A Wine Induced Story

Some Italian winemakers have an unusual side dish for their latest blends.

In an effort to re-new interest in reading, the wine maker Santa Margherita is kicking off the sixth year of a contest they launched with an Italian book store. It allows amateur writers to submit a short story on a wine related subject. The winners will then see their stories published in the form of tiny booklets. Those booklets will be attached to the back of Santa Margherita’s best-selling bottles.

The winery’s chief executive says this is the perfect marriage of wine and literature. He says people in Italy read very little and they will be satisfied if they manage to stimulate reading with this contest. According to an Italian statistics agency fewer than forty seven percent of Italians read one book not related to work every year. And one family in ten does not even own a single book.

Santa Margherita says they get between 800 to 1,000 entries per year. Organizers are now thinking about extending the contest to markets in Europe, here in the u-s and Canada. There’s nothing wrong with a little education, especially if it comes in a wine glass.