Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Piemontese winemaker Angelo Gaja paced back and forth, his hand stuffed in the pocket of his Brioni suit, as he addressed about 200 attendees for the first World Wine Symposium, dubbed the “Davos of Wine.”

“Cabernet is like John Wayne,’’ Gaja said, poking fun at the influence of rich fruity wines from the New World during the past 30 years. A giant image of the actor in a cowboy hat filled a screen.

“It’s good-looking, friendly and has a large smile,’’ Gaja said, grinning. Then he clicked to a photo of film legend Marcello Mastroianni, whom he compared to more subtle and sophisticated nebbiolo, the grape of his own much-praised Barbarescos.

This Davos entailed two packed days of seminars at the luxurious Villa d’Este hotel on Lake Como, Italy, with translation into three languages and welcome espresso breaks. Gaja also fulminated against European anti-alcohol campaigns.

“Producers must take a position. We must insist on a distinction between spirits and wine,” he said.

Other speakers highlighted current economic, political and social issues in the world of fine wine and sparked heated discussions.

Attendees from 24 countries included top international winemakers - such as Piero Antinori, Pablo Alvarez of Vega Sicilia, Germany’s Egon Muller -- as well as wine investment fund managers, physicists, a representative of the French Ministry of Agriculture, the Japanese ambassador to Australia, and even an opera singer.

Wine Think Tank

“Yabba dabba doo,’’ organizer Francois Mauss called out at the opening-night dinner, grabbing everyone’s attention. Trained in economics and diplomacy, French-born Mauss founded the Grand Jury Europeen, a fine-wine judging association, in 1996. For three years he has had the dream of creating a global wine think tank.

“‘Davos of wine’ is not really the right term for this event,’’ he told me, “but people know what it means. Not only the economic sector needs an idea exchange.’’

As for the venue, forget a glitzy Alpine retreat. It’s much better to network and clink glasses at the sybaritic 16th- century Villa d’Este. Since it became a hotel in 1873, its palatial rooms, Venetian glass chandeliers and panoramic lake views have welcomed everyone from King Leopold of Belgium to Woody Allen.

No Breakfast Wine

Naturally, the wine and food were stellar. Tastings of 30 to 40 wines preceded every meal but breakfast. Michelin- and Gault-Millau-starred chefs from Italy, Austria and Croatia tantalized with a mix of the classic and the experimental, although not all dishes won acclaim from the sophisticated diners.

The main course at a lunch featuring Croatian wines (who knew some were so good?) created by chef Sonja Peric of restaurant-hotel Valsabbion in Istria were black and green squares of mashed sardine accompanied by sauces in shiny toothpaste-style tubes. Struggling to open one, a guest squirted its contents on his designer suit.

I was happier with the starter at the first night’s welcome dinner -- a creamy egg in a glass cocotte covered with shaved white truffles and presented in a wooden box, a signature dish of Piemonte restaurant La Ciau del Tornavento. Star dinner wines included plush, 2006 Luciano Sandrone Barbera d’Alba ($35) and hyper-elegant Gaja Sori Tildin ($300).

‘Intelligence Hour’

Mauss had orchestrated a few surprises, like the “pure intelligence hour’’ with French physicist Etienne Klein, who explained how to test the age of a wine without opening the bottle by using gamma rays to measure a radioactive isotope in the wine. Obvious application: identifying wine fraud.

On day two, Jean-Robert Pitte, former president of the Sorbonne, picked up the neo-prohibition theme in a talk about wine’s history as a cultural beverage. “Wine is not a sin,’’ he intoned. “It’s a cultural value that has created happiness for a thousand years. We must say, wine is good.’’

Jacques Berthomeau, a controleur general of the French Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out that ministries of health, intent on curbing alcoholism, have turned the younger generation away from wine by condemning it as harmful. Spanish journalist Victor de la Serna cited a 40 percent consumption drop in Spain in the past five years.

The European Union subsidizes consumption of wine in the rest of the world, but doesn’t promote it in the EU. To my surprise, the wine industry in Europe has no coordinated lobby against all this.

“We’re watching the erosion of our cultural heritage in one generation,’’ bemoaned Bernard Hervet, the managing director of Burgundy negociant Faiveley.

Personally, I liked Pitte’s suggestion: wine-tasting clubs for those 17 to 19 as a “vaccination against alcoholism.’’ That could recruit a few new consumers, too.

(Elin McCoy writes on wine and spirits for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of the story: Elin McCoy at elinmccoy@gmail.com.

Last Updated: November 11, 2009 00:01 EST