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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Watch this NY Times Video-Blog on Carter in Ethiopia.

Amazingly enough, the ancient symbol of medicine is based on a disease that still exists today, draculanisis or more commonly known as ‘Guinea Worm.’ This disease is found in ancient scriptures, is depicted in hieroglyphics and is thought to have plagued the Israelites in their journey across the desert. Since President Carter put eradicating it on his agenda, the instances of the disease have gone from being in the hundreds of thousands down to just over ten thousand. To read more about Guinea Worm, go here.

Carter speaks about how when he grew up in Georgia as a child, many of the diseases that he is tackling in Africa right now, were prevalent in the United States. But with the right focus, these diseases can be completely eradicated. Carter was the first President to put Human Rights issues on the agenda, and he points out that human rights means that we have a right to a decent life and to be free from disease; and so he has committed himself to fighting a war against disease. In an age when certain ex-presidents like George Bush Sr. and little GB Jr. request 100 Billion Dollars of taxpayers money to perpetuate misery in Iraq and diversify into Iran; for less than a hundredth of the cost, instead of destroying lives by fighting wars on our own kind, millions of lives could be saved by fighting a war against disease to save our own kind. And in this way, the US can foster an ethic of care, as opposed to an ethic of tyranny.

So quite recently, some friends and I have been looking at the world wine industry, and part of it has been to try getting a feel for the wine industry on a global scale. We have tried to do this in part by looking at all the wineries around the world. In our research we have learned that there are over 60 wine producing countries in the world. This was not that surprising to me, considering wine’s formidable background and importance in human civilization. What was, however, surprising was the number of wineries in the USA. Would you have guessed that of all the 50 States, every single one of them has wine producing vineyard? I find that just incredible, because not every state has a major-league baseball team. But if you were to look at the wine industry in the United States, at first glance you wouldn’t perhaps guess that wine-making was more widespread than major-league baseball teams, country musicians, Republicans, Democrats, Breweries or the amount of states Southern is in… out of all of these, no matter on what scale, wine is more widespread.

I’ve had wine from Maryland and have shared some wine from Georgia over dinner, but there are some States that it just seems improbable for wine to be growing in. Arizona for example… who would have thought that wine grows in Arizona besides the people who grow it there and the people living around the vineyard?

But what’s more surprising than the fact that wine grows in Arizona, is the man behind the vineyard: Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of the progressive rock band so worshiped by Australian and New Zealand fans: Tool. And where this ties in today’s post is that the singer’s wine is called Caduceus… website www.caduceus.org, sharing the name with the symbol for medicine.

On the most recent blog post you find a post by the rockstar where he writes about arriving in Sydney on his way to the Big Day Out, which is Australia’s biggest festival, and attracts acts as big as Ozzy, Roger Waters, Muse, Incubus and of course, Tool. Keenan writes about coming off the plane, bumping into some people from the Roger Waters tour, and going out to dinner that evening at a Sydney restaurant and drinking Penfolds Reserve Bin 98A Chardonnay and eating sea-scallops with them.

Keenan’s wine is available to buy online right now, and I plan to order some myself and write a post on it. This whole business of direct shipping is just great in this regard: with all 50 States producing wines, and over 60 countries doing the same, the forecast for the diversity of my wine education seems promising!

If you want to order their wine, go to https://vino.caduceus.org/

However, I wont be able to get the wine just for the moment, because I can only order it if I live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Washington and West Virginia. So, being a New York resident currently in London leaves me a bit off the list, which is a pity. But if you do live in these states its best you hurry, because the wine is running out fast. Does anyone know how I can get around the shipping laws so I can get a bottle?

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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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