Doing the accounts

The month of October is not only the month in which there is the grape harvest, the L’Eroica, the Ecomaratona and the wonderful Benfinita, or dinner celebrating the end of all the hard work of harvest, but also the month when guides are published. By now they are numerous, contrary to how it was in the past. Besides the traditional guides dedicated to restaurants in general, there are guides specific to trattorie, to osterie, to farm holidays and more recently to cafés and pizzerias. They are all of interest, but what is of greatest concern to us are the wine guides. And all of these present their ratings and recognitions in events during October, with the exception of Michelin; the great red guide closes the season with its presentation in November.

Just last Saturday the Italian Sommeliers Association (AIS) awarded their highest recognition of 4 Vines to our Historia Familiae 2015, and the Saturday prior to that, Daniele Cernilli, Doctor Wine, awarded our Colledilà 2015 with 95/100. And there’s much more.

But as we indicated in the title, we don’t want to simply list our awards and ratings and sum them all up, as if we were doing the accounts. We prefer to share a short reflection about these ratings and classifications with you, our dear readers. Sometimes – actually very often, if not always – we have considered our wines as our own offspring that go out into the world to be judged, like children that begin school and meet new teachers and then receive wonderful marks of which any parent can be proud. However, there can also be little ones who are misunderstood, and the good marks and compliments never arrive, even if every parent knows how great their own child is.

This is what we wanted to reflect on with you all. Although it’s true that ratings at 100 and awards give us enormous pleasure, it’s also true that there’s great pleasure in believing that our offspring are hidden treasures, even if their value isn’t recognized, for each of us knows their real worth is immense. In short, simply adding up marks does not determine the greatness of an offspring, or of a wine.

And in this way we’ve shared even this intimate and reserved part of Brolio.

We’ll see you soon!