Step in Sergio Esposito‘s Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Family in the Heart of Italy – which from the first page pulls one directly into the rental car of he and his brother Sal at the end of an epic 60 winery tour of Italy. Sergio, an Italian born New York wine retailer has embarked on a wine-buying tour of Italy with his brother who got him into the business in the fist place – and within the first pages of reading you are situated within a remarkable life, which I was utterly compelled by because suddenly the retailer I had been up against was given a face. I completely sympathise with the opening sentiments of having a job that on the surface sounds glamorous but in reality can be very gritty – however one quickly learns that Esposito has been doing this for 3 months every year for nearly 2 decades. From my part I was around the East Coast, Mid West and West Coast pushing wine to restaurants retailers and country-clubs tasting wine from 8:30 in the morning to 1am sometimes 6 days a week – and within two years I have more stories than I care to remember. For Sergio and his brother they’re diligently working through 10 wineries a day tasting through varietals and enduring long-drives in hot weather – often what sounds glamorous, and would seem like the setting for a series of Sideways style misadventures through a foreign country ends up being a lot more like work than anyone else could ever imagine. One has to take their hat off to such dedication even though amidst the work it is interspersed with tales of seductive winemakers daughters, raucous Italian weddings and personalities you’re unlikely to forget.

Passion on the Vine is an insight into a life less ordinary from one of the world’s leading wine consultants who can be found on the pages of the Wall Street Journal to the Times to the Wine Spectator itself. Esposito brings the innate raconteur nature of Italian New Yorkers, combined with a mellifluous writing style into a memoir that goes to the heart of what it means to be an epicurean. He illustrates so perfectly how passion, love and romance can go a long way to carrying someone throughout life. Ultimately this is a romance between one man and an entire region which will make you fall in love with Italy; and paints the picture of a dying breed – wine-men who actually love wine, men who excel in their jobs for more than money and people who add value not only to their families but pay their dues to those who have helped them over the years. Esposito’s is a poignant picture of optimism and love in a marketplace that is primarily having the life squeezed out of it by soulless critters.

Esposito re-introduced me to a feeling I nearly lost, and in his words I remembered a part of myself. When one is up against Little Penguin – it’s difficult to find the actual stories and vines and passion in a fuzzy cartoon character. There is no doubt that much of Western Philosophy was built on the back of wine-fueled sentiments; and from the foundation of Western culture there is no doubt that Italians built New York and have made the culture (together with the Irish) what it is today. Esposito, in a tale filled with adventure, comedy and energy has staked his claim to not only being a philosopher, a wine lover and a great New Yorker – but being an advocate and an inspiration to future wine millenials, showing that there’s no real substitute for loving what you do.

Cheerz.

Special thanks to Dianna Tingg from Italian Wine Merchants who has reached out to so many of us on the wine blogosphere, and has shared this wonderful book with us. It is a priveledge to have been given the opportunity to review such a great book.

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What do you think about this change in wine marketing? Does a can make wine more sexy and appealing in a club atmosphere?

Beyond this diatribe of what I like to call the dumbification of wine, I changed the channel to Jay Leno and saw one of best performances on Late Night TV in a while. “In January 2007, an unlikely pair teamed up for two nights of concerts in New York City: Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. Or maybe not so unlikely: Mr. Marsalis and Mr. Nelson came together to celebrate and play the blues, a musical tradition with ties to both jazz and country.” They played Bright Lights, Big City which was amazing not only because Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis are two of the most accomplished musicians of our time, but because it was done in a traditional jazz style where each player: guitar, trumpet, saxophone, harmonica, keys, and drums, all got to solo. Check the album out!

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You have to check out these Champagne Onion recipes we found over at The Gilded Fork. I’m going to make them tomorrow, and have a good idea at the different flavors I can create by using different combinations of sparkling wine and onions. I figured we would make these 3

• “Sweet Vidalia Champagne Onions” – This recipe will make a great chip dip. We’ll cook the onions and some freshly minced garlic in Andre Blush Pink Champagne (a $4 bottle of delicious sparkling rose), and then add sour cream, chives, fresh ground pepper, and some sour cream and onion dip mix.
• “Purple Champagne Onions” – We’ll cook the onions with Hardys or Leasingham (both are a sweet sparkling Shiraz from Australia) or Leasingham then mix with cream cheese, and maybe a little roasted red pepper for spice. Put some sun-dried tomatoes and smoked salmon on a piece of toasted baguette along with a dollop of our extremely colorful sauce, maybe even garnish with a sprinkle of green onion.
• “Champagne Braised Cipollini Onions” – This recipe got me thinking about an entrée , like this beef tenderloin. We’ll cook the onions using Freixenet Spumante (a fruity, dry Cava from Spain) or Mionetto Prosecco Brut (a light Italian Prosecco), then slice them thinly and pour the reduced sauce over them. We’ll either cook a small tenderloin, or grill a filet, then thinly slice it; make sure you let it for 5-10 min. before slicing so it stays tender and moist. On each slice, place some onion sauce and horseradish cream (horseradish and sour cream). If I have a hard time finding Cipollini Onions, I’m sure the Vidalias would also work great.

Most people will go out this holiday season and buy bottles of Andre and Cook’s, both from California, which are a great and inexpensive way to bring in the New Year. The Cava, Prosecco, and Sparkling Shiraz mentioned in the recipes are also great imported wines for toasting a New Year, plus I don’t think any of them are over $20.

So go out during the Holidays and buy any bottle of Champagne or Sparkling White Wine, pop the cork if you feel the need because whatever you find enjoyable whether it be a loud or soft pop, is your preference. If hanging out with a cultured crowd the flamboyant procedure might not be advised. Sit back and let the bubbles tickle your throat and get jazzed about a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Quick Lesson: Champagne is a wine region in France located about 100 miles east of Paris. It is legally divided into 5 wine producing ‘districts’: the Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne. Champagne/Sparkling Wine is generally marked as Extra Brut, Brut, Extra dry, Sec and Demi-sec, depending on how sweet they are. Extra bruit is extremely dry, while demi-sec is the sweetest.

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This is no new idea, in fact it was a great American who said it best:

• Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.
  • Martin Luther King (1958)

What brings people closer together than wine, food and music? Most men would rather share a meal with their neighbour than spend all night wishing him dead. I’ve done a bit of travelling in the Israel, Lebanon and Egypt – and I’ll tell you this: all that crap you see on Fox about people wishing American’s dead is claptrap. Representing the middle-east as Al Qaeda is like representing the USA as the Klu Klux Klan. I think a shared appreciation of culture, poetry, music, literature and food could do a lot for US foreign policy. Who would have thought 30 years ago that some of the most successful contemporary Asian cuisine in the USA would be Vietnamese or Japanese? Mind you, Korean food is pretty good nowadays too. George Bush wants America to believe that terrorists target the USA because they hate their freedom… but if terrorists hate freedom: then why have there been no bombs in Sweden?

And also, lets not forget that terrorism is in no way peculiar to the middle-east. Americans have committed acts of terrorism in America: the Unabomber, Columbine, Virginia Tech, Timothy McVeigh, Gacey, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Darma etc. Also, terrorism is not peculiar to Islam, as we’ve seen in Northern Ireland (thus it is ironic to see how Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity promote Guantanamo on Fox, hell, I would love to have seen O’Reilly’s reaction if the British had started throwing innocent Irish people into their own Guantanamo during the IRA bombings.)

In the words of Dr. King again:

• The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it… In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction…. The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
  • Martin Luther King (1963)

American soldiers are simply making the world a more dangerous place. Of course, they have the best intentions, but what they’re doing is fruitless. We’d be better off investing in poets and filmmakers in Iraq. Giving people guns will just give other people reason to pick up guns. Training Sunni militias is a mistake, rather educate Sunni children. Training Americans to be killers is another grave error, rather make our soldiers teachers and engineers. What can a Marine do when they return to normal life besides obsess over atrocities committed in the State’s name? On the contrary, if you train a young American to be constructive rather than destructive, that is state-resources well spent. Rather set up feeding tents in Shi’ite neighbourhoods, giving local people Iowa corn on the cob, corn-bread, coca-cola and organizing soft-ball games. Yes, there will be bombings: but people will be more willing to harbour terrorists in their homes if there are uniformed men with guns in the streets. If Americans are to die on foreign soil rather let them die trying to feed other people than die whilst exchanging gun fire with them.

What can we do at home on American soil to contribute to the world situation? I think being open to other cultures and participating in world events in a positive and engaged way will do lot for world security. I think America makes awesome wines; some my favourite novelists are American; American cuisine is awesome, some of the world’s greatest luminaries are American and of course, half my family is American. Having spent a fair bit of time in the South and the middle-East I can honestly say that I see more cultural similarity than anyone would think. Southerners are middle-Easterners all love richy, hearty meals: Brunswick stew in the South and Lamb Kofta in Morcocco; iced tea in the South and Bedouin tea in the middle-East. We’re more similar than Cheney wants us to know.

• Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  • Martin Luther King

Let us not continue to destroy the world, but rather lets enjoy it and enjoy the cultural differences and the fruits thereof.

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Good wine making often comes down to getting the blend right. It’s interesting how wine can often serve as an apt metaphor for life and culture – especially in regard to blending in this case. So much of America is still so racially divided – and seeing as America serves as a role model to so many countries, a more integrated America will make for a better world.

One of the things that struck me on going to Atlanta in May was that its a city where the blend of race, culture and lifestyle is one of the most balanced I’ve seen anywhere in the world. In fact I didn’t feel any tension, and from people I spoke to I got the impression that a cultural shift is underway and the east coast is leading the way.

Few sites really give the impression of catering to an integrated audience and even social networks like Facebook are predominantly white. The wine world is perhaps the largest culprit and the pages of Wine Spectator portray an industry leader making no attempt to better promote integration and cultural sharing. So many problems with racial integration are structural – and the beauty of the Internet and Web 2.0 is that the structures can be taken apart and reworked into a more inclusivist system.

Neosemantics have provided a platform with TheSynonym.com (info on social Events and pop culture);TheRetronym.com (editorials and current events); TheAntonym.com (admired churches and spirituality) and NeoBoogie.com (music and entrepreneurship) which fuses emergent culture with current culture, business culture, spirituality and social events. No doubt this is a movement that is much called for in the Mid-West in states like Ohio and across America in general.

In the early days of Wine 2.0 tastevine wants to ensure that taste is no longer structurally divided and that people are united within a common culture. Culture thrives on diversity and the mainstream media of the past have offered only hegemony. Already with viral movements like Obama Girl who has undoubtedly contributed to Barack Obama’s social network success (over 100,000 supporters on Facebook alone) we can see that NeoSemantics is at the root of a profound movement where its readership are not only concerned with culture, but are looking to make a change within the United States as a whole.

Wine owes its beginnings to the Middle East. It was then appropriated by the Europeans, and afterward cuttings were taken on board ship to begin new colonies as people sought a better life than was offered on the European continent at the time. Thus wine owes its heritage to humanity rather than to any one culture. Together with Tastevine and Neosemantics, we will hopefully pay tribute to this – broadening wine’s appeal, and hopefully getting the blend right this time around.

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My first insight into the reinvigoration of Greek Wine was at the London Wine Fair, where Wines of Greece had a fantastic stand, equipped with knowledgeable staff and presenting an array of unfamiliar varietals grown in Mediterranean weather and volcanic soils.

What’s really cool to see in the small villages, is that almost everyone has their own little vineyard – where they grow wine solely for their own consumption. Interestingly, most of the vineyards are untrellised, and the reason is that with such great heat, the vines are better off with a bushy canopy and being close to the ground. For the same reason, the vines are irrigated through subterranean capillary-feeds, so as to keep the roots digging deep – else they would die if too close to the baking hot ground.

Athens was at baking temperature this last week, and in my two times passing through – white wine was greatly called for, and I had the chance to sample the robolla varietal. I also had the chance to visit vineyards in Lesvos, Kefalonia and Corinth. Better than the vineyard visits were all the beaches. At current, I don’t have all my photos uploaded – but as soon as I’m back in civilization I’ll begin to share some of my stories with you, accompanied by photos.

Once again, thank you for all your encouragement and support! The Grape Thinking team values your readership and valuable feedback.

Also, if you’re thinking of taking leave in August, you should seriuosly look at getting yourself to Greece. Two weeks in the sun; crystal clear Aegean water; soft white pebble beaches; feta, olive oil and fresh baked bread at every meal and of course, an entire world of wine to discover. I’ll give any of you who may be keen a few tips in the days to come.

In the mean time, have a great weekend – and seek out some Greek wine to enjoy!

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Wine is profoundly important in a way most of us can’t imagine. Reasons being: wine inhabits the same realm as literature and art. Literature and art are the only two things that separate man from beast. Literature and art save mankind from destruction and brutality, think that whenever a fascist regime comes to power first they outlaw the writers and the poets, and from there all other personal liberties crumble. The artist and the writer are the people who set us free and by implication, wine, being in the same realm as art and literature, is also an agent of freedom. Think of it this way, Budweiser and Miller represent corporate hegemony, whilst wine represents the individual and old-fashioned craftsmanship. One has to ask whether they would prefer a world that was ruled by mass markets and homogenized products; or whether they prefer an old-fashioned, time-honoured ritual that provides unique flavours free to be sought after and consumed by the individual that is so inclined.

Think about it, literature and art (and wine) are the only aspects existing in mankind that don’t exist in beasts. We have entrepreneurial animals; brave dogs (Lassie); birds and ants who weave and construct architecturally brilliant homes; elephants and monkeys that consume fruit that has become alcoholic and become aggressive; murderous monkeys; affectionate dolphins and the list of anthropomorphic attributes goes on and on. You name it, love, loyalty, humour, sadness, murder, happiness, bravery, persistence… pick a quality, any quality, and trust me, if you watch the Discovery Channel long enough you’re going to see some aspect of it in animals, everything except literature and art.

Art and literature are the only two things that raise man above beast. If we are to survive as humans we’re going to need every inch of humanity we can find, because if one thing is certain there is an entire industry out there promoting anti-humanity. Beer companies, FHM magazine, Hustler and Jenna Jameson, Oil companies, the CIA, fast food chains, MTV, Lockhead Martin, pick any array of multi-billion dollar organizations and chances are they are not advocating the furtherment and benefit of mankind. Most all big businesses provide a service that is generally detrimental to the world at large. Wine is not big business yet. In many respects the winelands of France, Italy and Spain are some of the last culturally pure and non-malicious organizations in the world whose soul purpose is to provide a sophisticated level of pleasure and enjoyment to the consumer. The only way this industry can survive is with the support and understanding of people in their mid twenties, who need to understand the wealth of benefits that wine can provide them, and more importantly, what may happen if they don’t start becoming discerning consumers.

As young intelligent people it is our duty to make informed consumer decisions. There are two types of company, one that would sell and market cigarettes with a smile (an item that is proven to kill you); and the people who would take time to inform and promote a product with anti-oxidant healing power. We need to start actively supporting the people who support us because there are people in this world that would have you believe that the death penalty is correct; that two people of the same sex that are in love do not have the right to commit; that it is justified for more Iraqi children under 5 at the hands of the American nation than the amount of people over 30 who died in an attack conducted by an independent group; that children in Africa should not receive anti-retroviral, and I’m going to stop there because the list goes on. These people I talk of are not wine drinkers, they know nothing of literature and have no understanding of art or philosophy. They are just glorified animals posing as humans who seek the destruction of our species.

Susan Orlean, in ‘The Orchid Thief’ relates a process whereby if a person focuses on and becomes obsessed with and truly understands one small part of life, it becomes possible that many other confusing components fall into place. What I intent to show in this blog is that wine is just such a component.

The entire world of wine is a microcosm whose intricacies mimic and go on to effect the world at large. In wine there are aspects of globalization, environmental issues, political debates, personal taste, family feuds, bad guys, heroes, villains, capitalist pigs, irreverent artists and every other kind of thing one can imagine. Moreover, I firmly believe that if any young person can learn to enjoy wine, they will learn to enjoy one of life, culture and society’s greatest pleasures, and I am willing to bet that they will understand life and the world we live in better with a fuller appreciation.

Wine has been a part of my life in so many ways and I’m so excited to express how it can help our world. If there is one beverage that could sustain a lifelong and interesting dialogue, it is definitely wine. I’ll be making weekly posts and coming back to answer questions some of you may be confused as to what wine has to do with people dying in Iraq; or how it can save the world, and I have my own answers to all these questions. This blog is intended to be a discussion, and online cocktail party that brings a diverse set of opinions to the floor with wine as the unifier. Thanks for reading! cheers.

- Ruarri

Read more: The Beginning

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