Milano Wine Week 2026: nine days to drink the city (not the trade fair)

Milan has a curious relationship with wine: it drinks a great deal of it, sells even more, yet produces almost none. The nearest vineyards lie in the Oltrepò, in Franciacorta, in Valtellina, an hour or two away by car. And yet for nine days, from 17 to 25 October, the city will behave as though wine were its own invention. This is Milano Wine Week, now in its ninth edition, and the interesting question is not how much will be drunk, but where.

A fair that does not want to be a fair

The idea was born in 2017 with Federico Gordini, today the event’s president, and took shape with the first edition in the autumn of 2018. The reasoning was simple and a little provocative: why herd the public into an exhibition hall, badge round the neck and tasting glass dangling from the chest, when a city like Milan already has hundreds of wine shops, restaurants, hotels and courtyards ready to serve as a stage?

So Wine Week became a city-wide event. In past editions its most recognisable format was the wine districts: entire neighbourhoods turned into small embassies for a single appellation. In 2021, for instance, Brera spoke Franciacorta, Porta Romana Lugana, the Navigli Chianti, the Galleria Brunello di Montalcino. A clever way, it must be said, of introducing the Oltrepò Pavese to people who live around Via Plinio and have never set foot there.

This year the programme published so far does not revive the districts in their classic form: the Savona-Tortona District is among the areas involved, but the heart of the edition has moved elsewhere. Anyone looking for the old neighbourhood-by-consortium map would do well to check the updated calendar before heading out.

The 2026 theme: hospitality

If every edition has a watchword, 2026’s is “wine hospitality”. In other words, everything that happens between the moment a winery opens its gate and the moment the visitor drives off with a heavier boot. Wine tourism in Italy has grown considerably, but the quality of the welcome remains patchy: there are wineries offering textbook visits and others where you are received like a late delivery driver.

Wine Week attempts to bring some order with three new features. On 17 October the Wine Hospitality Forum and its awards get under way, both in their first edition, together with a Showcase that will bring together 50 award-winning wineries and is billed as open to all. Alongside it, a project entitled “Il vino cambia forma” (“Wine changes shape”), part exhibition, part talks and meetings, considers design and packaging: a less frivolous subject than it sounds, at a time when cans, alternative formats and lighter bottles are making their way onto shelves in Italy too. Among the partners for the educational side is ALMA, the international school of Italian cuisine.

According to previews in the trade press, the guest region from abroad will be Brda, in Slovenia, the hillside that carries on seamlessly from the Collio around Gorizia across the border: the same marls, the same Ribolla Gialla, a different language. It is a detail we found in only one source, and one worth checking against the official programme.

What to expect, day by day

The events announced number more than a hundred in all, scattered across restaurants, wine bars, hotels, museums and universities. There are two fixed hubs: the Milan Marriott Hotel for trade events and the Enoteca MWW at the Dazi by the Arco della Pace, which serves as the meeting point with the public throughout the week.

Things kick off on Saturday 17 October with a free opening toast at CityLife, accompanied by live music, and with One Wine Night at the Dazi. Sunday 18 belongs to Wine List Italia, devoted to wine lists and sommellerie, with a grand tasting involving around a hundred sommeliers. Monday 19 is Business Day: B2B tastings, the MWW Awards for the best wine lists and the first Stati Generali della Sala Italiana, a solemn title for a very concrete problem, namely the shortage of qualified front-of-house staff. On the 20th the talk turns to figures with a session on market data, and on the 23rd the Università degli Studi di Milano hosts a meeting on women in wine. It all closes on Sunday 25 with a party at the Enoteca MWW.

Other venues involved include BASE Milano and the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro. Tickets for paid events go through Dice; as for prices, only what is written there counts, because they vary from event to event.

Tips for those going (and for those staying on the sofa)

For those going, the golden rule of any city-wide event: pick two or three appointments a day, not ten. Milan in October is lovely to cross on foot, but between CityLife, the Arco della Pace and Tortona the distances make themselves felt, especially after the third glass. Build the evening around a single neighbourhood and book where necessary: the smaller events often have limited places. And eating something substantial before going out is not grandmotherly advice, it is strategy.

Those staying at home can follow the week with the right glass. On the 17th, for the opening toast, a Lombard metodo classico is almost a civic duty: Franciacorta or Oltrepò Pavese, with the Oltrepò’s Pinot Nero making itself heard again in recent years. On the 19th, the day devoted to front of house, it is the moment for a proper restaurant wine, perhaps a Nebbiolo from Valtellina, which across Sassella, Grumello and Inferno shows just how different it is from its Piedmontese cousin. On the 25th, to close, a Ribolla Gialla from the Collio or from Brda, in homage to the guest from across the border and as a reminder that appellations stop at the frontier, but the hills do not.

Our view

Milano Wine Week is not Vinitaly and has no wish to be, and thank goodness for that. Its merit lies in having understood that wine in the city is told not through stands but through places, and that a young public will take to a Lugana more willingly in a Porta Romana courtyard than in an exhibition hall. The risk, visible in a programme ever more crowded with forums, awards and stati generali, is that the trade side ends up overshadowing the civic one. The hospitality theme is right and urgent: we only hope that, between one panel and the next, there is still time for the most hospitable thing of all, which is pouring a drink for whoever happens to pass by.

Practical information

• Dates: 17 to 25 October 2026 (ninth edition)
• Location: Milan, events spread across the city; main hubs at the Milan Marriott Hotel (trade programme, Business Day on 19 October) and the Enoteca MWW at the Dazi by the Arco della Pace (public)
• Opening: free opening toast at CityLife, Saturday 17 October
• Tickets: for paid events, via Dice; prices vary by event
• Official website: milanowineweek.com

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