We could have chosen, for the artistic combination with our Roero Arneis, more than one work. In the end, however, our choice fell on a book that is part of the cultural baggage of every wine lover. This is “Vino al Vino”, a book which reminds of three trips along the Italian Peninsula made by Mario Soldati. Which in 1973 rediscovered this noble grape variety.
Mario Soldati
The rediscovery of the Arneis grape is due to Mario Soldati.
While looking for the work of art that best matched with our drink, we came across an article from the Tenuta Carretta blog, a reality of the Langhe that exists since 1467, which cites – precisely – the famous food and wine and writer Turin as a rediscoverer of this noble white grape.
In 1982, in fact, Soldati – important as well as famous food and wine writer and Piedmontese writer – gave the press a series of travel reports made by him along the Italian Peninsula, to discover the great wines of Italy.
It seems that Soldati had already in mind in 1955 to write a work in which to tell the world of Italian enology. According to the enogastronomist, in fact, in Italy, “everything that has a title, a name, an advertisement, is worth in any case much less than all that is unknown, hidden, individual. Labeled wine bottles are always bad; the unlabelled bottles and the almost always good loose wine“.
Soldati claimed that the Italian civilization was different from the French one, in which there would exist “a bridge between society and individual, an organized civilization, a hierarchy of custom […] From us, the man of value, like the delicious wine, dodges every advertising: it wants to be discovered and known in solitude, or in the religious company of a few friends“.
“Vino al Vino”
The wine and food book is called “Vino al Vino” and is based on three distinct and separate experiences.
The first trip was held in 1968 and involved Sicily, Campania, Tuscany, Lombardy, Trentino, Veneto, Northern Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta. It followed that of 1970 in Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo and Puglia-And finally, in 1973, that in Sardinia, Calabria, Abruzzo, Molise, Lazio, Umbria, Liguria and southern Piedmont.
In his attempt to cover most of the Italian oenological territory, Soldati did not leave any region, and during his account of his journey to northern Piedmont he discovered the Arneis. According to Soldati, “Arneis is a classic variety of Cuneese grapes. As a rule, it is cultivated in small areas on the left side of the Tanaro river, along the old road that leads from Canale to Alba, mostly in the Roero districts: Santo Stefano Roero, Monteu Roero, Montaldo Roero, Baldissero, and up to Corneliano , Monticello and Piobesi d’Alba“.
The article shows that this grape was therefore quite well known in the area in question, much less elsewhere.
We got the book and now we’re reading it. It is a full-bodied volume that has allowed us to discover many forgotten news on what is the variegated world of wine. In citing it here today as a must-have for the passionate, we would like to point it out to you. A reading certainly of profound interest.
