The Romance of Wine, a personal journey

I feel as though I haven't posted in many days.  It's been two, but I guess it's because I've been absorbed in an unusually interesting book.

The book is Il Romanzo del vino (The Romance of Wine), which was published last year in Italy.  It's by the noted winemaking consultant, Roberto Cipresso, and it's an exhilarating, very personal journey around the wine world. 

Cipresso moves from country to country and century to century, examining the various cultures that have been shaped by wine -- and the way cultures have shaped wine itself in a process that is never-ending.  For him it all comes down to terroir, that (quel horreur!) French concept so often scorned by California winemakers; he gives a mighty cogent account of how that came to be.

By turns sunny and scornful, poetic and hard-headed, allusive and blunt, Il Romanzo del vino gives you a rare look inside the mind and the heart of a winemaker.  As to when we might see an edition in English, that's an open question.  I think this book would be an illuminating companion piece to Hugh Johnson's A Life Uncorked.  And some of you know how much I esteem Mr. Johnson.

Comments

[Alfonso]

thanks for the tip...

[Terry Hughes]

Prego.

It would really suit your way of thinking and organizing information. I suspect you'll like it a lot.

[Alfonso]

there's another book sitting on my pile, called Romancing the Vine, about Barolo
by Alan Tardi...popular title, eh?
ci vediamo domani per pranzo...AC

[Feridun Onurmen]

What strikes me the most is Cipresso's tendency to mix things up as a winemaker. In a way he questions the validity of going the traditional way and sticking to local and proven varietals in the vineyards and traditional winemaking in the cellar in Italy or elsewhere. As the capo terroirista he goes after his dream of finding "la terra di nessuno". When the terroir is in place, it is capable of giving great wines he basically argues. Is it really so? I don't know but I respect his tendency to stop and feel the energy of a terroir..and his respect for the human touch at every step...

[Terry Hughes]

Well said. He strikes me as an iconoclast but with humor and a sense of proportion, not driven by anger or retaliation. Given the spitefulness in many quarters of the wine world, that's something to cheer.