Guided Tasting: The Wild World of Honey

$35/$30 Members Registration required.

Join us for a fun and delicious evening celebrating one of the world’s greatest pollinators: the honeybee! Guided by visiting Italian honey experts Gian Luigi Marcazzan and Giovanni Cillia along with their American colleague, Donna DeFalco, you will learn to taste honey like a sommelier, exploring the unique characteristics of different varieties via flavor notes, aroma, texture, and color.

Gian Luigi Marcazzan has been a researcher and technical manager focused on honey quality control through chemical and sensory analysis at the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA) in Bologna, Italy, for 27 years. He has also studied the composition of royal jelly and propolis to enhance the understanding of their properties and to characterize and control their quality. His passion for nature and bees led him to become a beekeeper in 1979, and he continues to breed bees for honey and swarm production.

In 1990, Gian Luigi participated in the first course on honey sensory analysis. This discipline was introduced in Italy by Michel Gonnet, who developed it in 1988. Since then, honey sensory analysis in Italy has grown significantly. Gian Luigi was part of the group that established the National Register of Experts in Honey Sensory Analysis, which is recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture as a unique entity worldwide. This work is central to Gian Luigi’s role in honey characterization, control, and promotion. Today, Gian Luigi serves as the President of the board of the Italian Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey

Donna DeFalco is a professional honey sommelier, one of only 5 in the US. and board member of the American Honey Tasting Society. She is the owner of Riverbend Honey and has been keeping bees with her husband for over 14 years.