Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito

Author:Sergio Esposito
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780767926089
Publisher: Broadway
Published: 2008-04-22T10:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

PIEDMONT

A FEW YEARS EARLIER, as I was driving down a familiar road to the Barolo township of Serralunga d’Alba, I’d noticed something peculiar rising up from the vast stretch of foggy farmland. It was a turquoise crane. As I moved closer, a construction site wobbled into view—a partially built palatial structure made of ancient gray bricks looked out on a vista of little hills planted with vines. Then I whizzed by and made it into town in time for lunch with a friend.

Two months after my drive-by, a teenager who bore an uncanny resemblance to Prince Charles walked into my shop on East Sixteenth Street in New York.

“Hi! I am new to the industry and I would like to sell wine,” he announced in Italian. He wore pressed blue jeans and a constant crooked-toothed grin. He was tall and skinny and his ears stuck out an inch from either side of his head.

“Are you a winemaker or a broker?” I asked absently. I was looking through a stack of bills.

“I, along with my mother and father, am a winemaker.”

“Well, sorry,” I grunted. “I don’t take unscheduled meetings with producers.”

“Excuse me,” the boy said, still smiling, “but I am trying to sell wine in the United States.”

“Yes, but I still don’t take unscheduled meetings,” I said.

“I am from Barolo!” he continued cheerfully, undeterred.

“Oh yeah, where in Barolo?” I asked.

“You know Barolo well?” he asked.

I did.

“Our winery is in Castello della Volta on Via San Pietro, the road from Barolo to La Morra,” he said. “Perhaps you’ve noticed it. We plan that it will be a castle in the oldest style.”

“Gray bricks?” I asked. “Blue crane?”

“Yes! That is it!” he said.

“That’s you?” He was holding a folder and wearing designer sneakers, and he could have passed for seventeen.

“That is I,” he said, extending his hand. I took from it a small cream-colored business card. “Famiglia Anselma, Barolo,” it said on the front. “Dott. Maurizio Anselma.”

“You’re Dottore Maurizio Anselma?”

“I am. And look at the back.” I turned the card over. On the back, black capital letters spelled out Dott. Maurizio Anselma’s philosophy: PASSIONE PER UN GRANDE TERRITORIO.

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