Author: Jeremy Parzen

It seems like just yesterday when the first Taste of Italy was held in Houston 12 years ago. Now, in collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce of West Canada, Taste of Italy has established itself as an annual must-attend event for food and wine professionals, becoming the largest trade fair and festival devoted exclusively to Italian wine and food products across not only Texas but also Canada.

Over the years, the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce of Texas has expanded its reach with events like Taste of Italy Dallas @ Eataly and Taste of Italy in El Paso, in addition to countless food and wine tastings organized in cities across the state. Additionally, the IACC has partnered with Texas-based trade organizations, such as the Texas Restaurant Association, to promote awareness of Italian products and connect Texas buyers and opinion leaders with Italian companies and producers.

We couldn’t be more proud of our state’s community of food and wine professionals. We are honored to be part of such a vibrant and thriving marketplace.

Taste of Italy Houston 2025
March 2-3, 2025
We’ll be celebrating the 11th anniversary of the trade show in the city where it started. More than 300 attendees will taste authentic Italian products from 70+ producers. Several Masterclasses, a Seminar with a Panel of key buyers discussing the trends of the Texas market followed by a networking event, and – last but not least – the 5th Annual Houston Italian Wine Ambassador Competition will characterize the program of next year’s event.

Taste of Italy Vancouver 2025
March 5-6, 2025
We are excited to celebrate the 3rd Canadian anniversary of the event with a full day of B2B meetings, exclusive site tours, and a tasting event for media and trade professionals, culminating in a unique consumer experience. This must-attend event offers food and wine importers, distributors, and hospitality professionals in Western Canada the chance to discover and learn about authentic Italian products. Organized by the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada West, known for its strong reputation in facilitating bilateral trade, the event builds on a history of successful initiatives promoting Italian food and wine, including Flavours of Italy and True Italian Taste.

June 15, 2025 is the most convenient deadline to take advantage of the discounted and bundled fees for the Fall events.
Afterward, the required investment will increase as shown in the table below.

FALL ROAD SHOW 2025: DALLAS – EL PASO – CALGARY (October 2-3, 2025)
Taste of Italy Dallas 2025
@ Eataly
October 8, 2025
For the fourth year, 150+ industry professionals will attend the trade show hosted by the local store of Eataly, where 30+ Italian food and beverage producers will be showcasing their products in the exclusive location of  Terra Ristorante at Eataly Dallas. A few Masterclasses will also be part of the program.

Taste of Italy El Paso 2025
October 10, 2025
The third year of the trade show in this town. After the great success of the 2023 event held at Park Tavern in El Paso, we’ll go back West again in conjuncyion with the El Paso WineFest for walk-around tasting for industry professionals and dedicated Masterclasses.

Why an Italian food or beverage producer should exhibit at Taste of Italy, then?

• Meet buyers from the major grocery and liquor store chains in Texas
• Meet buyers from independent and restaurant chains
• Meet importers, distributors, chefs, sommeliers, specialized media
• Attendees will come from Texas and other major states

On the heels of the success of Taste of Italy Dallas, held last October, we are pleased to announce that Taste of Italy will return to the city on November 9-10, 2023 (11 a.m. – 4 p.m.). Are you a professional in the Food or Wine industry? Click HERE to register!

The IACC Texas is also pleased to announce the title for this year’s Taste of Italy Dallas at Eataly’s featured seminar: “Fit for a Pope: The wines of Rome’s volcanic hills.”

Wines grown in the volcanic soils in the farmland and hills that surround the capital have been favorites of Popes for centuries.

But they have garnered scarce attention in the U.S. where wine professionals are just beginning to appreciate their depth, nuance, and longevity.

For our Taste of Italy Dallas at Eataly wine event this year, we’ll feature products by Roman wineries Parvusager and Principe Pallavicini, two leading producers:

Parvus Ager, Roma DOC Bianco – Eterna, 2022
Principe Pallavicini, Frascati, 2022
Principe Pallavicini, Malvasia Puntinata, 2022
Parvus Ager, Roma DOC Rosso – Eterna, 2022
Principe Pallavicini, Syrah, 2021
Principe Pallavicini, Cesanese, 2022

We hope you can join us for what is sure to be an extraordinary tasting. Wine writer and wine educator, Jeremy Parzen, will be on hand to guide us through the wines.

Wines Fit for a Pope!
Thursday, November 9
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Eataly Dallas
Google map

Click here to register and to purchase your ticket ($15, light bites will be offered), seats are very limited; the registration to the Seminar will automatically give you access to the walk-around tasting, taking place right outside the main entrance of Eataly Dallas.

The list of producers that will be at Taste of Italy Dallas keeps growing. Currently, the following ones have already confirmed their participation:

FOOD PRODUCERS :

Cerreto Bio (Emilia Romagna)
Ferrarini Salumi (Emilia Romagna)
Grissin Bon (Emilia Romagna)
Harvest Burger (Emilia Romagna)
Industrie Montali (Emilia Romagna)
Italian Coffee for Espresso Lovers (Veneto)
Molitoria Denti (Emilia Romagna)
Montanari & Gruzza (Emilia Romagna)
Pastificio Piccinini (Emilia Romagna)
PreGel (Emilia Romagna)
Reire (Emilia Romagna)
Vero Traditional Italian Food (Multiple Regions)

WINE PRODUCERS :

Citra (Abruzzo)
Torri Cantine (Abruzzo)
Tenuta Venturini Baldini (Emilia Romagna)
Tenute Villanova (Friuli)
Tenuta del Morer (Friuli)
Parvus Ager (Lazio)
Principe Pallavicini (Lazio)
Cantina di Casteggio (Lombardy)
Gruppo I Vinai (Multiple Regions)
Cascina Baràc (Piedmont)
Vini Bosco (Puglia)
Jerzu Antichi Poderi (Sardinia)
Madaudo (Sicily)
Le Farnete (Tuscany)
Solaria – Cencioni Patrizia (Tuscany)
Tenuta Cantagallo (Tuscany)
Valvirginio (Tuscany)
Viticoltori Senesi Aretini (Tuscany)
Villa Bucher (Umbria)
Duca della Crogna – Trasimeno (Umbria)
Balan (Veneto)
Domini Veneti (Veneto)
Vinum Italy (Veneto)

Check back soon for more participating exhibitors.

And as last year, it will be held at Eataly, one of the “anchor tenant” retailers and restaurants at the landmark North Park Center luxury shopping mall.

There couldn’t be a better backdrop for this year’s event. As the New York Times reported earlier this year, not only is Dallas the fastest growing city in the U.S. It is also being hailed as America’s “new Dubai” (“For Diners With Deep Pockets, Dallas Is the New Dubai,” May 2023).

“The area is home to 92,300 millionaires and 18 billionaires,” write the editors of the Times, “according to a 2022 report from Henley & Partners, a London investment firm, that ranked Dallas the 18th wealthiest city in the world. Several Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T and American Airlines, are headquartered in the area.”

“The Dallas-Fort Worth area has… about 15,000 places to eat. In 2022, the average Dallas household spent a larger share of its income on dining out than those in New York, Miami or San Francisco, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

“Some demographers predict that by the 2030s, Dallas — now the largest metropolis in Texas — could replace Chicago as the third-largest metro area in the nation.”

Please contact IACC deputy director Maurizio Gamberucci to learn more about exhibitor opportunities.

Click here to read more about all of the IACC’s upcoming events in Texas.

Image via the Eataly Dallas Facebook.

The IACC Texas is thrilled to announce that registration is now open for Taste of Italy El Paso on October 12 at Park Tavern restaurant and events space (above)!

Click here to register for the walk-around tasting. See below for a list of participating wineries.

We have a great lineup of speakers for the noon 12 p.m. seminar: Marcos Pena, an Italian wine specialist for leading wine retailer Spec’s, with more than 20 years of experience; Angelo Ferrari, owner of a Texas-based importer of fine Italian wines, Beviamo International; and Jeremy Parzen, author of the popular blog DoBianchi.com and an expert on the wines of Italy.

The class is currently full. Click HERE to enter the WAITLIST. This registration will guarantee access to the Walk-Around tasting at 1 p.m..

Jeremy will be moderating the panel.

The theme of the seminar will be “Applications for Italian Wines beyond the Traditional Italian Restaurant.”

For the occasion, the panelists will be discussing wines from Tuscany, Piedmont, Veneto, Sardinia, Abruzzo, and Sicily.

We look forward to seeing you in El Paso!

Here’s the complete lineup of wineries participating in the walk-around tasting:

Citra (Abruzzo)
La Guardiense (Campania)
Cantine Campana (Emilia Romagna)
Tenute Villanova (Friuli)
Parvus Ager (Lazio)
Principe Pallavicini (Lazio)
Cantine Silvestri 1929 (Lazio)
La Montina (Lombardy)
Cantina di Casteggio (Lombardy)
Cascina Baràc (Piedmont)
Scrimaglio (Piedmont)
Vini Bosco (Puglia)
Jerzu Antichi Poderi (Sardinia)
Cantine di Oliena (Sardinia)
Vini Tola (Sicily)
Zumbo (Sicily)
Tenuta Cantagallo (Tuscany)
Le Farnete (Tuscany)
Valvirginio (Tuscany)
Fattoria Svetoni (Tuscany)
Vindare (Tuscany)
Duca della Crogna – Trasimeno (Umbria)
Villa Bucher (Umbria)
Bresolin (Veneto)
Domini Veneti (Veneto)

Image via the Park Tavern Facebook.

On Thursday of last week, during the 32nd gathering of the Worldwide Convention of Italian Chambers of Commerce Abroad in the city of Colli del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno Province), the president of the Marche Chamber of Commerce, Gino Sabatini, announced the signing of a historic agreement between the Marche Chamber office and the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce in Houston, which covers Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

The memorandum of understanding outlining the two chambers’ partnership was signed by Marco Bruschini (above, left), director of ATIM, Marche’s Tourism and International Relations Association, and Brando Ballerini (above, right), president of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce (IACC Houston).

The agreement lays the groundwork for what will be a three-year partnership between the IACC Houston and the ATIM to promote products and businesses from Marche in the food and wine, tourism, and technology sectors.

The conference, which also included the Meeting of Directors of Italy’s Chambers of Commerce Abroad, was attended by 170 delegates from chamber offices across the world. Of the 84 chamber offices around the globe, 80 were present for the event, representing offices in 60 countries. Matteo Zoppas, president of the Italian Trade Commission; Valentino Valentini, deputy director of the Italian Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (MIMIT); and Raffaele Fitto, Minister for Foreign Affairs, the South, and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, were also in attendance for the momentous occasion.

“While the volume and value of Italian exports increased in 2022, the number of companies exporting their goods abroad, and especially small businesses, dropped by 4.3 percent between 2016 and 2019,” noted Andrea Prete, president of Italy’s National Union of Chambers during his address.

“If we want to help Italian companies grow,” added Mario Pozza, president of the Association of Chambers Abroad, “we need to make an honest assessment” of the current business climate “and rethink solutions for the problems were are facing.”

This historic new agreement between the Region of Marche and the IACC in Houston will undoubtedly be a boost to Marche-based businesses who wish to tap into the Texas marketplace, one of the fastest growing states in the U.S. thanks to the state’s business-friendly and globally inclined policies.