Do I note a transgression???

[Botafogo]

You guys are WAY to literal. Maybe you didn't take enough acid when you were young (GGG!!!)? What we have done here is to:

1)Blast in a public forum our opinion (which anyone who reads our stuff knows is that the FUNK is better and usually cheaper) that young Marco (the actual proprietor, Arnaldo is the father) has strayed from the true path but we still have hope for him as he matures (we've seen this before).He (and his wine maker and importer) is a friend and we also make a point of not only championing the wines of his hated competitor, Paolo Bea (whom Marco thinks is "ruining the reputation of the appellation") but reminding Marco that Bea's ultra traditional wines outsell his in our store five to one.

2) use this wine as a contrast to the Aglianico based wines below which we actually prefer on both quality and value. We DO keep the odd example of the Aussie meets Clendendon style around to demonstrate the differences, but both the inventory and the sales of such are less than 2% of our stock. In our store the Vini Internationali do NOT sell in a big way as our clientele have had ample opportunity to try them side by side with more food friendly wines at our dinners and almost always reject the path of globalization in favor of terroir. As to "marketing" we often keep a bottle of OPUS ONE (taken in trade from a giftee who wants something more interesting) chained to the sales counter as a teaching aid as in what NOT to buy.

3) Use the Caprai wines as bait to entrap fruitsucking bats (oh..sorry..Parker-ites, Marvinettes and Red Shrimp) into our lair so we can make them taste Lagrein Dunkel, Rebo and Nurello Apassito. Then we make them drink Lambrusco and Sangue di Giuda and soon many are rabid WINE EXPO-isti, prozeliting the one true path to their friends and neighbors like good little zombies, it's a cult thing.......

and 4) service scores of long term clients who have verticals of the Caprai and bug us constantly for the next vintage. As we said, we started this guy in America and still hope to see him reach a middle ground in the future but in the meantime we have been the Casa di Caprai for over 10 years.

And, really, if you can't detect that that over the top offering was tounge in cheek then you need to get your sense of humor a check-up.

I am leaving on Saturday morning, THANK GOD!!!!

Roberto