Source: Alfonso Cevola. Check out his truly stunning post on tasting Sangiovese in Tuscany in the 1970s, Our Sangiovese.
The above image of Ezio Rivella (now president of the Brunello producers association) has been culled from the December 1-15, 1982 issue of the Wine Spectator. The article, filed from Florence, was written by Burton Anderson and is entitled “Italian vintners look to Cabernet, Chardonnay for future wine styles; results mixed so far.”
“We’re deliberately adopting a California style because our main market is the United States and also because the technology is more suitable,” Rivella, then director of Banfi, told Anderson. “But we have an advantage. Conditions in our hill vineyards are not only better than in Napa or Sonoma, they’re the best I know of anywhere. We plan to fully exploit this advantage in our wines, which will be aged in barriques of split French oak.”
A picture’s worth a thousand words, isn’t it?
In other [Brunello] news…
Who knew that Gianfranco Soldera was a natural winemaker? Read what he had to say in an interview published last week, translated and posted by Mr. Franco Ziliani and me at VinoWire.
Rivella’s quote from Anderson’s book, Vino (p.262), “As an outsider, I’m compelled to speak softly,” takes on new meaning.
Who is this man?
@Alfonso thanks again for sharing this amazing document with me. I wish I had time to translate the entire interview he did with Macchi. Who knows? Maybe Rivella will agree to meet with me when I visit Montalcino next month!
speaks softly but carries a big stick
big schtick
“big schtick” what a nice neologism!
Thank you. May I use it, living in Montalcino?
@silvana alas it’s not a neologism. It’s Yiddish! ;-)
would he give that quote today, with such transparency?