Month: July 2017

Monsieur Duflot, viticulturist character in the film “A Good Year,” was ridicule because ‘sang to his vines. This however did not prevent Monsier Duflot from producing what was considered an excellent wine, much appreciated by collectors and sought by wine lovers. In a smaller scale, I too love to be different because I love to listen to the music of years past but yet so moving to me as I work each rows of our vineyards. As I prune each vine, as I move the terrain, as I check each grape, as I look at the sun filtering between each row we become one. It’s the music from my early childhood when I began to learn from my ancestors how to work the vineyards that is imbedded in my heart and accompanies me each day, like Joni Mitchell “Court and Spark”, 1974 Asylum, especially the song “People’s Parties” (www.jonimitchell.com), or David Crosby “If I could only remember my name”, 1971 Atlantic, or the song “Music is love” and “Laughing” (www.crosbycpr.com), by Jackson Browne ‘ not to mention “Late for the Sky”, 1974 Elektra / Asylum, especially the song from the title  itself (www.jacksonbrowne.com). If there is, and what are the effects of these musical notes on our vines, I do not know for certain. But I like to think that my soul it’s uplifted and I see and feel a greater harmony between myself and the earth. This can only produce a wonderful feeling, I am in full harmony!, after all, I am Living in the Sun…

A new season is about to begin, and we at Leporati Ermenegildo Estate would like to invite you to be a part of a new beginning of discovery and history… At this moment, new shoots are coming to life, ready to write a new chapter as well as, a page of history of a new wine. Our interpretation of new wine is not relegated to a new brand, blend or rootstock, rather, to a true mate who will accompany us in a silent mode day after day throughout the growing season. Yet, a true testimonial of our life! We take great pleasure in sending you what this new life, discovery, and history looks like at this moment. It is our hope you will take great pleasure in the admiration and the wonder of nature. Nature it’s life, wine its life.

From the short story “The Dream” written by Novella Ivaldi, during the experience of restructuring that will become the romantic Inn Le Petit Chateau “located in the hinterland of Finale Ligure:

The vine… the vine… its magic.
One day in autumn when the trees started to shed their leaves, I saw a big log sticking out hard and blackened, almost burnt, just above the ridge. I called Andrea, thinking it was a trunk to be removed because it looked dry, but as he approached, he recognized a vine. We started to clean it, making room all around it, finally, leaving it free to breathe and enjoy the warmth of the sun, since it was exposed to the south. Our vine had the first buds in the spring, and after they became leaves. A year later after pruning it, our vine began to bare some grapes! It may be ridiculous, but I had never seen a bunch of grapes before in my life. It ‘really magic what occurs every year!, now when I drink a glass of wine, which I fancy very much I think of mother nature and the wonderful work she does years after years so we can enjoy the exquisite juice borne from that first small bunch of grapes and the delicate process it will goes through so we can enjoy the delicate aroma. Once was a small vine, today in the summer, it runs along a good portion of our house wall and today it covers about half of it. Just like magic , in 2008 …………. we harvested a wonderful passito.

Personally I have a beautiful and clear memory of last year Easter Monday, a day we spent at the Petit Chateau together with Novella, Andrea, my wife Maria Victoria and Emmanuel our son, who at that time was seven years old. The atmosphere at the Petit Chateau is of warm hospitality and true family feeling which impressed us a lot!, so much so, that when we set foot in our home, our son Emmanuel said: “ Mommy, Daddy when are we going back?”

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