Above: Pizza romana and BEER last night at Il Giardinetto in Marghera (Venice), Italy.

When I came downstairs to the lobby of the crusty and salty 3-star hotel in the Venetian port city of Marghera, where I spent the last night of my Italy stay, I was greeted by the news that another earthquake had struck Abruzzo — 5.2 on the Richter Scale. I haven’t been able to get online with much success (and I am posting today from the Amsterdam airport where I have a short layover before a flight to Houston) but I was able to read Eric’s excellent post (using my blackberry) on the impact the earthquakes will have on Abruzzo winemaking.

To some, it could seem shallow to think about winemaking at a time like this but it’s not. Unlike the majority of Americans, Italians drink wine every day and the wine industry there is not an elitist industry that caters primarily to the affluent (as it does in the U.S. where wine is considered a luxury product, marketed to and consumed primarily by the wealthy). In a region like Abruzzo — one of the more economically depressed among Italy’s 20 regions — the wine industry is the life blood for a sizable amount of the population (including the retail, restaurant, and transport sectors).

The larger and more well-established wineries like Illuminati and Cataldi Madonna will certainly weather the current crisis and their wines will continue to represent some of the best values for quality both domestically and abroad. But it now seems likely (especially considering the current economic climate) that many of the smaller wineries will be forced to shutter their cellar doors. I regret to think that a much-anticipated and hoped-for renaissance in Abruzzo winemaking will not happen in this generation.