A SUNNY DAY ON THE RIVIERA

From Domenico now that he has finally found wi fi that works.  (Piazza S. Spirito in Florence, under piddly skies.)  Sorry for the funky formatting.  Seems TypePad and Word aren't on speaking terms.  And I am going out for the afternoon, too busy to change now.  Sorry.

La speculazione edilizia, ovvero la Rapallizzazione della Riviera:

La fonte del fenomenaccio

The TigullioVino tasting was better than most and I will tell you why. The 90 or more exhibitors were hand-picked. So even though they were at different levels of quality and ambition, they were all good, some were great, and they all presented good value for the money – sometimes amazing value. I will report on a few of them later. I didn’t go there to taste everything, so systematically, but I was keen to find [wines of] exceptional rapporto qualità/prezzo and, if possible, good biologic or biodynamic.

 

I met some very nice wine producers but of course it was hard to speak to them because the place was crowded, everybody seemed too excited to be there. The crowds weren’t so bad because Filippo had prepared very carefully. All the tables were organised very well by region and areas within region. It was good for tasting similar wine one right after the other.

 

Maybe Gambero Rosso could learn from this; Terry told me everyone in

New York

was bitching because it [Gambero Rosso’s March tasting] was very badly laid out, very confusing. Maybe they didn’t want people to do such direct comparison tastes. This arrangement was more like the Alto Adige thing in

New York

, which Terry told me was very successful, organised and high quality.

 

Speaking of Gambero Rosso – and Slow Food since we are speaking of big shots of Italian vine and cuisine – since I went to America last year I am aware that GR and SF non sono granché over in USA. [i.e., no big deal, don’t matter much]. Several time I mentioned them and the reaction was interesting. Italian restaurant people knew about Slow Food and some felt like they were part of the philosophy and so on. All wine people, who do Italian wine, know about GR. But in

America

nobody give a shit about them really, if you forgive my honesty. [NB: Domenico’s opinion, which is slightly exaggerated. I can see I’ll never be invited to

GR

NY

again.]

 
Now when I look around and hear about GR and SF and who is having a fight with so-and-so, I think of the nice American expression, “Big fishes in little lakes.” [Cute, but of course he means “Big fish in small ponds.”]
 

Nice thing about TigullioVino was there were no Tre Bicchieri style wines, which taste more the same every year. No “international barriques bomb”. No too sweet, too strong wine you can’t drink with meals. Even so, they were all distinctive, and they gave you expression of territory and their maker. I loved the Pigato whites that had a strong aroma of la macchia, the Mediterranean scrubs and herb. [The Pigato I’ve had in the States has been hardly better than a typical Pinot Grigio. Unfortunately, it seems that the good ones aren’t sent to our shores. Presumably the distributors think we need more bland ladies’ wines.]

Mr. & Mrs. Boveri from Piemonte -- lovely wines at more than fair prices

 

Here is a couple of photo I took. The manifestazione itself was good, and so was the sight!

Rapallo

is more beautiful when you don’t look too close.

 

A presto, amici!

 

Comments

[Fredric Koeppel]

The tasting sounds great. I want to go next year.
Did Domenico go to Ezra Pound's house in Rapallo?

[Filippo Ronco]

Dear Domenico, I'm so glad that you had a good staying in Rapallo and that you enjoyed the meeting. You say the truth : every firm is picked one by one through an hard selection. It would be wonderfull if Fredric could join the event with you next year. Let me know !

[Fede - Fiordimela]

Sorry this is OT, anyway:

@ Fredric: He he I'm going to Venice this weekend, for the "Biennale di Venezia" of arts opening.
There's also the last home of Pound. He had lived here for his last years:http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=45.430076&lon=12.332702&z=17.6&r=0&src=msl
and his he's buried here:
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=45.446836&lon=12.34656&z=17.2&r=0&src=ggl

Ciao a tutti!

Fede
Ciao!

[vittorio]

Caro Terry ti invierò presto materiale sul grande lavoro di Slowfood negli Usa, sulle numerose comunità del cibo lì presenti (Terra Madre)che hanno bisogno di farsi conoscere maggiormente anche dai bloggers e dai cultori del cibo e del vino americani, spero che tu possa entrare presto in contatto con loro...
Sono desolato di sapere che non sei stato invitato al GamberoRosso a New York (ho capito bene?)nonostante la tua fama qui in Italia, spero che gli amici del Gambero rimedino in una prossima occasione.
I vini presenti a Tigullio erano eccellenti, del tipo che d'ora in poi il mercato chiederà...not too much strong!

[Terry Hughes]

No no, mi hanno invitato l'ultima volta ma dopo il post di Domenico, boh...

[Terry Hughes]

@ FK: Domenico is no longer a member of the Dead Poets' Society.