Yes! There is. If you have the deep pockets and connections to hire a tiptop PR firm. And if you can slather the correspondent with copious amounts of wine, food and opportunities to swan about as if he were starring in an Italian version of Brideshead Revisited.*
I refer of course to the puff piece Morley Safer just delivered on 60 Minutes (click to view entire 12-minute segment), a program known years ago for exposing just such bullshit. The adoringly profiled subject: those humble grape farmers and people of the land, the charming and down-to-earth Antinoris.
A simple pied-à-terre for simple folk
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The feminist angle was duly emphasized, as they describe how Piero (an appallingly comic figure in Mondovino) sucked his three daughters into the family business.
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Piero, a simple contadino
I think my favorite part was when the three sisters were sitting with the chuckling, avuncular Safer and declared their nearly mystical devotion to the land and their preference for the simple life of the farmer. They even showed the girls picking grapes with nary a stain on their white shirts or cuts on their manicured hands. Virgil would have swooned.
I, on the other hand, have heard those lines from real farmers and their less-than-pampered offspring quite often, so I am hardly convinced by this well-choreographed and rehearsed performance.
Aside from the obligatory beauty shots of the Tuscan countryside (billionaires' edition) and Florence, we got a nice plug for Tignanello, strategically timed for the last part of the segment for easier remembrance.
In these tough times even for the cash cow that is 60 Minutes, I shouldn't be at all surprised to learn that the Antinoris had paid for all of Morley and the crew's expenses.
Yes, there is certainly life after Brunellopoli. And it's a meraviglioso one.
* Brideshead Revisited: a tedious show about loathsome, boring people.
Living on a thin line
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I detest the image of Italy and Italian wine that pieces like this nonsense on 60 Minutes perpetrate. That it's all a sort of Disneyland of play-farming and conspicuous consumption, a lure for rich and rather dim-witted foreigners. That it's all about "elegance" and not about hard economic, social and political realities for the people who live and work there. That it's all charming and quaint and romantic and not about punishing work, cold rooms and the assumption of indebtedness to keep going. Those are the realities facing most grape-growers and wine producers.
This is why I have a hard time with "wine lifestyle" magazines and websites that fuel the fantasies which rob the endeavors of the producers of due respect and recognition of what they achieve despite many obstacles. The realities are so much more complex, interesting and human.
which is exactly the wine "lifestyle" as it's hyped in California, especially the airier perches of Napa Valley.
Posted by: fredric koeppel | October 13, 2008 at 08:27 AM
which is why I included a link to the web site of the Antinoris' winery in Napa.
The sign at the front of the property declares "Twenty-six generations."
And this is what you get? Eh.
Posted by: Strappo | October 13, 2008 at 08:47 AM
Yeah, if it's all charming and quaint, it ain't Italy. Just put "Under the Tuscan Sun" with her "look how easy it is to find a dump in Tuscany and turn it into a fabulous villa" up against Tim Parks' very good "Italian Neighbors". Parks does a great job of reminding us why Italy is also a frustrating country full of obstinance and inefficiency. And why we love it.
Posted by: rstark | October 15, 2008 at 01:10 PM
I read the Parks book years ago and was impressed with its unromantic view. I gave it to a friend and she hated its negativity. She wanted to believe...
Posted by: Strappo | October 15, 2008 at 04:56 PM
That was an interesting reportage. I'm saying interesting because I can't find any better words.
Please take a look at Montalcino Report for some news regarding "Brunellopoli"...
Posted by: Montalcino Report | October 16, 2008 at 10:01 AM
terry:
si tratta di un fatto curioso. Tourists often look for and so are shown only the elegance especially at vinitaly. but traveling thru the country, visiting ottavia scagliotti bortolomiol and le quatrro sorelle and others and you see how much work it really takes.
As one winemaker told me, it's like farming solo piu difficile.
ciao..
Posted by: Dave | October 16, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Excellent point!
Posted by: Strappo | October 17, 2008 at 10:11 AM