May 9th I experienced my first official wine tasting. The event was closed to the public, but since my Dad has some connections, I was able to attend. I brought a friend, and the two of us had no idea what we were doing. So, we dove in head first. Glass in hand, with our booklets, we started tasting under the pretense of working for a restaurant. The first two stations were Adami and Cleto Chiarli. My friend and I made the mistakes of drinking a little too much at the firsttwo tables, so by the time we reached the third, Aia Vecchia, I had to respectfully declinetasting the red wines.
We ended up staying at Aia Vecchia for a while. We learned the representative. Elia Pelligrini, used to be a professional soccer player, for Livorno. He was taken out of the game due to an injury to his leg, and he is now in the wine business with his family. Elia was a wonderful person, so passionate about the wine, and excited to tell us about his family and their wines.
The next visit was with Casanova di Neri and the representative Luigi Bonari. There is a funny story attached to this particular wine, a story I did not know until after I had met with Luigi and tasted the wines, which were phenomenal by the way. I learned the story once my Dad arrived. Many years earlier, on a wine trip in Italy, my Dad had been 4 meters away from visiting and tasting Casanova di Neri wines, but due to the large number of people, my Dad decided to get back in the car and go. It was not until later my Dad realized he had made a huge mistake, because the wines, as you may know, are superb. So at this wine tasting in Boston, my Dad told the story to Luigi, and added that he would never again make the same mistake: never judge a vineyard by the number of tourists. You never know what you may be missing.
The second to last wine we tasted was Marchesi di Gresy. It’s maker, Alberto di Gresy, is commonly known as the count. This visit can best be described as hilarious. The count and his younger family member were wonderful. The younger representative, whom we dubbed Count Jr. was engaging, passionate and full of energy. My friend accompanying me told him he was graduating, and it turned out so was Count Jr. A special connection was formed as we talked about wine, about Italy and about family, and at the end we were invited to visit this summer. And I think we just might.
Last, but not least, we have Vietti. Previously I have met Elena, or should I say Mrs. Vietti. She was not there at the tasting, but her husband, Luca or Mr. Vietti was. And let me tell you, they are both incredible. Luca showed deep passion whilst «promoting» his wine. I use quotation marks because he was not really promoting. He was simply talking about his wine. However, interestingly enough, Mr. Vietti spent more time discussing his children and his love of beer and burgundy wine. We talked about his daughter’s success with skiing, how he makes his own beer, and how be prefers putting that beer in glass bottles (so he can open them with a knife like you would a bottle of champagne). It was truly amazing. His passion for what he does was inspiring to watch.
To sum it up: wine tasting rocks.
Rejoice.
