Italian wine smells.
I am often reminded by my relations of the first family wedding
that I was allowed to go to as a six year old. My much older
cousin was getting married to a beautiful Italian lady and of
course her relatives insisted upon Italian wine at the
reception.
I had been introduced to wine with a lot of water in it as a
baby (presumably so I would go to sleep) but this hadn't really
awakened my sense of smell to wine. One of the waitresses at the
reception in a marquee on an unusually pleasant English day took
a bit of a shine (in a grandmotherly way) to this six year old
and I was quietly presented with a glass of wine. "Italian", she
said, "don't tell anyone".
So I took a sniff at this 'adult' beverage and said to my 70
year old neighbour "Italian wine smells, it's not like the stuff
I drink at home". My older and much wiser great-uncle told me I
was correct. All wines smell, but some smell better than others,
and some do not taste the same as they smell.
Well being thoroughly baffled by this explanation I smelled it
again, (I wasn't quite brave enough to actually drink it 'neat'
yet despite my bravado). My great uncle explained the different
smells to me. Strawberries, slightly of wild herbs, a woody
smell from the barrels, a sort of blackberry whiff there
somewhere and so on. Taste it, he said, don't drink it, just
have a sip and tell me what you think.
By this time my trepidation at drinking 'neat' wine had
disappeared in my eagerness to try a taste of what I could
smell. The first sip was a true experience. I suddenly
transformed from being a schoolboy into a wine connoisseur in
the space of a couple of seconds (or so I thought at the time).
Yes I can taste this, yes I can taste that. Wow!
"Don't drink anymore of that", my mentor told me. Have a sip of
water. Try a sip of this one and you tell me this time what you
can smell and taste. Oh dear. Different colour!!
Italian wine smells, so I told
him what I smelled. It was very different from the one I had
tried before, much crisper, sharper, more scent, pine needles
was it? Having obviously passed the first test I was allowed to
have a sip. These are both made out of grapes? Why are they so
different?
Well it depends upon the grape variety and the part if Italy
it's made. In the North they make very different wines from
those of the South. The soil they are grown in varies from very
good, to very poor and the aspect (the facing direction to gain
the most sun) can change the character of a grape and therefore
the wine that can be made from it. It's also a question of
keeping the very best grapes for the best wines from a
particular region.
My great uncle had me spellbound with all this information and I
forgot to finish my wine. "Now you know a bit about the care
taken in making wine in Italy you will sip it and enjoy it like
I do, rather than just drink it".
I could not resist "how do you know so much about wine uncle?"
"I've lived and worked in a winery in Italy all my life. I've
owned it since my father died."
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