If we want everything to stay the same, everything must change…
Above: To watch Visconti’s battle scenes is to see the hand of a Renaissance master in motion. I highly recommend this epic classic.
Last night, as Tracie B and I watched the first 90 minutes of Visconti’s 1963 technicolor classic Il gattopardo (The Leopard), I couldn’t help but think of the passages we read from Count Camillo Cavour’s epistolary in my “Italian Wine and Civilization” seminar last week at the Austin Wine Merchant. In the opening sequences of the movie, the Prince of Salina reads aloud from a letter sent to him by courier from his brother-in-law: “My dear Fabrizio, I am writing to you in a state of utter collapse. Such dreadful news in the paper. The Piedmontese have landed. We are all lost.” The backdrop for the movie is Garibalidi’s Expedition of the Thousand: in 1860, General Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily with an army of “a thousand” and defeated the forces of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. In doing so, he implemented the final (and historically symbolic) stage of the Unification of Italy, orchestrated, in large part, by Count Cavour in Piedmont.
Above: The banquet and ball sequences of Visconti’s film are among the most celebrated in international cinema history. Scorsese is a fan…
A very short 15 years before, and three years before the first Italian War of Independence in 1848, Count Cavour — the architect of Italian unity — was planning another crusade of sorts, an “enological crusade”:
- To Giacomo Giovanetti, Novara
I openly confess that the excellent wine of Sizzano has almost convinced me that luxury wines can be produced in Piedmont. To a great degree, this wine possesses that which bestow prestige on the wines of France and which our wines generally lack, bouquet. The bouquet of the Sizzano does not resemble that of Bordeaux but rather the bouquet of Burgundy where wines like Clos Vougeot and Romanet [Romanée] enjoy supremacy over all the wines of France for their delicate qualities.
Therefore, it has been proven that the hills of Novara can compete with the hills of Burgundy. In order to triumph in this struggle, [estate] owners must diligently oversee the production of their wines so that the wines will be rich, elegant, and indulgent. I hope to take part in this enological crusade [italics mine] and I will do what I can in the circles within which I move. In order to act expeditiously, it is crucial that you inform as to whether or not these wines of this caliber are available for sale and what is their price. If Count Solaro ever gives up his post — something I doubt he’d ever be willing to do — I will send the wines of Sizzano as a gift to all the diplomats. In the meantime, I will drink them with my friends and toast to your health.
Turin, July, 1845. (Translation mine.)*
As the letter reveals (in my unpublished translation), it was a wine from the township of Sizzano (in the province of Novara, Piedmont, not far from Gattinara) that first inspired Cavour’s “enological crusade,” to make wine in Piedmont that could rival the wines of Burgundy.
With this in mind, I couldn’t help but find uncanny Franco’s post today, announcing a wonderful tasting of Langa Nebbiolo and Burgundies this weekend in the town of La Morra (in the heart of Langa). The tasting, entitled Their Majesties (aka, Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir), is intended to create dialog and discussion of the affinities and differences between these two noble grapes and terroirs.
Today, as Italy’s tenuous unity teeters more precariously than ever on the divide between north and south, it might seem to some that Cavour’s enolgoical crusade has been the more successful. “If we want everything to stay the same,” says the Prince of Salina, “everything must change.” (That’s the cover of the editio princeps of the English translation of Lampedusa’s 1958 novel Il gattopardo, published in 1960, and given to us by Tracie B’s dear friend Lena.)
Above: Tracie B’s ragù was so good last night with a bottle of the 2007 Dolcetto by Marchesi di Gresy. We love that wine…
I wish I could spend the whole day reflecting and writing about Cavour and Nebbiolo, Lampedusa and Visconti, Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir… but, alas, it’s already 9 a.m. and time to get to work and hit the market and “move some boxes,” as they say in the business. I’m headed to San Antonio… Stay tuned… We’ll be watching the second half of the movie tomorrow night…
In other Nebbiolo news…
I love it when McDuff writes about one of his favorite producers of Nebbiolo, Vajra, as he did today… Check it out…
* Translation copyright Jeremy Parzen 2007.
Il grattopardo is a great novel and movie that gives you an understanding of Sicily during this period. It is always a pleasure to read your articles that are a
mixture of wine, food,history and culture. I believe Garibalidi said that macarone would unite us(North & South)However when I go to the Naples area and Sicily, when his name is mentioned they always say “the mercenary of the Savoy”
I would have loved to read it in the original Italian.
Years ago, I was sitting in my aunt and uncles breakfast room in Palermo, drinking cafe latte that my aunt Vittina made for me everyday I was there. Our family had owned a large building ( a convent) in the hills behind Palermo and the story was that Garibaldi had set up a brief operations center in it.
As my aunt brought out a fresh pastry from downstairs, my uncle, who was never prone to exaggeration, told me,”The table you are sitting at is where Garibaldi dined when he took over ‘la schlitza’ from our family.”
I remember when I lived in Italy I saw a newspaper poll of the most admired humans throughout history according to the Italian populace and Garibaldi was rated second (behind Jesus).
It seems that Cavour’s crusade is symbolically repeating itself in the improved wines of Sicily. The Cusumanos that AC and I tasted last week along with Nerello from Etna and Cerasuolo di Vittoria sometimes betray their Southern origins with Burgundian/Piemontese finesse and complexity.
Hey Jeremy. This Thursday a group of friends and I have put together a Burgundy vs. Barolo/Barbaresco dinner. This is the third such event I’ve participated in and the previous two were both fantastic. Each person is either on Team Burg or Team Bar and brings a respective bottle. We’ll pair a Burg and a Bar in each flight, taste them blindly and discuss. For this session, the wines must be 2002 or older and under $150.
At first blush it doesn’t make sense but the wines are fascinating to taste together.
that is a great movie.
wow, thanks everyone for the great comments, stories, and anecdotes. I wish I could travel to La Morra this weekend and taste those wines (like Noah’s tasting) with Franco!
@Alfonso don’t forget the cannoli! ;-)