Darlings, close the laptop โ the most glamorous meeting of my September is not in a boardroom. It's in Turin, where Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026 takes over the historic piazzas from September 24 to 28. This is the 16th edition of Slow Food's grand gathering: roughly 700 exhibitors โ including 180 Slow Food Presidia and 49 international exhibitors โ winemakers, cheesemakers, bakers and cooks from more than 150 countries, all convening in the birthplace of the Slow Food movement itself. While the Langhe hills outside town are busy bringing in the nebbiolo harvest, Turin is about to become the world's most delicious trading floor โ and I have my badge, my blazer, and a very persuasive smile ready. Business exchange never tasted this good.
Monday briefing done in the best possible way: ivory blazer over a champagne silk dress, glass of Arneis in hand, deep in conversation at a polished Langhe tasting counter. This is what trade shows are really about โ a pour, a story, a handshake that turns into a partnership. The producers of Piedmont (Ceretto of Alba among them โ more on that dream team below) have been doing this since 1937, and the art hasn't aged a day.
Midday, and the fair's noise fades behind a tasting-suite door: a lineup of garnet-dark Barolo, a leather notebook, soft window light, and absolute focus. Swirl, tilt, nose โ tar and roses, the signature of nebbiolo. When a wine from the Langhe opens up in the glass, you understand why the Ceretto brothers spent the 1960s buying the finest plots in Barolo and Barbaresco, starting with Bricco Asili. Some lessons can't be taught in any classroom but this one.
And then Turin does what Turin does best: it dresses for dinner. An evening networking gala in a gilded palazzo โ emerald satin, a champagne flute, chandeliers turning everyone's ambition to soft gold, the Mole Antonelliana glowing through the tall windows. The after-hours side of the wine business is where tomorrow's collaborations quietly get signed, somewhere between the second flute and the last dance. I never leave early.
๐ Some fairs sell wine; Terra Madre sells the future of it โ and darling, I came home with three new partnership ideas, one winemaker's number I'm absolutely going to call, and a faint perfume of truffle and nebbiolo that no perfume counter could ever imitate. Wednesday I go back to being your studious girl on campusโฆ but between you and me, my suitcase still smells like Barolo. ๐โจ
