PART 6: The Wine Maker's Story. 9/02/2018

A). How I Met Giacomelli:

Hi again Family and Friends! I can’t wait to tell you all about the Wine Maker Roberto Giacomelli. Firstly I must rewind to prepare you for how this meeting occurred. The beggining flows in the following sequence: Umberto’s cousin Carlo, from Terrarosa, is a family friend of a wine maker named Roberto Giacomelli. Fulvia, Umberto and I met with Carlo and his Wife (and puppy) in the village outside of Aulla, and we traveled to the Cantina of Roberto. I was able to meet some of his wine makers and try many of his wines, which I will go into detail after I set up the scenery.

As I intend to meet with his American Importers when I return to the states, Roberto Giacomelli was interested in putting me in contact with a few of his friends and their wineries in the Piedmonte Region, as I will be heading that way in October. These contacts would also be able to put me in touch with some wineries in Siena for the month of September. I am thankful to have met Roberto Giacomelli. Maybe he did see something special in me, the way that I found something special in him and his wine. Maybe it was fate. Or maybe Giacomelli simply was a good man who liked teaching others about something he loved.Wine.

As Giacomelli is a Boutique wine maker and his wines are not sold in US stores, he also promoted to me other boutique wineries around the regions of Piedmonte, Chianti, and Sicilia. I intend on returning to his vineyard a few more times before I leave for more wine tasting opportunity. I will buy some of his wines as I head back to the states to store into a warehouse and eventually distribute to “Collectors” and “Luxury/Premium” Buyers in Florida.

C. The Story:

Before I go into detail about the wine, let me tell you about the Cantina first. The cantina itself has a vineyard on its land. Not only do they make wine alone from the grapes they produce at their vineyard on this land, but they also use grapes from exterior vineyards within the region of the eastern end of Liguria, which is now embraced by Tuscany. The soil in this region is praised by its peculiarity as it is an artistic and impressive combination that give life to the Vermentino Wine. The explosion of the Vermentino di Colli de Luni plays a decisive role in this region as Roberto and his cantina describe this as the land of the “rebellious genius of Michelangelo Buonarroti”.

I would like to translate the story Roberto and his Cantina has told about Michelangelo:

“The Tuscan artist Michelangelo spent months and months in the eastern extremity of the Apuan Alps, among peaks unknown to many, but rich in precious marble strands. Particularly loved by the great character was the mountain behind Ortonovo, called "Burla" (today Borla), just for the mockery that the nobles of Lunigiana addressed to Buonarroti. Oblivious of derision, alone, in the throes of creative fury, Michelangelo spent days and nights violently chiseling scores of huge blocks of stone, looking for among them what he would finally talk to his deepest intimacy and calm his envy. In these times he was much more sought after than an ignoble road brigand! The Pope was looking for him to bring him back to his commitments at the Vatican; the rich owners of the quarries were looking for it because the great genius was reducing in powder, immense deposits of the precious mineral; the peasants of the hills descended to the sea, because the rock of Michelangelo's gigantic work of crumbling invaded their poor cultivations of vegetables and the heroic vines suspended between the mountains and the sea. “

“Finally, the boatmen who came up from the mouth of the Magra to the inland were looking for it, as the debris that fell into the valley obstructed the stream and caused very serious problems with navigation. Buonarroti lived therefore hidden, dirty and sickly, like a true hermit, prey to his obsessive desire. Then, after months of this crazy search, he finally found the right marble block, suddenly came to a sudden and brilliant and brilliant return to his unattainable works of art.”

“All this would seem to have nothing to do with our Vermentino. And instead ... the continuous fall of chopped debris gradually covered the soil of the hills between Ortonovo and Castelnuovo Magra, reaching up to touch the sea. Some of them, as already mentioned, ended their race sinking into the clear waters of the Magra, sometimes creating dams that completely blocked the course of the waters. In one of the most turbulent times of the life of the supreme Buonarroti, it is recalled that for months and months it was impossible to navigate the river and that the sea water sucked inwards could no longer return to the Mocca di Magra, creeping deeply into the ground surrounding to impregnate not only the plain, but also the first heights.” “The soil of the hills that today lay hiding between Liguria and Tuscany then underwent a slow geological transformation, which slowly produced completely peculiar forms of local vegetation. They infiltrated their roots in a mixture of earth, marble dust and brackish water. An exceptional mix, unthinkable elsewhere! Just the vermentino vines were among the first to undergo this unexpected change, giving wines fantastic salty hints, soaked in marble minerality. A vegetable masterpiece born from the remains of masterpieces of the human mind. Very few wines have such an illustrious history and so closely linked to a perfect synthesis between territory and artistic creativity. A wine with a truly "Michelangelesque" strength! “

"To conclude this brief summary of the demanding research work, I want to encourage you readers to go and see these unique places in person, the result of human genius and harmony of nature. In the meantime, treat yourself to a glass of this great Vermentino, close your eyes and you will still seem to hear the furious blows of Michelangelo's chisel. Personally I can advise you, without fear of making mistakes, the exceptional ones of Roberto (Giacomelli). I remember only some of his masterpieces: Boboli and Pianacce. Taste them and you will feel a bit like Michelangelo.”