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Mondo Di Vino
Mondo Di Vino





[09/18/2008, 11:17] Lost sheep update
In an Autogrill, one of the good ones that stretches over the autostrada. I'm content. I'm reunited with my wandering suitcase at last. Getting the thing at the Florence airport (a dump) was like a sitcom. I go as instructed to the Lost + Fouind window. A young woman takes my info, fills out a foem and tells mw to go to the end of the building and go left through the blue door. I gg. I'm told to go to the window at the end of this room, a...
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[09/17/2008, 22:18] If it's Wednesday, it must be Emilia-Romagna
Already it's midnight here in Italy, and it's a been a long day. Good news: jetlag is finito. Also: though my suitcase is still among the missing, I did receive generous permission from Delta Airlines to buy "the bare essentials" so that I may walk proudly again among the well-scrubbed and presentable. Hypermarket shopping at its most luxurious. We drove a long way from Barolo to Reggio Emilia, or so it seemed after I took the wrong turn at a roundabout and found myself facing racing on-coming traffic. My partners...
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[09/17/2008, 10:53] From the road
Barolo to Reggio Emilia. We tasted a large number of wines yesterday. One great, the others terrible. So far, two out of four have been very promising. A decent average, to be sure. We had a multi-course dinner of thrilling quality at La Cantinetta in Barolo last night. Or maybe it tasted so good because we'd had grotty tramezzinI on the autostrada? Onward. The boys await. I am chauffeur today. The limo's looking like a messy birdcage. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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[09/16/2008, 09:51] Adventures in Veneto
Oh the wacky GPS system! The twisty country roads, the spotty cell phone reception, the even spottier BlackBerry email reception, oh and the lost suitcase! That suitcase has seen more than me. It spent a comfortable night with its friends at JFK while I grimaced and put on the same socks, shirt and undies for three days. Three days you say? Oh, then my suitcase spent a night in Madrid -- I've never been to Spain at all! And then Venice and to Cuneo, where I am told it will...
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[09/15/2008, 04:10] Monday Rerun 3: New vs Old Italian New York
Here is a post that generated some comment in Italy at the time. I think there's still relevance.
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[09/13/2008, 19:40] Ciao for now
Gee, I haven't been to Italy in so long. I'm not used to being at home for 6 whole weeks at a stretch. Well, that's about to change. We leave in 20 minutes for JFK, will be landing in Venice tomorrow. Our sprint from North to South begins on Monday morning. I don't know how often I'll be able to get Wi-Fi access, but thank Bacchus for my BlackBerry. Now I can only hope that being out of intimate touch with American political insanity will be salutary for my mental...
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[09/12/2008, 15:18] Off topic? No apologies
My recent obsession with the US presidential campaign has overwhelmed my blogging about wine. Wine is supposed to be the focus of this blog, and it usually is. I love tasting, drinking, thinking, reading, writing and debating wine. My deepest passion, as we know, is for Italian wine, and I am strongly attracted to the landscapes, culture and the people who make the wine. I love crazy old Italy. I feel at home there. But we live in perilous times, as the cliche goes. I'm not speaking so much about...
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[09/11/2008, 04:00] 9/11. Again a means to someone's ends
No, it's not a Monday Rerun. But in it I commemorate, angrily, the base exploitation of this date by politicians of all stripes, largely the jingoistic, fear-mongering party in power. I can only add that what I said in 2006 goes double now. A shame. Truly shameful. Meanwhile, let me be the first to invite you to celebrate Terrorist Day. It's the old 9/11, but now we're giving credit to the Terrorists for winning, thanks to the cynicism, manipulation and of course the downright ineptitude of the Bush administration. This...
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[09/10/2008, 13:31] Now the bad news
The weak dollar has shown itself in the latest stats on wine sales. Here's the bad news from Winespiritsdaily.com: DOMESTIC WINES OVERWHELM IN JULY Growth of domestic wines overwhelmed imports in the four weeks to August 10, according to IRI data. Dollar sales of domestics grew 5.1%, while volume rose 2.8%. Meanwhile, imported wines declined -1.4% in value and a whopping -6% in volume. All table wines combined grew 3.6% in dollar sales and 1.2% in volume. Countries with a strong currency, and coincidentally more developed wine industry, seemed to...
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[09/09/2008, 04:05] My week in review
Strappo's had a hell of a week. May I vent? Posso sfogarmi? (It means "may I vent"). 1. He went out to dinner 26 times. He enjoyed one. 2. He vowed to drink less. He has, a tad. His life is not redeemed regardless. 3. He came down with shingles. I believe this is the modern name for one of the afflictions with which Yahweh smote Job. Well forgive him for being a Gay-American for Obama. Job is the one on the ground being covered in angelic effluents . ....
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