We are from here. Let’s be free.

In the last few years I wonder how much we interfere in the identity of a wine when we make it, when we age it, or even worse, when we manage the vineyard. I’m convinced that our interference is pretty big or irreversible, so much that most of the wines have to do with the whimsical interpretation of the winemakers’ ideas, styles of the house, and other situations related to identities or characters that have nothing to do with the terroir.

This year I visited several winemaking regions, I talked to producers, I tasted wines, I visited vineyards, wineries, I interacted with owners and winemakers. Every approach was especially interesting to me. Everyone coincides with the interpretation of the terroir, the character of the place, the sum of the climate, men and soil in this countless interaction. The thing is that it was very difficult for me to identify the vineyard in its majority, from wine and from men. For the first time I understood wine globalization, something I had been hearing for a long time. There are plenty of similar wines.

Yes. Wines don’t necessarily have to have an equality of tastes.  Actually they have a common thread dominated by extraction, huge common concentrations, the excessive and dominant use of wood that transforms wine into a mixture of cinnamon, vanilla, and coconut. The big amount of volatile acidity increases the aromas, making wines extremely intense.  I will call them ‘steroid wines’, since they give a lot when you drink them, but they leave a feeling of emptiness when you finish the glass. The lack of identity decorated by a countless amount of make- up, and ornaments that cover what we call terroir.

I think that I find this as a reflection of our society blinded by lights, driven by the noise, lack of depth, and the unnecessary search for acknowledgements given by billboards and a lot of media exposition. Right! It’s just that in the end, wines are the reflection of society. They are made by its members, but they should escape from them.

We have to be more committed to the profound idea of free wines, wines that inspire us, wines that defeat the fear of being ordinary as any of us and give pleasure because of the company and not because of the garlands and neon lights.

We should not let ourselves be reached by everyday things that can divert us, in the end we should follow our intuition about what is wrong and what is right. In the end, it is this feeling of work that must rule, not only to produce free wines, but also to nurture the moral bases for the ones that work and are committed to this activity. So that they can be free, be able to educate, to eat, and to have health in a dignified way.

Wines have to be the identity of the place from where its grapes come from. We should not let mundane things corrupt our spirit, our heart, our work. Let’s be free men. Let’s make free wines.