One of the stand-out wines for me yesterday was the 2007 Ruchè by eccentric winemaker Marco Crivelli. I wish I had time this morning to report our philosophical confabulatio but I’m rushing to get ready for today’s tastings. Among other things, he pointed out to me that every Italian citizen owns Euro 40,000 worth of Italy’s cultural heritage. He’s as nutty as he looks and his wines are off-the-charts good.

But the wine that really, truly, and entirely rocked my boat, was this unfiltered, no-SO2 added (i.e., no added sulfite) Cortese by Paolo Marcarini. The wine will be filtered before bottling, but, man, I could drink it, as is, every day. I loved this wine and the only thing that could possibly make it better would be if I were to get to taste it with my Tracie P. Some day we will…

In other news…

Alfonso’s comment on the cat recipe scandal and Vicentine winemaker Fausto Maculan (who very publicly came to the cat-eater’s defense) brought to mind an old saying that they have in the Veneto: venexiani gran signori, padovani gran dotori, vicentini magnagati, veronesi tuti mati (Venetians are fancy folks, Paduans are learned folks, in Vicenza they eat cats, and in Verona they’re all crazy).