Professor Attilio Scienza, host of the Italian Wine Podcast show “Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza”, has been awarded Vinitaly’s highly prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at a formal inauguration ceremony in Verona on Sunday 12 April 2026. Launched in 2025, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes figures who have made a fundamental contribution to the Italian wine sector.
VERONA, Italy, April 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Professor Attilio Scienza is a prominent academic, geneticist, and one of the world’s leading experts in viticulture and oenology. A full professor at the University of Milan (now retired), he has led important research on the physiology, genetics, and agricultural techniques of the grapevine, and has authored over 350 scientific publications. Alongside Stevie Kim, he has hosted the popular “Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza” podcast show in which he responds to questions from the international wine community, since 2017. He is also the Chief Scientist of the Vinitaly International Academy which trains and certifies a global network of Italian Wine Ambassadors.
Professor Scienza remains extremely active in the wine community and is a highly sought after speaker and oenological consultant. At this year’s Vinitaly, he delivered advanced seminars on the subjects of Italy’s autochthonous vines, Sangiovese and the concept of vocation, and the complex inter-relationship between woodlands and vineyards. He also found time to launch his latest book, An Italian Wine Pilgrimage, another successful collaboration with Italian wine evangelist Stevie Kim.
Translation of Professor Attilio Scienza’s acceptance speech (delivered in Italian): “Vinitaly should have the courage to become not just an annual showcase, but also a think tank. It should produce a manifesto. A manifesto that clearly states the current critical issues, the sector’s priorities, and proposals to address them. A cultural and political platform, a meeting point for producers, consumers, institutions, research, and regions. European wine can defend itself if it can reposition itself within a broader narrative, capable of speaking not only to producers but to society, one that rethinks wine as one of the most significant forms of Mediterranean and European culture, one that has allowed it to become an extraordinary “tool” for socialization. The annual meeting at Vinitaly should include French, Spanish, and Greek partner institutions. Perhaps it’s just a dream, but one day I hope it will even be possible for Italy and France to come together with the common purpose of promoting their wine together.”
Stevie Kim, Professor Scienza’s co-host on the Italian Wine Podcast, said “I am absolutely delighted that Vinitaly has recognized the truly remarkable contribution of my friend and mentor, Professor Attilio Scienza. Not only is he the world’s leading academic expert on Italian wine, with a depth and breadth of knowledge that is mind blowing, he is also unfailingly generous with his time and expertise, sharing his passion and knowledge of Italian wine and his gift for storytelling with the Italian Wine Podcast’s international audience of listeners and the global community of students of the Vinitaly International Academy. We are truly blessed to have him.”
The motivation accompanying Professor Scienza’s Lifetime Achievement Award reads: “A central figure in the history of Italian wine, an internationally renowned academic, vine geneticist, agronomist, and narrator of the anthropology of wine, Attilio Scienza has opened new horizons in the study and understanding of wine as an expression of culture and in education, thereby defining key concepts such as terroir, identity, and tradition. As Chief Scientist of the Vinitaly International Academy since 2018, he continues to inspire producers, students and enthusiasts by translating scientific knowledge into narratives that ennoble Italian winegrowing and strengthen the positioning of Italian wine in the global scientific and cultural panorama, thereby opening new perspectives on the link between science, culture and wine storytelling“.
About the Italian Wine Podcast: Cin Cin with Italian Wine People! launched in 2017 as a project dedicated exclusively to the Italian wine world. The program uncovers the unique world of Italian wine in conversation with some of its key protagonists. Under the umbrella brand of Mamma Jumbo Shrimp, Italian Wine Podcast aims to inform, educate, and entertain listeners with content for wine professionals and casual listeners alike. The only daily wine podcast in the world, content includes wine business, food & travel, diversity and inclusion, wine producers, science, and marketing and communication. Italian Wine Podcast is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, XimalayaFM (for China), and on the official website. It now boasts over 2,600 recorded episodes with a growing online following of over 8 million listens. Donations to the show are welcomed and help fund a portion of the show’s equipment, production, and publication costs. To advertise on the show, please request a prospectus and/or customized advertising plan from info@italianwinepodcast.com. Cin Cin!
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