Lessons Well Learned - Post #7

It is fascinating to me how little is known about native Italian grapes, how so many remain unidentified, especially when you consider the fact that wine is a pretty big deal here in Italy. D'Agata speaks to the classification of grapes in his reading, classifications that I didn't even knew existed! Who knew that not only a grapes native, international or traditional, but that within those classifications are further sub-classifications. To many people, including myself, wine was just wine made from grapes and that's all I cared to know. But as D'Agata mentions, native grapes are much more than grapes, they represent culture. Recently I went to Cinque Terre and stayed in Riomaggiore. There I was able to have a wonderful wine tasting of four of their local wines. I was excited to have the wine tasting, as I was with a friend not in this class and was excited to teach her everything I had learned about proper wine tasting in class. We stoped at a small local place called Bar e Vini a Piè de Mà. It was right by the water which only added to the wonderful experience. 

At one point my friend asked me "How are you smelling green apple? I just don't understand, did they put green apple in it?" It was a boost to be able to tell her that we had learned that certain chemical molecules in the wine create smells we can recognize, like green apple or peach! That's why when you smell a wine you can smell various fruits, flowers and so on, its not that there's green apple in the wine but there are chemical compounds in the wine that produce a green apple smell. 

In all we tried four wines. The first was Costa De Sera from Cinque Terre in general, the second was La Polenza from Corniglia, the third was Tobiolo from Manarola and the fourth was La Torre (Albana di Campiglia) from Riomaggiore. 

With the wine we were given some of their fresh focaccia (a local classic in Cinque Terre) and some local olives (already pitted for us!). We also ordered a plate of mixed cured meats and a plate of cheese, pears and honey. Now I'm a huge fan of local honey, I think it tastes better and its better for your immune system, but this local honey was way better than the honey I get by me. It tasted like a flower field, now I know that sounds like an odd statement or even that it wouldn't exactly be a pleasant taste but I can get over how amazing this honey was. It tasted like that had just scraped it off some honey combs (in fact we had little chunks of comb in the honey so it's entirely possible they really had just gotten it) and you could tell it was local because it tasted like the local flora smelled.

One of my favorite things about wine tastings is that you get enough of the wine to enjoy it but not so much that you end up tipsy. At JFRC from the moment we get here we are told to be cautious about where and how much we drink. However I'm glad that I don't have to be concerned anymore with methanol being in my wine. The methanol crisis boggles my mind. How people could, in full knowledge of what they were doing, intentionally poison other human beings is beyond my understanding. However, in the 1980s that's what happened, methanol was intentionally added to some batches of wine just to increase the alcohol content. This caused a few deaths and blindness in the areas impacted and as Parasecoli mentioned, scared the wine market for years to come. It's something, because of all the rules and regulations, that is less of a concern today than in the past. Thankfully I can enjoy my wine while here in Italy and anywhere else I dare to go!

Ciao for now!
Veni. Vidi. Mangia.