Wine exists because of the existence of men. Vine, for its legitimate
biological and survival needs, would have never made wine. Not even vinegar.
Nature, it is well evident, has no interest in wine: it simply is a product
having no use for Nature's needs and goals. On the other hand, man really does:
it is since tens of centuries, year after year, he keeps on making this
enjoyable beverage, for his own pleasure, as well as for affirming his
commercial skill and, with that, the chance of making an economic profit. With
time, man has given wine many meanings, ritual and sacred ones, as well as
becoming an essential element of social life with which have been celebrated
the most significant and important moments of history. To the wine was also
given less noble meanings, quite disreputable, because of its well known
effects on the health, something usually happening when one abuses of it or
exceeds on its consumption.
A versatile beverage, just like many things created by man, it gets a
different meaning according to traditions, history, culture and social contexts.
Vine - which notoriously is a liana and, for its nature, creeps to trees and
other things in order to get a reliable support - it has been
domesticated in order to favor its cultivation according to man's
needs and to make wine. Wine does exist because man exists. Etruscans
understood the wild nature of the vine, in times before the ancient Greeks
arrived to Italy. Etruscans were not used to drink a lot of wine, they however
understood its commercial value and therefore they made it. Some Etruscan
amphora have been found even in Burgundy, probably used for transporting wine,
even though it is not clear how Etruscan wine actually reached Burgundy.
Etruscans favored the nature of vine and let it creeping to the trunk of high
trees.
The ancient viticultural technique called alberata - that is allowing the
vine to creep on trees - a technique almost disappeared today, was in fact an
Etruscan technique, then abandoned when ancient Greeks arrived to Italy and
spread their viticultural techniques. Everything however had the very same goal:
cultivating the vine in order to allow wine production. Vine, it is very likely,
did not have any interest in this forced change. It is not however a price paid
for nothing and without having anything in return. Also vine, undoubtedly, did
benefit of evident advantages from the interest showed by men for the production
of wine. Vine today is widely spread all over the world, the activity of
research done by men allowed the improvement of its species through clonal
selection. For the sake of truth, it should be noticed man has also caused the
risk of vine extinction, such as in case of phylloxera or some miserable
phytosanitary practices.
The result has however been extraordinary: a marriage between man and Nature
which allowed - wine just like many other products - the production of a
beverage of such a high cultural, social and anthropological value. An old
saying reminds us that you can learn from your own mistakes, and this is
what certainly happened in the complex interaction between man and Mature in the
production of wine. Like to say, Nature provided the essential elements for the
production of wine - vine and territory, above all - man, by making use of his
genius, culture, passion and honesty, has been successful in taking advantage of
these conditions in order to make a noble beverage. The concept of nobility
certainly is a relative matter and, by considering what sometimes is being
poured in glasses, the borderline between nobility and roughness is frequently
uncertain, if not incomprehensible. Roughness in wine is frequently kept hidden
by ignoble reasons of commercial or cultural speculation and, sad to say, they
frequently are successful in their rough goal.
There are, lucky us, many and extraordinary examples of men who worked for the
keeping and the development of wine nobility. Men who kept themselves behind the
scenes and away from definitions, labels, fashion and speculation of the moment,
who preferred to make wine by listening to their passion and culture, instead of
selling an empty fashionable definition with which concealing their wines.
Many of them, after having given a fundamental contribution, also to the
advantage of all the other ones who today make wine or work in this world - and
this certainly is a noble intent - have been then discredited or denied.
Besides the infamous proof of ingratitude, it is also the proof there are many
who sometimes talk about subjects and men without knowing their history,
origin, works and importance. They simply open their mouths, talk in order to
say something. These subjects too - unfortunately - are by many considered
men of wine.
Writing a list of these great men who have contributed in such a high and
fundamental way to the history of wine would be very hard, also because I would
risk to unjustly omit someone. It would also be harder to write a list of those
who today denies the work of these great men - subjects who think, poor them, to
be even better - and who cannot understand without their work, today many of
them would simply have a different job. A job probably not about wine. As far
as I am concerned, I believe I am grateful to many persons, also to those I
have never personally met but who however taught me a lot with what they wrote
or did. I owe the same gratitude to all the ones I personally know - some of
them honor me with their precious friendship and esteem - and I am aware of the
fact I did not give them in return as much as they taught me. Last but not the
least, I am also grateful to all the wines I tasted so far: they too taught me a
lot - for better or for worse - not only their history and life, but also the
ones of those men who made them.
Antonello Biancalana
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