Truffle Fair 2026 Axel Iberti recounts the "Authentic Relations" between Alba and the territory

The 96th International White Truffle Fair of Alba will unfold across nine weeks of events, experiences, culture and folklore, once again placing the Tuber Magnatum at the center of a narrative that goes well beyond the product.

The theme chosen for 2026 is “Authentic Relations“: those between man and nature, between trifolao and forest, between city and territory, between the Langhe and the rest of the world.

Leading the Fair Authority since the beginning of 2025 is Axel Iberti, from Alba, born in 1979, with a professional path that has crossed communication, tourism, design and management. Elected president in January 2025, Iberti indicated from the outset among his priorities the international opening of the event and a broader role for the Authority in promoting the territory throughout the year.

We had a conversation about the Fair and what idea of territory lies behind this year’s program.

We are at the 96th edition of the International White Truffle Fair of Alba. What are the main new features the public will find this autumn?

AXEL — More than a single new feature, what we are trying to do is build an increasingly complete experience. The White Truffle of Alba naturally remains at the center, but around it we want to create occasions for knowledge, encounter and discovery.

The World Market presents itself in renewed form, with formats that allow greater contact with cuisine, wine and the people who recount them.

Different formulas, which have a common element: reducing the distance between those who possess expertise and those who wish to approach that world. We do not want only to display excellence, but to give people the tools to know it.

The theme chosen this year is “Authentic Relations.” What does this mean concretely?

AXEL — It means first of all placing people back at the center and the places in which the truffle is born and reveals itself. The first protagonists are the trifolao. The Truffle New Year, which we wanted to bring to the square for the second consecutive year, was born precisely from this idea: nearly 200 trifolao and tabui from Piedmont gathered in Alba to begin the hunting season.

Alba is recognized internationally as the capital of the truffle, but this leadership has meaning precisely because behind it there is a community that safeguards a knowledge.

The work of the trifolao is not limited to hunting: there is the care of the forest, the cleaning, the planting of trees, the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The Alba trifolao association alone has planted over a thousand trees in recent years.

It means doing environmental education from below, protecting biodiversity and contributing concretely to countering soil erosion and climate change. The authentic relation, in the end, begins precisely there: without a healthy environment, the truffle simply does not exist.

The World White Truffle Market also changes face. In what way?

AXEL — The Market remains the heart of the Fair, but we want it to be increasingly less perceived as a simple place of purchase. Around the truffle there are moreover the other great agri-food productions of the territory: cheeses, hazelnuts, wines, cured meats, sweets. The Fair wants to recount the entire supply chain.

There is then a fundamental theme, that of trust. Every truffle offered within the Market is controlled by the Quality Commission and by the judges of the National Truffle Study Center. It is work often invisible to the visitor, but decisive: it means guaranteeing freshness, quality and authenticity, offering the consumer a place in which to purchase the White Truffle of Alba with awareness.

Brunches, tastings, courses and direct encounters with chefs: are you trying to transform the visit to the Fair into something more participatory?

AXEL — Yes, the point is precisely to create connections and break down certain barriers. The role of the chef, the sommelier or the expert must continue to be valued, naturally, but we can at the same time shorten the distance with the enthusiast.

“Face to Face with the Chef,” for example, was born as a deliberately very intimate experience, in which one enters the kitchen, observes techniques and ingredients and can dialogue directly with the chef.

The same applies to wine. The Vinum Alba Wine Tastings are not designed only for experts: there are paths dedicated to Piedmontese grape varieties, to the territories of Nebbiolo, to Barolo, to Alta Langa and even blind tastings.

The Fair must also be able to be a guide: someone enters already knowing much about wine and gastronomy, someone else is beginning. We must manage to speak to both.

In the Truffle and Wine project this year also arrives the comparison between Barolo and Rioja. How much does dialogue with other great wine regions matter to you?

AXEL — It is fundamental, because comparison enriches. We have no fear of placing our excellence alongside that of other great international territories. On the contrary, it is precisely in this way that culture is created. This year the dialogue reaches as far as Rioja, after in past years the project has involved realities such as Champagne, Burgundy, California, Etna and Alto Adige.

I imagine the Fair as a sort of long cultural broadcast. The narrative begins already in spring with Vinum, continues during the year and finds in the autumn of the Fair its most intense moment.

The truffle is an extraordinary ambassador, but it allows opening conversations about wine, about cuisine, about landscape, about culture and about the entire agri-food supply chain. And it is significant that in last year’s gastronomic experiences 70% of participants came from abroad: the international dimension is no longer accessory, it is part of the identity of the event.

The Fair continues to have also a strongly popular soul. How do you hold together this aspect with haute cuisine and the international public?

AXEL — It is a duality that must be preserved. On one side we have starred chefs, exclusive events and visitors who arrive from all over the world; on the other there are the villages, the folklore, the squares and a community that lives the Fair as part of its own identity.

One dimension must not cancel the other. On the contrary, I believe that precisely their coexistence makes this event unique.

There are the Baccanale dei Borghi, the markets, the events in the squares and a program designed also for families. Alba Truffle Bimbi, for example, proposes workshops and dedicated activities for the youngest on themes of nature, territory and creativity, with great attention to manual skills and to the environment.

Climate change is however a very concrete threat to the future of the White Truffle. What can be done, beyond raising awareness?

AXEL — It is necessary to intervene on the territory, and that is what is happening.

Tuber Next Gen goes precisely in this direction, involving the Region, experts and local administrations. There is talk of new truffle grounds, forest management, agroforestry, nurseries and technical assistance for the care of natural and cultivated truffle grounds.

There are Municipalities that are investing in public truffle grounds and projects in which children are also involved, called to adopt and plant truffle-bearing trees. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful ways to explain that the protection of the truffle concerns also the generations that will come after us.

The Fair bears the name of Alba, but how much does it truly manage to distribute its effects across the rest of the territory?

AXEL — Alba is the collector, but at the same time it must be a platform for relaunching the entire territory. Over the span of nine weeks we speak of over 600,000 people who arrive in the area and nearly 100,000 paying visitors to the World Market.

It is evident that not all remain within the city: they move, visit wineries and restaurants, stay overnight, discover the towns of the Langhe, of Roero and of Monferrato.

The economic figures also help to understand the scope of the phenomenon. The study presented at Bocconi quantified at approximately 43 million euros the economic impact direct and indirect of the event on the province of Cuneo alone.

According to the data illustrated by the Authority, every euro invested in the Fair generates an economic value much broader on the territory. We are therefore not speaking only of a great gastronomic event, but of a tourist and economic engine that involves hospitality, dining, commerce, crafts and services.

If you had to indicate a moment capable, alone, of recounting the most authentic spirit of the Fair, which would you choose?

AXEL — The Palio degli Asini. There are more than a thousand volunteers who gather around a common passion for Alba and for its history. It is something that warms the heart and that allows understanding immediately how much the Fair belongs first of all to the city.

Last year we chose to broaden participation and maintain more popular prices precisely to allow the people of Alba also to live it fully.

This is the challenge: to preserve together the popular soul and the international one, the folklore and the great gourmets, the city’s celebration and the event capable of speaking to the world. It is a duality that was already in the Fair of the origins and that we must continue to safeguard.