Puntarella Rossa Wine Club’s Initiative to Support Wine Bars in Rome, Italy

Posted by Rowena Dumlao Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 4/21/2020

Puntarella Rossa Wine Club’s Initiative to Support Wine Bars in Rome, Italy

As the Covid-19 silently destroys everything in its path, the economic situation in Italy is grossly affected as well. While the whole country is in lockdown the past weeks and everyone is confined indoors, bright ideas come about on how to help jump-start the paralyzed remunerative activities when the doors finally open and the businesses have to start anew. One particular angle was conceptualized by Puntarella Rossa, an Italian online guide of restaurants and events in Italy pointed towards the enogastronomic sector of Rome.

At this moment, the catering sector of the country is only allowed to conduct home deliveries which greatly limits the possibility for the restaurants to fully function like in the previous months. The morale is not very high and with this discouraging circumstances, the initiative is to give a helping hand to the wine bars in the capital most especially to rekindle the strength to stand up again.

Puntarella Rossa is launching in September 2020 the Puntarella Rossa Wine Club and the first project that the club is promoting is the Calice Sospeso. It is a solidarity initiative that was conceived together with the best wine bars in Rome along with the participation of Intersos, a non-profit humanitarian and non-governmental organization that's in the front line in Rome in helping the ones in economic difficulty and the homeless.  

Livia Belardelli, a wine expert and master sommelier of Puntarella Rossa explains the meaning of the idea. "We wanted to create a circuit of the Roman wine places, enoteche wine bars that obviously like everything else are closed at the moment and we have given the opportunity and the possibility for customers to be able to buy a glass, a bottle, or more. It evolved from the idea of the Neapolitan caffè sospeso (suspended coffee)."

Caffè sospeso (suspended coffee) is a gesture of solidarity and generosity in the Neapolitan tradition. Those who drink coffee in a bar pays for another cup of coffee for anyone who passes by in need of a cup but cannot pay.

How does Calice Sospeso work?

Send an email to puntarellarossawineclub@gmail.com and state your intention to buy a glass or bottle of wine in advance in one of the wine bar partners of the project. You will then receive a response from there giving details and indicating how you can pay. This credit will then be used on the day you go there. To this credit, the wine bar will add a free bonus of €5 on the first day of its reopening.

The options are as follows:

€10 for a consumption of a glass of wine (Calice Sospeso)
 €25 for a consumption of a bottle of wine (Bottiglia Sospesa)
 €26 and above for a consumption that you can decide on (La Cantina Sospesa)

The wine bar partners of Calice Sospeso in Rome are:

Al Vino al Vino - via dei Serpenti 19 
Barnaba - viale della Piramide Cestia 45-47 
La Barrique - via del Boschetto 41B 
Enoteca Bistrot ai Colli - viale dei Colli Portuensi 436 
Enoteca Bomprezzi - Le Bollicine di Sara - via Tuscolana 898 
Casa Mangiacotti - via Gentile da Mogliano 180 
La Ciambella Vino e Cucina - via dell'Arco della Ciambella 20 
Diana's Place - via Volturno 54
 Fafiuchè - via della Madonna dei Monti 28
 Matière Bar à Vin - piazza Ottavilla 7
 Menabò Vino e Cucina - via delle Palme 44 D/E 
Mostò - viale Pinturicchio 32 
Remigio Champagne e Vino - via Santa Maria Ausiliatrice 
S02 - via Giovenale 62a 
Sorì - via dei Volsci 51 Il
Vigneto - piazza dei Condottieri 26

The Puntarella Rossa Wine Club
Those who join Calice Sospeso will automatically be registered as premium members of the Punteralla Rossa Wine Club for free for the year 2020. The club premium members will have discounts and priority lanes for wine courses, tastings, visits to the cellars, events, fairs and purchases of wine.