(WineSpectator) - For four days every spring, Verona becomes the center of the wine world. Vinitaly, one of the principal global wine fairs, takes over this beautiful, ancient city on the Adige river and turns it into a non-stop spectacle, a trade show and business conference that morphs into a very large, very Italian party.

This year, Vinitaly, celebrating its 50th edition, drew 130,000 wine professionals (equivalent to half the city’s population) from 140 countries to the fairgrounds, according to event organizers. The ambience carried over to the historic town center, where piazzas filled for public tastings, ornate palazzos hosted elegant wine soirees, packed restaurants served prized bottles, and wine-bar crowds spilled into the cobblestone streets.

The week got off to a rocking start when Sting serenaded a press conference for Wine Spectator’s OperaWine, a tasting of 100 of Italy’s best wines. The English musician and his wife, actress/director Trudie Styler, own Tuscany’s Il Palagio, one of the wineries participating for the first time. Produced in partnership with Vinitaly, OperaWine, celebrating its fifth anniversary, drew 1,600 invited guests.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella officially inaugurated Vinitaly, followed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who proclaimed, “Our wine is better than French wine.” Renzi quipped that when he told this to France’s president, François Hollande retorted: “But ours is more expensive.”

Renzi has made increasing Italy’s food and wine exports a prime goal, and he held a joint conference with Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, who announced that China’s largest e-commerce platform would debut its “wine day” this year on Sept. 9.

“I think we can close the gap between the French share of the wine market in China, currently at 55 percent, compared with the Italian share of just 6 percent,” Ma said.

That evening, Ma was guest of honor at a dinner for 200 hosted by Allegrini co-owner Marilisa Allegrini at her family’s 16th-century palazzo, Villa della Torre, in the Valpolicella area. Ma told Italian producers, “The Chinese people love Italy, Italian products and the Italian lifestyle. … In China we have many rich people after 200 years of being poor, and now we must learn to enjoy life.”

In the seemingly endless labyrinth of Vinitaly fair halls, two trends were hard to miss this year. For one, more Italian producers are getting into the quality rosé game. Second, Italians are producing ever more single-vineyard, or cru, wines.http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/53033