Four to six times annually, the Grand Jury Européen meets, and, under strict legal watch, blind tastes wines by theme. As a highly transparent and non-biased forum for scoring wines, the GJE has quickly become a global reference point for wine scores. Mauss’ approach has also allowed many connoisseurs to get to know the fine wines of Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Hungary.

Now a wine consultant and event manager, François Mauss created, in 2009, the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium at the Villa d’Este on Lake Como (Italy). The VDEWS is a global think-tank where actors from all different sectors of the global wine industry come together to discuss, debate and defend the common historical, social, political, economic and cultural interests of the world of fine wine.

Having launched to great success in 2009, the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium is now considered the global meeting place for key players of the wine industry.

It has become a bit of a tradition, and particularly in the world of journalism, to make annual awards that consecrate personalities in various fields. Of course, at the top of the ladder, we have the prestigious Nobel prizes. But there are also more modest « men or women of the year » prizes bestowed by trade magazines or local newspapers.

In the wine world, such annual awards have become a regular feature. One can think of the Wine Spectator, Decanter, la Revue du Vin de France, Falstaff and other specialized magazines.

The Villa d’Este Wine Symposium would like to go a step further, and also take a step aside. So we are going to award, each year, a prize to a man or woman who, of course, has been acknowledged around the world, and for many years, for the quality of his or her wines, but, who, above all, is a person of exceptional charisma and has made a major contribution to the world of wine. A sort of « Nobel of wine », with all due respect to this illustrious institution.

Great and enterprising producers who have been successful in the wine business existe in all wine countries. In this room alone, several producers fall into this category, where commercial success goes hand in hand with the highest quality.

Some of those who inherit famous estates also succeed in honouring the land that they occupy until the next genration takes its turn. We recognise them too. But we needed something more.

We wanted a person who not only has succeeded in nurturing a rare level of harmony between nature and man over a long period of time, but where that harmony, that symbiosis, approches perfection.

This is a form of Holy Grail sought by all the best vignerons. It can only be attained by hard work, day by day, and year by year. But it also implies the vital obligation for the producer to pass on his knowledge and experience, together with his beliefs, to the next generation.

This is not a matter of pride and vanity. They must take the back seat. We are talking about questioning and hard graft: trying, year after year, to understand what makes a great wine. And then handing down this knowledge to future generations.

Such men and women rarely make the front pages of wine magazines, even if their wines are always highly praised. Their names are known to true wine-lovers, even if they tend to flee the limelight. In fact they tend to fly beneath the radar most of the time.

These are the people that we want to honour, each year, during the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium.

Maison LALIQUE and VILLA D’ESTE are associated in this Prize of Excellence which will be awarded each year during the VDEWS days at the Villa d’Este. We are very grateful to both of them.

Lalique Award 2012 : Helmut DONNHOFF (Germany)

Lalique Award 2013 : Istvan SZEPSY (Hungary)

Lalique Award 2015 : Marie-Thérèse CHAPPAZ (Switzerland)

For the sixth edition of VDEWS, Ocelle S.A created a Fund intended to grant every two years, in alternance with the Lalique Award ” The Lords of the Wine “, a scholarship/grant for a maximum 30-year-old young person having a project on wine. He will present the result of his study during the following edition of the VDEWS. This Fund will be fed by auctions of magnums offered by the Participants during gala evening.

Vinopremio Scholarship 2014 : William METZ (USA)

Project :

« UAV to analyze and understand what Terroir means»

Letter from our Godfathers

Dear François,

It has come to our attention that you plan to organize the first edition of The World Wine Symposium (“Davos of Wine”) this year at the Villa d’Este on Lake Como in Italy. With this letter we confirm our great and true interest in this event.

Infused with centuries of culture and history, the wine industry is one that is constantly changing. It stands today before a great challenge.

The globalization of the wine trade, the opening of new markets and the challenges ahead are essential subjects that will affect us all. Your project embraces these fundamental issues and has the vision of turning challenges and potential difficulties into opportunities and solutions; creating a fundamental dynamic that will benefit the wine industry as a whole. These are the reasons why we hereby give you our full support.

The fact that this great event takes place in Italy, in the heart of “old” Europe, has great meaning and symbolic value. By gathering the world’s top experts and key players of the trade at the Villa d’Este you effectively create a place where past, present and future are combined. We will aim to reach out to both tradition and innovation in order to create a new code of conduct for the global wine trade. A global plan to help us face the future strengthened and prepared.

We want to emphasize that the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium (VDEWS), will, for the first time in the history, provide an occasion for the most important producers, deciders and prescribers to meet with the goal of sharing their knowledge and passion for wine. To join forces in the fight for perfection, quality and professionalism.

We wish you great success with this magnificent project. May the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium be the yearly point of reference for world of fine wine !

His interpretations have been critiqued by leading international press:

…L’aurait-on rêvé qu’on n’aurait jamais imaginé entendre un jour un pianiste aussi proche d’Alfred Cortot par l’esprit, la sonorité…. Et puis, Baglini a une sonorité profonde, à la fois lumineuse et ronde, une dynamique à couper le souffle, une culture du son rarissime à notre époque, une vraie présence en scène. Alain Lompech (Le Monde)
…Un pianiste vrai, un musicien authentique, un nom à retenir… Pierre Petit (Le Figaro)
… BAGLINI : Piano with Emotion. Cecilia Porter (Washington Post).
…. One of the most significant interpreters of Chopin in the last ten or twelve years…
Robert Vroon ( American Record Guide ).

His discography includes all of the Chopin Studies – recorded for Phoenix Classics on either a modern piano or two nineteenth century pianofortes – and Bach’s complete works for piano – Busoni, published by Tudor.

An avid chamber musician, he dedicates much of his time to new partnerships and musical literature, paying particular attention to contemporary music. In November 2006, Azio Corghi wrote a new piece for cello and piano in which he is, along with his regular partner, Silvia Chiesa, the dedicatee. D’ après cinq chansons d’élite.

In December 2007, he was invited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Salle Gaveau in Paris with other renowned artists such as Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire and Jean Marc Luisada.

In May 2008, he was invited by the famous musicologist Alain Duault onto the television show “Toute la Musique qu’ ils aiment“. He also plays regularly in live broadcasts and public concerts for RADIO Tre Rai, France Musique, NHK Television, etc….

In March 2009, he published, for DECCA – Italy, the transcription of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 by Franz Liszt, a CD that was followed by the recording of 12 of Liszt’s transcendental studies (also for Decca).
In 2011, Decca releases Dreams, a third CD dedicated to Franz Liszt, followed by the publication of a Brahms – Schubert CD with Silvia Chiesa.
On February 19, 2010 he was the soloist of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra of Azio Corghi “Filigrane Bachiane,” of which he was also the dedicatee, in Turin with the National Orchestra of the Rai and conducted by Arturo Tamayo.

He is often invited to be a member of the jury at leading international competitions such as Vianna da Motta in Lisbon, Jacques Klein in Rio de Janeiro and Epinal.

In 2005, he founded an Art and Multimedia Festival, the Amiata Piano Festival and Dyonisus Festival, held every year in the extraordinary wine cellars of Collemassari at Poggi del Sasso (Cinigiano), Grosseto.
Since January 2011, he is also the artistic director of concerts at Palazzo Reale in Pisa, of the artistic encounters at Fazioli (showroom in Milan) and of the new Festival Les Musiques de Montcaud.

He also takes part in festivals abroad, such as Lockenhaus (Austria), Ravinia (Usa), Sintra (Portugal), Davos (Switzerland), and has performed as a soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Sinfonia Varsovia, Québec Symphony, Mexico Philharmonic, NHK Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, Belgrade Radio Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, Nice Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, Orchestre d’Auvergne, Orchestre Français des Jeunes, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Toulon, Baltic Chamber Orchestra, Novossibirsk Chamber Orchestra, European Camerata, the chamber orchestra of La Scala de Milan, the Yokohama Sinfonietta, the Kanazawa Orchestral Ensemble, the Sendai Strings Ensemble, Caen Symphony orchestra, Orchestre Pasdeloup, under conductors Yuri Bashmet, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Fabien Gabel, Michael Francis, Kazuki Yamada, Dennis Russell Davies, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Mishiyoshi Inoue, Jacques Mercier, Faycal Karoui, Vahan Mardirossian, Stanislas Lefort, Mark Foster, Arie Van Beek and others.

Nicolas Dautricourt, who is appreciated for his « sensitivity and passionate manner », is particularly fond of chamber music, which he plays with Yuri Bashmet, Léon Fleisher, Augustin Dumay, Gérard Caussé, Michel Dalberto, Gary Hoffman, Anne Gastinel, Giovanni Bellucci, Dana Ciocarlie, Bertrand Chamayou, the Psophos and Parisii Quartets, the Wanderer Trio.
Keenly interested in jazz, he works regularly with top players such as Jean-Marie Ecay, Nelson Veras, Jean-Philippe Viret, Jean-Marc Jafet, Antoine Hervé, Dominique Fillon, Pascal Schumacher, and the accordionist Richard Galliano as a member of the Tangaria Quartet the Piazzolla Forever project, in such festivals as Jazz à Vienne, Marciac, Sud-Tyroler Jazz Festival, San Javier, Copenhagen, Athens…

Finalist and prize-winner of numerous international violin competitions, such as the Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznan, the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade, the Rodolfo Lipizer in Gorizia and the Gian-Battista Viotti in Vercelli Competitions, he has studied with Philip Hirschhorn, Miriam Fried, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Gérard Poulet and Jean Mouillère among others, and became in 2007 artistic director of « Les Moments Musicaux de Gerberoy».

Nicolas Dautricourt plays a magnificent instrument by Antonio Stradivarius (Cremona, 1713), the “Château Fombrauge”, on a generous loan from Mister Bernard Magrez.

Both CDs received rave reviews. The Milanese cellist has also provided an important contribution to her instrument’s contemporary repertoire. The Concerto per violoncello e orchestra by Matteo D’Amico is dedicated to her, and she also gave the Italian premiere of works by Gil Shohat, Nicola Campogrande, Aldo Clementi, Michele Dall’Ongaro, Peter Maxwell Davies and Giovanni Sollima. In 2015 in Pordenone, Teatro Verdi,  she gave the international premiere of …tra la Carne e il Cielo, tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini, that Azio Corghi dedicated to her.. As a soloist she has recorded live for television and radio, on Rai Radio3, Rai Sat, France Musique and France 3.

Since 2005 she has played in a duo with pianist Maurizio Baglini on international stages such as the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Oriental Art Center in Shanghai and the Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro. The Suite for violoncello e pianoforte by Azio Corghi and a Sonata by Gianluca Cascioli are both dedicated to the duo. Their discography also includes the whole cello and piano works by Saint-Saëns (“Amadeus”), and Brahms and Schubert: Cello Sonatas (Decca).  Their new CD will be released in the next months and will include the complete works for cello and piano by Rachmaninov (Decca).

She is artist in residence for the international chamber music “Amiata Piano Festival” and she teaches at the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “Monteverdi” in Cremona.

She plays a cello by Giovanni Grancino from 1697.