Great wines are only “local wines”, born from the synergy among territories, grapes, and human work

From Burgundy to Langhe, from Bordeaux to Montalcino, to Val d’Orcia World Heritage Unesco uniting the earth of Brunello, and Montepulciano of Nobile, the differences are many, but there is a common trait: they are earths of great wines. And, great wines, the fine wines, can be only “local wines”, expression of the harmony between soil, vineyard, and human work, as a concert is the result of a sheet music (soil) and tools (vineyards) played in his/her way by the musician (producer), capable of narrating much more than the inside of a glass, and of raising emotions. Reflection, that, today, in a narration of wine where, mainly, the scores by the critics, and prices make “great” a bottle. Message reaffirmed in the recall of the greatest master of Sangiovese, and cultist of the territoriality of wine, Giulio Gambelli, in the meeting “Reincontrare Giulio Gambelli” - “Remeet Giulio Gambelli”, occurring in Rocca d’Orcia, in the seventeen-century Church of San Simeone under the direction of Podere Forte di Pasquale, Forte, which, under the theme of “Leggere il messaggio del luogo attraverso la degustazione geo-sensoriale” - “Read the message of the place throughout the geo-sensory tasting”, met producers and wineries from some of the most important Italian and France territories such as Giacomo Conterno, Ceretto, and G. D. Vajra from Langhe of Barolo, Casanova di Neri, Argiano, Biondi Santi, Canalicchio di Sopra, Cupano, Poggio di Sotto, and Azienda Agricola San Giuseppe from Montalcino, Bibbiano from Chianti Classico, Domaine Laroque d’Antan, Domaine Charlopin, Domaine Boris Champy, and Domaine Rougeot from Burgundy, Tenuta di Trinoro, and Podere Forte from Val d’Orcia, Chateau Climens, and Liber Pater from Bordeaux (the interviews on WineNews). “A symposium of wine is a carrier of brotherhood, peace, and friendship in the memory of Giulio Gambelli that I have the luck to meet, and with whom I worked, a good man, first of all  - said Pasquale Forte -  who had “a laboratory in his head and mouth”, a never seen memory, he was capable of recognizing from which barrel the tasted wine came, a mild man, a great expert who began his carrier at the age of 14 years, and who had a great master who was Tancredi Biondi Santi. Father of great wines narrating, still today, the places from which they arose. Wines narrating the places, history, and value of Earth. We have one Earth, and we can’t not love it, is one of the beauties of the universe, extremely generous, also when we treat it badly, and, sometimes, it gives us some signals. We made it sick, and we have to come back to embrace it, take care of it, and preserve it”, said Forte. A bond with the earth, with the place in which it arises, which is also the center of “geo-sensory” tasting, explained by Jacky Rigaux, wine writer, critic, already professor at the University of Bordeaux, and deep expert of Burgundy. “It is important to come back to affirm that great wines are only those expressing suited territories from which they arise, as it has been for centuries, from Greeks to Etruscans, from Romans to Middle Age, and up to the end of the eighteenth century when many civilizations who dealt with wine selected the best places to plant the vineyard, selected the varieties giving the best results for those times. It was the same also in France, up to the French Revolution  - explained Rigaux -  when, in the name of a new equality among all, many vineyards were uprooted from which wines for the nobility arose, and the production of different wines began, maybe more homologated because everyone must have the possibility to drink the same wine. Then, the middle class changed course again, was back to the theme of vocation, to high-quality and distinctive wine of territories, in a path which saw the milestone of the classification of 1855 under Napoleon. Then, we arrived to the passage between 1900 and 2000, where critics homologated tastes a little bit, and the definition of great wine has changed a bit, scores were taken more into consideration, which may be awarded wines built according certain principles of tastes, rather than considering the vocation of territories. Today, we have to be back to that concept, which is exactly of “geo-sensory” tasting which was that of “gourmet”, the canceled corporation of “ buongustai”, as all the other of French Revolution, which is based more on mouth than smell, as the classic sensory tasting, through which these experts, literally chewing wine, “touching” it with the mouth containing 20% of tactile terminations in a person, could recognize, basing on the sensations, and salivation that wines stimulated, from which types of soils, and, therefore, from which places these wines arose. That between great wine and place is a fundamental bond: great wines are “vin de climat”, as we say in Burgundy”, and Unesco recognition arrived in 2015 for “Climat de Bourgogne” is not important to say that that territory is better than others, but, because, as the great Aubert de Villaine said (for years, heading the myth of Burgundy Domaine de La Romanee Conti, ed), he recognized them as the archetype of high quality viticulture with a model which is worth for other suited territories in the world, inspiring producers to valorize these places with wines narrating them, raising emotions, and are protagonist of conviviality”. A not assumed reflection, in a market scenario, and of wine production which is changing vortically, where consumption, consumers, the approach to wine, but also the productive vision linked to a current climate change change, so that, in the vineyard, one does not work anymore in order to mitigate the effects, but to adapt, as testified more times. A thought linked to the sense of existing of great wines, today, which arise from the “capacity to manage thousand variables in which we confront every day we producers, which are climate, vintage, choice of grapes, the moment of the harvest, what and where to plant, the yields to implement, which glasses, which works, all things on which, every day, we have to make some choices, hoping to make them right”, said Roberto Conterno, heading Giacomo Conterno where many of the most important Italian wines arise, including the mythical Barolo Monfortino.  Great wines, explained to WineNews Claude and Lydia Bourguignon, among the greatest consultants in the world, and producers in Burgundy with Domaine Laroque d’Antan, are like a concert: “the soil is like the sheet music, the vineyard and the general material are the tool, and, then, there is the man playing and interpreting music, as well as wine producer interprets soil and vineyard in his/her way. Without one of these three elements, great wine doesn’t exist”.