Wonderful Wine Warriors in sunny Italy …or
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (In the hit Clint Eastwood movie, Clint was The Good, Eli Wallach was The Ugly and Lee Van Cleef was The Bad. In this tale, myself, Frank and Alex are The Good…….)
MY recent visit to sunny Italy was a total success. The weather was ‘superbo’ with blue skies and hot sun and temperatures of 35 to 36 C.
We visited 22 wineries, among them Folinari and a new winery called Livernano which impressed me. Livernano is owned by a wealthy Broadway Producer and his young and charming German wife. Undoubtedly, the most professional and well organised tasting or ‘degustazione’ was at Colle Masuri whose owner is now competing in the America’s Cup (Team Alinghi). It was very systematic as it should be and tasting was done in silence. Everything went like clockwork! We learned a lot about Italian wines and viticulture, friendship and human nature too. My two good buddies and knowledgeable wine writers were Frank Schonhofen from Holland and Alex Eberspaecher from Canada. They are both great gentlemen. They both have a wonderful sense of humour. It was an undisputed pleasure to travel, drink, dine and laugh with them. In a tight spot when it is a matter of life or death, I could ask for no better or braver comrades! Unfortunately, that could not be said for one of our number who asked infantile questions like, "In bottle aging, how long are the glass bottles aged for???" and "What is ADOC?"
Oh, my God!!! How many harvests are there in one year??? Ha! Ha! Life always has its absolutely amusing moments. Our Driver, Emanuele aka Michael Schumacher drove with Italian style and finesse, and it is a tribute to his skill that I am now back home in one piece. Our guide, the fair and lovely Karina which incidentally means ‘cute’ in Italian, was ever helpful and ever ready to pour extra virgin olive oil on troubled waters which there were many a time. Nevertheless, I always believe in that adage, "I refuse to be a victim!" to paraphrase someone we encountered along the way n the wilds of Toscan. And so until the next tale from the desk of The Travelling Gourmet, please remember the renowned old German song which the French Resistance heroes used to sing, even up to the last seconds before their execution by the SS: DIE GEDANKEN SIND FREI! It means thought are free! {:-)