Six Degrees of Me. And Liloni

So on a warm Thursday evening on the last day of November, there I was, sitting at the bar at Il Posto Accanto, waiting for some friends of Tony Sasa (they run an upscale tour agency in Florence, Sunny Tuscany, which sounds like the Anglo-Saxon dream of Italy, no?, aimed mostly at choice tranches of the American market), when a guy bearing a sample case comes in and asks if he can see Beatrice, the owner who is the sister of Gabrio Tosti of De Vino wine shop downtown a little bit, and he says he has wines he wants her to sample.  Well, Bea's not there (it rhymes the way I say it), and after a minute I says, "Are you an importer or what?" and ecco! out comes the wine list and a handshake and a business card, Peter Morone, PGM Wines, "Selected for those who love wine as much as I do," not catchy but it does the job, and I introduce myself as Mr. Mondosapore, ha ha, and then a dim light bulbs goes on as I scan the list and say, "I recognize this one!  But I don't know where from," and Peter slowly says, "It's an Oltrepo' Pavese," which rang no bells in my head (not to mix metaphors), and then he slowly slowly says, eyes widening, "You were the one who wrote about it and said you weren't crazy about it, said it was a little short and lacked depth," and I was dumbfounded, "I don't remember writing that."  And, all of a sudden, I did, and I realized that this was one of the wines that Adriano Liloni and the Sovversivi del Gusto (Subversives of Taste), whose wines seem to be generally represented by the Consorzio Selezione Vini Italiani, small producers of quality, had shipped to me last spring, and mamma mia, did I feel like a fine old schmuck, amici miei.   

It's a small small world, innit, and in this here Eyetalian world of vino and blogging there always seems to be this wild and crazy little guy named Adriano Liloni in it, connecting, networking, spilling himself all over the place, organizing and creating and spreading a manic joy from his hideaway in the hills, depositing the stuff he sucks up in faraway places like Alphabet City, like some kinda human tornado.  So, signoressignori, let's raise a glass of Due Querce to the six (that many?) degrees of Adriano Liloni. 

Comments

[Lizzy]

Well, Terry, don't worry, I too always forget what I wrote, a minute after I've done it! è la maledzione del giornalista, penso.
We write too much in too short time, and have not time to remember all!

L.

[Terry Hughes]

Vero, Lizzy. Mappure mi sentivo un po' ingrato.

Cmq avevo voglia di scrivere del mio amico "l'hobbit." Giocosamente e con affetto.

[Richard]

So much wine, so little time...

[Dezel]

Hi Terry,

Always good when we can count on others for all those nice little comments we fail to retain (lol).

Nice and entertaining story!

Dezel

[Giampiero alias Aristide]

Hobbits are everywhere, you know, and this is a very nice hommage to them!
Ciao.