Have you EVER seen such bad journalism???

[Botafogo]

Guys, I am taking a poll of interested parties. You seem like "devout Italian wine lovers" and I would welcome your responses to this:

"The wine regions of Valtellina and Abruzzo are not on even the most devout Italian wine lover's radar screen for quality wines." James Suckling on The WINE SPECTATOR website


I have questioned Mr. Suckling on the sheer ignorance / arrogance of this and his responses border on childish. E-mail me if you would like the whole text. The FACT that these wines have been famous for centuries and are in wide distribution (you can buy Sforzati in Singapore and Sao Paolo and Pepe Montepulcianos are the rage not just here but in Tokyo, the Gambero Rosso has given its highest possible award to four different Valtelina wineries and a wine from Abruzzo was its wine of the year last year) seems to mean nothing to him. His basic position is that if something has not been covered in the Spectator then it is "uknown".

But what really gets under my skin is that, in one uninformed throwaway sentence, Suckling both denies the very existence of and the YEARS of hard work in education and promotion by scores of nice wine loving people working for the importers of these wines. The fact that I became aware of it when one of them faxed me the text of the WS web page trying to sell me one of his wines dispite this is the final irony. In an effort to keep my energy directed at finding and nurturing new wines and not having strokes I generally avoid reading ANYTHING from these people.

Nine days to VinItaly and I can't wait, Roberto