In Italy, there is a most amazing fellow. He is 93 years old, and from the age of 18, his sole goal and activity has been to visit every winery in Italy. So far, he’s racked up 27,565 winery visits, and even though old age is catching up to him, he figures he has another seven years, when he turns 100, to cover all 30,000 wineries in Italy. He has done what no other person has done, yet alone even imagine doing. It has been a hectic pace, averaging one winery a day for the last 75+ years. One for the record books, our fellow traveler has been regarded in Italy as both a crack pot and a genius. Fellow genius Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Conversely, E.B White was heard to say “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.” The following is an (imagined) interview I made with this most unusual man, known only as Gegè.
A: Good afternoon Gegè, where are you today?
G: Hello to America. Right now, I am on the train from Milan to Naples, the very fast one. But they have good connection, so for the next hour or two, we can speak well.
A: Very good. Well, let’s just jump in. How on earth did you come upon this life goal of visiting every winery in Italy?
G: I wish it was that simple. It was quite an accident. The war was over, May 8, 1945. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I had turned 18 a few months before and was assigned in the military to a farm in Tuscany, where we were digging trenches. The Germans had come through and left the place a wreck, and we heard the Americans were going to carpet bomb the Tuscan countryside. So, we had to find a way to fortify our position, even though we didn’t hate the Americans. But orders were orders. As our commanding officers disappeared, and we had no ongoing orders, our attentions strayed. Some of us sought the company of a woman, others secluded themselves in churches, praying for all this to end. I was interested, a little in wine, and with it, visiting wineries seemed like a good way to come to an understanding of the agricultural process and the rebuilding that would have to take place. I had no idea there would be so many wineries in Italy.
A: You were 18, a young man, and grew up where?
G: Oh, I grew up in Friuli, and my parents and grandparent were very hard-working people. They were single-minded in regards to work. I think that gave me a good foundation.
A: So, how did you go about the logistical nightmare of getting around and visiting every, or at this point, almost every winery in Italy? And why?
G: I think it started as a personal challenge. I didn’t know there were 30,000 wineries. And in 1945, there weren’t. The war had destroyed many, and our population was decimated. Probably back then there were maybe 3,000. I estimated that it would take ten years, after which I’d be an expert in Italian wine, and could get a real good job somewhere.
As it happened, it was like climbing a very tall mountain. I just took off every morning. I didn’t have a car at first, and not much money. But Italy was very inexpensive, and people back then were kind and would let me stay in a spare room or in the barn. I was young and didn’t need much. Italy was broken, so there was no reason to go back home. Friuli had also been ransacked. So, I thought of all of Italy as home.
A: How did you get by? How did you take care of your needs?
G: I didn’t have many at first. I just took it one day at a time, often working around the winery each day for a little pasta, some red wine, and a place to lay my head. Later, in the 1960’s, an uncle from America died and left me with a little stipend, so I could occasionally stay in a pensione. I bought a little Fiat Cinquecento. I could easily see 2-4 wineries a day, and that would give me time to relax and also to get errands done. I never married, didn’t have time, once I realized what path I’d taken in life. Though my family were agrarian by nature, I was scientifically minded. I charted out my days, weeks, months, even years. My modest stipend afforded me the freedom from having to work at another job, and I was, and am, a copious note-taker. I’ve filled up more than 5,000 journals with my notes in the last 75 years.
A: Amazing! You said you had a bit of a scientific bent. Do you use a computer?
G: Oh yes! Now especially, as it can go into a file and someone doesn’t have to transcribe it, like we had to have done for the first 50 years of notes. I cannot tell you how fortunate I was to have an aunt who was an abbess near Cividale, which providentially was connected to a winery. She enlisted some of the younger nuns to transcribe my notes onto the computer. One of them had an uncle in Torino who worked for Olivetti and they were one of the first institutions to use OCR technology to convert my handwriting to files. It was very cutting edge, back then. And it freed me up to cover all of Italy.
A: Ok, I have to ask you about wine, now. Do you have a favorite region or wine? Is that asking too much?
G: No, it is actually asking too little. I’ve had this question put to me many times. And I’m lucky enough to still have a good amount of cognitive skills to remember. I cannot think of a region in Italy where I have not found something unique, something special, in every place. That is the singular wonder of Italy and Italian wines. It is also something which, I am told, confounds many an expert. From Valle d’Aoste to Pantelleria, there is something of value, something amazing about every region, every wine. And as every year passes, I become more acutely aware of just how unbelievable Italian wine has become, in just my lifetime!
Of course, I love the classic wines. But I also have seen innovations that have made these new creations. Also, though, there are these young “originalists” I call them, who are keeping intervention at arm’s length, if not further. There have been some fantastic wines that have come from these upstarts. It gives me hope that Italian wine won’t become some homogenized, pasteurized, boring monolithic institution.
A: That’s coming from a man who will be 100 in 7 years. Wow, I’m trying to unpack this. Please elaborate.
G: Certamente. Right now, I am traveling to Naples, to visit a group of young winemakers who have decided to make wine just as they did prior to Vesuvius exploding in 79 AD (a few years before I was born). This will be my sixth visit with them, and there is a movement in the south that the young people are building, spreading down to Calabria, over to Sicily, and also in the mainland, to Basilicata and Puglia. They tell me they are channeling the ancient soul of winemaking, Bacco indeed! I say, why not? Life is too short to put up a wall in a vineyard. And so, the wines I’ve had, so far, have been varied, of course. But it was like that in 1946, 1947, 1948. Back then it was more of an accident of history. Now it is intentional. And with that comes, it’s like a hunter with a bow, who has a target. All they have to do is practice and so when someday they are out in the field, they can catch what it is they are looking for. You don’t catch the big prize on the first shot. But with practice. And young people, in their 20’s and 30’s, they have time that I no longer have, to explore their mountains and see what it is they can do for Italy and Italian wine. I’m very optimistic. But I’ve been this way all my life. It used to drive my papa crazy.
A; We say here in America, you are in a groove. You seem to not let time wear you down. What is your secret?
G: It’s really no secret at all. It’s real simple. I get up every day, looking forward to the day. I have a task, every day, and that is to visit a winery, taste, take notes, and reflect. I’m a monk without an abbey! Or, the world is my monastery. And every winery is like a station of my cross, but what a light burden of a cross it is. No, it’s a joy. And that is how I look at life. No gloom from me. I’m just glad to be here. Real simple.
A: Well, you are a great example for all of us in the world of wine and in the world at large. What’s on your horizon, for the foreseeable future.
G: Like we’ve discussed, I have a few more wineries to visit, a little less than 3,000. Amazing when you think of it, 3,000 was my initial goal in 1945 and here we are 2020, and 3,000 is still my goal.
I’m in the cooling down period of my life. I hope I make it to the finish line. And I think I can. I now have a driver when I’m not on a train or a plane. In fact, my driver will meet me in Naples and after our visits there, we will drive down to Sicily, over to Sardegna, and then back to Liguria, to Piedmont and to Lombardy. I have appointments and everything is planned. I just hope this virus and the pandemic will not slow me down any further than it already has in the last six months. I still was able to visit wineries during this period, but sometimes I was by myself. That’s OK now, I know where to go and everyone knows who I am now. So, they just leave the cellar door open and I know what to do. The wines speak better for themselves, most times, than the people who grow the grapes or make the wine. And after you’ve been to 5,000 or 6,000 wineries, all the stories start to sound the same anyway. Believe me, I know the stories by heart by now. But every wine is a different story. And that is really the story and the glory of Italian wine. And it looks like we are arriving into Naples now. So I must go.
A: Well thank you for your time, a long time as a knight of the vine, and we so appreciate your unending and enduring commitment to Italy and Italian wine.
G: You’re very welcome, and God willing, we will speak again when I make it to number 30,000. Wish me luck!