Awsome Winemaker or War Criminal, You Decide!

[Botafogo]

Perhaps no one saw this call to arms as they were already bored with the "International Style" wine that was named in the header?

>>Some background: "Vitiano" is grown and vinified by one of Italy's most revered
winemakers, Riccardo Cotarella. In Italy, Cotarella's talents and instincts for great
vineyards and grapes are looked upon with awe.<<

This view is mostly held by the internationalists who won't be happy until all wines taste the same (like some sort of over oaked, too alcoholic Aussie Merlot/Shiraz
blend). There ARE a significant number who join us in the backlash movement and believe that Mr. C is a War Criminal guilty of cultural imperialism, viticultural genocide and general evil.

We STRONGLY encourage the Italian government to come to its senses and deport him to Australia or at least Spain so he can fulfill his apparent destiny of budding over all interesting varieties to Merlot and destroying thousands of years of stylistic tradition with a single spin of his rotary fermenters.

Almost without exception, we inform wineries who have contracted with Mr. C that we will no longer be able to offer their wines amongst our thousands of Italian lables.

Yes, Vitiano is a nice, cheap glass of wine. BUT, every bottle made is in place of something that truly speaks of time and place and food and culture instead of focus groups and international distribution.

Ciao, tutti, Roberto (WINE EXPO)

Some context to the above indictment:

Deep Philosophical musings on The Funk vs. Technical “perfection”.....

We would like to thank our friend Mario di Dievole (heir, caretaker and ambassador extraordinaire of a nearly thousand year old Chianti estate of the same name) for a wonderful feature in his cantina’s completely over the top large format magazine “Zolle e Nuvolle” (“clods and clouds”, a reference to Heaven and Earth): he asked several very famous Italian wine writers the bottom line question, “What makes a great wine?”. Luca Maroni (an impossibly obtuse technocrat whom you would rather listen to the grass grow than have a conversation with) drones on and on about “the result of technical perfection, due solely to the oenologically perfect transformation of a viticulturally perfect fruit, is the universal pleasantness of flavor....Let them look for pleasantness, nothing else. It’s quality must therefore be
such as to please everybody.” Uhhhhh.... ...Luke...baby...can’t you see that that road leads straight to Raspberry Merlot, Twinkies and “Kenny G. plays John Tesch...Live in Vegas”???

An opposing viewpoint comes from Luigi Veronelli who submits what he says is an “extract” from a proposed book on the very subject that has been rejected by publishers with no vision or courage: “to be great a wine must recount ad infinitum ‘the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth. the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth...’” This actually repeats for an entire page but you get his point: While there is a great deal of pleasure to be obtained from things like dark chocolate, truffles, wasabi, smoked blood sausage, really strong espresso and bleu cheeses (not to mention Henry Miller novels, Kurosawa films and Charles Mingus or Thelonius Monk tunes), much of the point of these is the juxtaposition and contrast of familiar, “pleasant” sensations with bitter, smoky, earthy, musky, discordant and even shocking elements. In short, real life encapsulated as is: cinema (or vinema or musica) verité that communicates a sense of time, place and culture on a visceral, even
animal level. We have found that the most popular wines in our store are the ones
that 80% of you LOVE and the other 20% HATE with no middle ground, an indication that they have real personality and a distinct point of view instead of pandering to a “universal taste”.

Discuss amongst yourselves, Roberto (Jackie, are you happy now?)