Comments on: Wine in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita

By: Sgt.. Sassafras

Sgt.. Sassafras — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:23:28 +0000

yall’ are so funny!

By: michele colline

michele colline — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:50:32 +0000

Apparently there is a Casa La Gatta aged in big barrels and a La Gatta Riserva aged in small and large barrels for 18 months.

By: Jean-Pierre

Jean-Pierre — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:13:15 +0000

I’m a newcomer to your blog… and i love that you engagingly combined two of my favourite things, wine & film, in one post :-).

By: Do Bianchi

Do Bianchi — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:28:22 +0000

@Neil you’re entirely right and I apologize for the confusion: the vines and winemaking facility are indeed located on the Italian side of the border. The family is Swiss and the company’s headquarters are in Switzerland (according to the site). The Gatta, according to the site, does see some time in small cask (and I’m assuming new wood): “circa un terzo invece della produzione viene conservata in piccoli fusti in modo da conferire a questo vino una rotondità ed una eleganza straordinarie.” Thanks for the clarification and for stopping by. I’m looking forward to tasting the wine one of these days.

@Michele thanks for stopping by.

@Strappo I think you commented on the wrong post! Thanks for the comment either way… :-)

By: michele colline

michele colline — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:07:00 +0000

Thank you Neil. Ever been to the Valtellina?

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:45:53 +0000

JP,

I enjoyed your post on La Dolce Vita’s connection to the wines of the Veneto.

One note about the wines of Triacca. The wines are from Italy, from the Valtellina in the Northern part of Lombady. They are that about as close to Swiss border without being Swiss. The owners are also Swiss. Also, I believe the La Gata does not see any time in new barrel. It is aged in older traditional large casks. They do make a Prestigio bottling that does see time in new wood.

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:30:26 +0000

One of the wines the glitterati might have seen while dining at the Hotel Ritz in Forte Dei Marmi could have possibly been an Ugolino Bianco

By: Strappo

Strappo — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:29:55 +0000

Let me add something to your comment about this film. It is indeed a bit heavy-handed, a tendency Fellini indulged in more and more as time passed, but it is indeed wonderful document of the Italy that was rising from its wartime destruction to become something new and none too folkloric. I’m not sure what his best work is — Cabiria? Otto e mezzo? Satyricon? (I’m serious.) I don’t know. But La Dolce Vita is certainly his most inclusive film, epic even. In that sense it’s his most ambitious and, flaws and all, great for its dense historical and artistic allusions, the often brilliant vignettes and set pieces, and the camera work of Otello Martelli. (Not to mention Nino Rota’s musiche.) To say it’s imperfect is like saying The Decameron is imperfect — which is surely is. But it absolutely stands alone. It is infinitely rich.

By: Strappo

Strappo — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:20:22 +0000

JP, I wouldn’t have come anywhere near Laura’s amazing response/explication. I did get the Salo’ part though.

As one who was happily traumatized by La Dolce Vita at 14, and who has seen it too many times to count, I will dare to correct you about the identity of the homosexual who gave Marcello Rubini the dope on the vino. It was Gio Staiano playing Pierone)) and he wasn’t a transvestite, just a garden-variety queer like yours truly. Gio was also present in Intervista, il Maestro’s reunion picture, although also without a credit.

NB: I was just looking at the IMDB listing for La Dolce Vita. There was a performer with a very Valpolicellan name: Count Brunoro Serego Aligheri as “the young man in the mink coat”. From the heart of Garganego.

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:18:49 +0000

Years of practising tenuous literary criticism coming out here – chiedo venia! I will be asking anyone I can find over 85 what was out of their reach in the 1950s. Who knows what was being poured in Forte dei Marmi to celebrities in the 50s?