A brief non-cycling digression to talk about a friend of cycling like Vini Fantini and a great upcoming event like the Sanremo Festival. Take it as a small break, like... a sip of wine...

"I like making songs and drinking wine," says Francesco Guccini in L'Avvelenata, perhaps transgressing an unwritten rule for those about to perform, according to which it's better to quench thirst only with water before going on stage. But after, no: on the contrary, let the toast be welcome, especially if the performance went well! Double toast if the stage is the prestigious Teatro Ariston, home of the seventy-fifth Sanremo Festival, from February 11th to 15th. Here: Fantini will guarantee an excellent "prosit" to the best Italian vocal talents competing, the wine group that since its beginnings in 1994, starting from Ortona in Abruzzo, has gradually become a leader among exporting companies in Southern Italy, thanks to a carefully crafted policy focused on the highest quality and marketing research.

Because the news is this: don't change a winning bottle. And so Fantini returns to Sanremo, for the third consecutive year, proposing the same format, but in an even more exclusive version. Fantini will be the protagonist of the Hollywood Celebrities Lounge, a special location inside the Hotel Lolli Palace, just a few minutes' walk from the Teatro Ariston: a place of passage and meeting for singers, artists, and industry professionals, where the wine house will offer sips of its famous sparkling wines, namely Grand Cuvée white and rosé (the first, a blend of ancient Abruzzo native grape varieties, with a brilliant straw-yellow color, complex aroma with green citrus and floral notes, an elegant, mineral, fresh, and well-balanced taste. The rosé, from Aglianico del Vulture grapes, is friendly, with an intense and persistent fragrance, fruity with notes of ripe cherry, red currant, wild strawberry, and raspberry).

So if a great toast is guaranteed for everyone, a special tribute by Fantini awaits all 29 competing artists at the Hollywood Celebrities Lounge. The Abruzzo winery has created an even more special edition of its new wine jewel, Don Camillo. The Don Camillo – Gold Collection bottle is already an exclusive gem, because it is entirely shiny gold with a contrasting black label. But Fantini wanted to do more: a "Sanremo 2025" label has been designed, moreover personalized and destined for each of the competing singers, who when passing through the Hollywood Celebrities Lounge will be gifted a bottle engraved with their first and last name.

The Don Camillo – Gold Collection is an entirely Abruzzo blend, 85% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, with an intense ruby color. It has been aged for six months in barrique. The nose is fruity, with beautiful notes of jam and cherries in spirits, then spicy with licorice and a vegetable note, plus vanilla and withered flower aromas; a full-bodied wine, with a savory aftertaste, dry and warm, as well as soft with elegant tannins, very persistent and long in the mouth... The bottle is the image of the party itself: completely shiny gold with a black label in contrast, golden writings and a red seal to give the final touch. In other words: truly elegant.