators of Alba, Asti, Barbaresco, Barile, Barolo, Buonconvento, Canale, Carema, Carmignano, Castagneto Carducci, Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Diano d’Alba, Dogliani, Dozza, Florence, Frascati, Gaiole in Chianti, Gattinara, Greve in Chianti, Jesi, La Morra, Marino, Melissa, Monforte, Montalcino, Montecarotto, Montefalco, Montescudaio, Neive, Nizza Monferrato, Ovada, Pramaggiore, Radda in Chianti, Rufina, San Severo, Siena, Treiso d ‘ Alba and Zagarolo. From north to south, small and large municipalities, cities already known in the enological firmament and cities still in shadow; therefore even then he was a faithfully representative sample of that rich mosaic that is the Italian vineyard.

The Cities of Wine still confirm today the goodness of that intuition, an idea born after the days of the methanol wine scandal that just the previous year, 1986, threw a socio-economic system based on wine into despair, causing even 19 victims and some permanent infirmities.

The “renaissance” of Italian wine ideally started from that negative event; a scandal that represented one of the main reasons that led that group of mayors to create the Città del Vino, realizing that the operation that had to be done – of a cultural nature, as well as marketing – was to make the relationship wine and territory, a relationship that still represents the uniqueness of Italian wine, its absolute originality.

In 1998, driven by the renewed interest in the quality of the territory intended as a resource for local communities, the Association produced the Town Plan of the Wine Cities which then established two important concepts that are still valid today: the vineyard is a fundamental part of the landscape and thus all the agricultural areas involved and its protection is strategic for the quality of the territory and therefore must be programmed in the administrative action; local development can only derive from a virtuous collaboration between public and private made of shared choices.

The objective of the Association is to help the Municipalities (with the direct involvement of Ci.Vin srl, its service company) to develop around wine, local and food and wine products, all those activities and projects that allow a better quality of life, sustainable development, more job opportunities. A concrete example is the commitment to the development of wine tourism, which combines the quality of the landscapes and well-preserved environments, the quality of the wine and typical products, the quality of the offer widespread in the area by the wineries and operators in the sector. Rural tourism in the Wine Cities is constantly growing. With over 3 billion euros of estimated turnover and about 5 million wine tourists (according to the annual reports of the Observatory on wine tourism), the enotourism is at the center of local growth policies. This is a form of experience tourism that favors sustainability, the encounter with the territory, and the direct knowledge of its protagonists: the winemakers and the people who work and live here.