A Wine Barrel Rolling Competition?
Well, that’s what we enjoyed on Saturday at Serravalle, and it’s all part of a national wine barrel-rolling competition which has both old and modern roots.
It’s old because, in the old days, wine was stored in wooden barrels — and these were 500-litre wine barrels. And it’s modern because, now that these enormous barrels are no longer normally used for storing wine, the barrels themselves have been turned into the competitors.
The national competition began in 2006, and the idea actually originated here in Vittorio Veneto. Since then it has developed into a proper national competition, with teams from wine-producing parts of Italy competing at different stages before the grand finale.
Anyway, we went along to Serravalle to see what it was all about, and it was great fun — although quite exhausting even to watch.
In the main square there was a sort of slalom competition. In other words, the competitors had to roll their wine barrels between a series of poles, rather like a skiing competition. Each barrel was controlled by two people, and there was also a relay race in which the first two competitors were women and then handed over to two men.

Now, you might think that all you’ve got to do is roll a wine barrel along. But it’s not quite as simple as that. A wine barrel isn’t just spherical: it has a particular shape, and you have to be remarkably skilful about the pressure you apply at either end. Push it in the wrong place and the thing can suddenly head off in almost any direction.
There were penalties, too: two seconds were added whenever a competitor knocked down one of the poles.
There were teams from all over Italy, including Tuscany, the Marche and other wine-producing areas, and the atmosphere was tremendous.
They also had a competition involving carrying the wine barrel on a sledge, which was pretty amazing in itself.
These are all part of the various stages of the national championship. The different competitions around Italy award points, and the best-performing teams eventually qualify for the national final.
And there is still one more qualifying round to come after Vittorio Veneto: Santa Venerina in Sicily on 27 September. Then the whole thing moves south for the grand finale.
The Finalissima will take place in Bianco, in Calabria, in the province of Reggio Calabria, on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October. Ten teams will eventually contest the national final — the eight cities qualifying on points, together with the defending champions and the host city, according to the competition rules.
And the final really does mean pushing these enormous 500-litre wine barrels around a course through the town, going up and down the streets and round the bends. And believe me, these are not lightweight objects.
It was one of those wonderfully Italian events which you go along to thinking you’ll have a quick look — and end up staying because it’s so much fun.

Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, competitors and spectators alike.
It was brilliant.
And I’ll never look at a wine barrel in quite the same way again.

Acknowledgement to Sandra for many of the pictures.

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