Grande Passione

Casa
Italia
Verona
Grande Passione

Wine begins with pleasure. Exploring wine through culture, place, and human story. Tastings, courses, events, and conversations from Verona, Italy.

Founded by JC Viens.

21/08/2026

Heartfelt congratulations to Bill Weiran Liu of Shenzhen on becoming a Master of Wine!

I have known Weiran for many years as a serious, calm and deeply focused wine professional. It was a great pleasure to work alongside him representing Franciacorta—馥奇达—in China, and to present together at Wine to Asia in Shenzhen in 2024.

This achievement feels entirely deserved. Weiran brings intelligence, discipline and quiet purpose to everything he does. I am certain that his journey will continue to enrich wine culture in China through the many projects that lie ahead.

I look forward to working together again.

Well done, Weiran! A remarkable achievement. 🥂

18/08/2026

Keep developing your tasting skills!

From 14 September until the end of December, I will host a blind tasting practice every Monday evening at the Atelier del Vino in Verona.

We will taste six wines blind in two themed flights. I will guide the group through deduction, connections and judgement, using the WSET Level 4 tasting grid and my Style & Quality framework.

These evenings are intended for current and former WSET students at every level, sommeliers, MW students and anyone genuinely serious about maintaining and improving their tasting.

🗓️Every Monday, 19:00–21:00
📍Atelier del Vino: Via Mario Morgantini 2A, Verona

Maximum 12 participants

The first session will take place on Monday 14 September.

Send me a private message if you would like to join. Please share this with anyone who might enjoy practising with us.

JC

17/08/2026

WSET Level 2 in Verona on 9, 14, 15 October — three days to build a serious working knowledge of the world of wine.

I bring 20 years of WSET teaching experience to the classroom.

My perspective is international and practical, shaped by nearly three decades in Hong Kong and China, work in Canada and Italy, and a career in export and international business.

My approach connects the information, helping professionals understand why wines taste as they do and communicate that knowledge clearly across customers, colleagues and international markets.

The course takes place at Atelier del Vino, a few steps from Ponte Pietra in the centre of Verona.

WSET Level 2 is particularly valuable for professionals working in hospitality, wine sales, export, importing, distribution, retail and wine tourism who need a broad and reliable understanding of the major wines of the world.

We examine the principal grape varieties and regions while continually connecting climate, grape growing and winemaking with the style and quality of the wine in the glass.

That understanding gives you a stronger basis for selling, recommending, presenting and discussing wine with confidence.

WSET Level 2 Award in Wines

📅 9-14-15 October 2026 (09h00-17h30)
📍 Atelier del Vino, Via Morgantini 2A, Verona

For programme details, fees and registration:
✉️ [email protected]

17/08/2026

WSET Level 1 in Verona on 2 October — one focused day designed to give you a clear, practical foundation in wine.

I bring 20 years of WSET teaching experience to the classroom.

My perspective is international and practical, shaped by nearly three decades in Hong Kong and China, work in Canada and Italy, and a career in export and international business.

My approach helps people make sense of wine quickly: understanding what is in the glass, finding the right words to describe it and communicating with greater confidence.

The course takes place at Atelier del Vino, a few steps from Ponte Pietra in the centre of Verona.

WSET Level 1 is an excellent starting point for people beginning a career in hospitality, wine sales, export, retail or tourism, as well as professionals whose work increasingly brings them into contact with wine.

During the day, we build a practical understanding of the principal wine styles, important grape varieties, basic food and wine pairing, storage and service, and a systematic approach to tasting.

The objective is simple: to give you a foundation you can begin using immediately in your professional life.

WSET Level 1 Award in Wines

📅 2 October 2026 (09h00-17h30)
📍 Atelier del Vino, Via Morgantini 2A, Verona

For programme details, fees and registration:
✉️ [email protected]

17/08/2026

WSET Level 3 in Verona this October, SPREAD OVER 3 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS to give busy professionals time to study, taste, absorb and connect the material properly.

I bring 20 years of WSET teaching experience to the classroom.

My perspective is international and practical, shaped by nearly three decades in Hong Kong and China, work in Canada and Italy, and a career built in export and international business.

The result is a way of teaching that connects the facts, sharpens judgement and helps wine professionals communicate with greater clarity and confidence across markets.

The course takes place at Atelier del Vino, a few steps from Ponte Pietra in the centre of Verona.

WSET Level 3 is particularly relevant for professionals working in export, sales, hospitality, importing, distribution and wine communication who want a deeper understanding of why wines taste as they do, what determines style and quality, and how to explain those differences convincingly.

We work through the relationships between grape variety, climate, vineyard, winemaking, style and quality, always bringing the theory back to the glass and to the realities of the international wine trade.

WSET Level 3 Award in Wines

📅 5, 6, 12, 13 & 19 October 2026
🕘 09:00–17:30
📍 Atelier del Vino, Via Morgantini 2A, Verona

For programme details, fees and registration:
✉️ [email protected]

10/08/2026

Machu Picchu made me think again about Moray.

At Moray, I was fascinated by the idea of a place created to understand how different conditions produce different results.

Machu Picchu feels like the next step.

A great estate, built in an extraordinarily difficult place, where terraces, water, drainage, orientation and agriculture were all carefully managed.

The terraces could probably never have produced enough food to sustain everyone living there. Their importance seems to have gone further: they created productive land, protected the mountain, managed water and expressed control over a challenging landscape.

That is where the link with wine became interesting for me.

A great vineyard also begins with intention. Someone studies the slope, exposure, water, soil, altitude and climate, then makes hundreds of decisions that will eventually shape what grows there.

Moray feels like research.

Machu Picchu feels like application.

And both remind me that agriculture at its highest level is an act of understanding a place deeply enough to work with it.

06/08/2026

Wherever I travel in the world, I always make time for the local market.

To me, a market is a snapshot of a city. It tells you how people really live, what they eat, what they value and how society is changing.

Peru’s markets were fascinating.

In many places, I noticed a generational shift. More than a third of the traditional food stalls were closed, hinting at the growing role of supermarkets and changing lifestyles.

Yet the markets are adapting. In Lima and Cusco, many stalls now offer ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat dishes, while smaller towns remain deeply rooted in more traditional ways of shopping and eating.

Above all, I came away amazed by Peru’s extraordinary biodiversity. Every market seemed to reveal another corner of the country through its potatoes, maize, grains, herbs, fruit and countless ingredients I had never seen before.

Markets rarely appear on lists of must-see attractions.

For me, they are among the most revealing places in any country.

02/08/2026

Of all the places I visited in Peru, Moray stayed with me the longest. Even after the wonder of Machu Picchu, I found myself returning to this extraordinary place in my thoughts.

Moray is an Inca archaeological site made up of vast concentric terraces carved into the earth. Many archaeologists believe it was used to understand how crops responded to different growing conditions, with each terrace creating its own microclimate.

Standing there, I couldn’t help wondering whether the Incas had already sensed something that we still spend our lives trying to understand in wine.

That a place is never defined by soil alone.

Every terrace changes the air, the warmth, the wind, the light and the movement of water. A few metres can create a different world for a plant.

Perhaps this was more than remarkable engineering. Perhaps it was an intuition that every landscape is a living system, and that what grows there depends on the whole of it.

Today, we might describe this way of thinking as terroir.

I left Moray with even greater admiration for the intelligence, curiosity and powers of observation of those who came before us.

18/07/2026

A truffle reminds us that some of the richest life in a landscape remains hidden from view.

Wine tells us the same story.

What we taste in the glass begins with roots, then gathers the character of the soil, the hill, the air, the light, the season and the people who care for it.

It was a pleasure to share this reflection during the 2ª Fiera del Tartufo del Veneto in Ferrara di Monte Baldo, a community with the courage to build its future by valuing the richness of its own mountains.

Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation.

17/07/2026

Some places refuse to accept decline as their destiny.

Today, in Ferrara di Monte Baldo, I had the privilege of attending the opening of the second Fiera del Tartufo.

On the surface, it is a truffle fair. In reality, it is something much bigger.

It is a community deciding that its mountains deserve a future. That forests can create opportunity. That young people can find reasons to stay, or perhaps one day return.

Ferrara di Monte Baldo is one of the smallest municipality in the Veneto. Yet its ambition reaches far beyond its size. The vision is to build an ecosystem around the truffle that generates knowledge, work, tourism and pride. A model that could inspire mountain communities across Veneto.

Great ideas rarely begin in great cities. Sometimes they begin in the smallest places, with people who care deeply enough to imagine what others cannot yet see.

I hope this is one of those stories.

Congratulations for your dedication Sindaco Carla Giacomazzi!

RuralInnovation Territory Community GrandePassione

Indirizzo

Verona

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+393314116292

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http://www.grandepassione.com/about

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