Italy’s Santa Margherita wines are celebrating quite the milestone this month – 60 years of producing their best-selling Pinot Grigio – with a new partnership with Italian-born cook, author and TV presenter, Silvia Colloca.

Santa Margherita’s Wine Educator and Brand Ambassador, Alberto Ugolini, says the partnership is a perfect alignment, amplifying the brand’s mission to “make the pairing of wine and food an engaging and extraordinary experience” and is a testament to the brand’s mission of ceaselessly exploring new routes in taste and in the enjoyment of wine.

To celebrate the partnership, Colloca has created bespoke Italian recipes that pair with a selection of Santa Margherita wines.

“I am thrilled to partner with Santa Margherita Wines to mark 60 years of their extraordinary Pinot Grigio,” she says.

“Developing new recipes is a passion of mine and I am incredibly excited to be collaborating with Santa Margherita, an authentic Italian brand that shares my joy in bringing family and friends together around the dining table.”

Ugolini says: “As Santa Margherita’s Pinot Grigio is made to be enjoyed with food, we are delighted to partner with renowned Italian cook Silvia Colloca – a partnership that promises to bring to life our mission in the Australian market, to make the pairing of wine and food evermore exciting.”

Santa Margherita was founded in the 1950s when visionary Count Gaetano Marzotto embarked on a journey to find a “new type of wine that would stand out for its originality and distinctive taste profile, made unique by fermenting the grapes without skin contact”, according to the brand.

“Driven by a desire to capture the delicate fruit and floral notes of the Italian grape, Count Marzotto realised by moving away from the then-standard ‘Ramato’ method – where grapes are crushed and fermented with their skin – the precious aromas and flavours could be preserved as they were meant to be tasted,” Ugolini says.

“Over the past 60 years, Pinot Grigio has become the leading Italian white varietal wine worldwide, and the Pinot Grigio from Santa Margherita continues to be its flagship.

“It’s a wine that has made a huge contribution to the development of Italian winemaking, revolutionising both the national and foreign markets.

“Every day, thousands of bottles of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio are uncorked around the world and it is a great success story for the Italian brand, whose roots date back to the last century,” he says.