A few months ago I was talking to my local Italian wine and food store proprietor, over a cortado, and I mentioned that lately I felt like I lacked a greater purpose. It was a momentary lapse on my part, for I have plenty to occupy my time, with photographic projects, household chores (especially fixing things in need of repair) renewing a not quite vintage German sports car, and keeping up with life. I’m not bored, but at the time I felt like my plate wasn’t quite full enough. Well, my friend saw to that and assigned me a marketing project for the newly re-set wine section. He pulled off all the shelf talkers from the wholesalers and importers and told me he wanted a uniform look to them. “I want them all to look like they are part of something that belongs here, not just stuff taped up to help sell something.” So, I thought about it for awhile. And then I got to work on it. 200+ shelf talkers later, I’m beginning to see light on the horizon. They look good, they’re working well, and we’ve found a way to keep them on the shelves and placed under the correct wines that they detail. And while not a cause, it did cause me to think about what it is all of us in the world of wine have made our causes, be it individually or collectively.
I was thinking about the wine Barbera, for a young man yesterday in the store was asking me where they were on the shelves now. They’re not in the right place, as the owner of the store told me since he reset the store, the sales of Barbera have plummeted dramatically. I get it – they’re below eye level and in a part of the store where it’s a little more obscure and darker. But it got me to thinking about Barbera and those of us who see Barbera as their life’s cause. That would be producers in Piedmont for sure, but also in parts of California and elsewhere in Italy. And I’m sure other wine countries too. But this blog, for the most part, focuses on Italian wine.
The customer in the aisle asked me which Barbera would I recommend. I immediately looked to see if Bava was on the shelf, because I remember liking the wine. But I also like the people who make the wine. Is that a cause? To like the people for their wine? I would hope so.
But there were others there as well – Vietti, Pio
Cesare, Massolino, Montaribaldi, Prunotto’s “Nizza”, Tenuta Rocca. Bava’s “Nizza”
was there, so I was spared the inevitable jumble of scrounging around looking
for something I had just mentioned while the customer’s attention waned. I
handed the wine to him and he seemed happy enough with it.
To lie in bed at night and think about one’s Nizza, I’m sure there are more than one winemaker having done so in the past. And with harvest approaching, I’d reckon there are more than one who stare at the ceiling at 3 AM and wonder if they will get though another season? This is their life – and Barbera is their cause, why wouldn’t they? Just thinking about it, in the abstract, though, a million miles away, is something that makes me wonder about the whole idea of purpose – and duty?
Yeah, July is almost done this year – so as we head into the dog days of summer, I inevitably shift gears into my navel gazing phase.
For the past two months, one of my causes was to make the wine shopping a little easier for the myriad of folks who wander into the store and have little or no idea about Italian wines. They know they like them, and sometimes they even remember which ones they like. But often enough they are confounded by the choices and the hundreds of different wines. Which one should I pick? Will it be the right one? Am I spending enough on it? Am I spending too much? Does anyone know how to make this simpler for me? These are the thought balloons I imagine above their heads when they step into the wine sections. I get it. It is daunting, especially when your cause is a million miles away. You just want to get in and out and on with your life.
Italian wine has never made it easy. And that isn’t about to change anytime soon. Thankfully. There is plenty in our world that has been streamlined, dumbed down and made “easy.” And from observing the world around me, it really hasn’t changed how human nature deals with the time and the life that has been handed to them.
But Italian wine and those of us for whom Italian wine is a “cause” still have a need to prosecute our case and our cause. Sure, it is like night and day from 40 years ago. Now we’re more like in a “gilding the lily” era. There is so much well-made wine, representing virtually any style you could imagine. Want it funky? It’s findable. Want it polished? Ditto. Looking for something under $20? No problem. Over $500 – easily done. Anything goes. Everything is possible. The effect of our collective causes is that Italian wine is more prevalent, more respected, more sought after, more beloved.
And for that one can only thank the thousands for which Italian wine was, has been and is and will be their life’s cause.
© written and photographed (at the Bersano Winery and Museum in Nizza Monferrato) by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy