Saturday, May 3, 2014

The Rock Burglar



Last November, Massimo Alois (Fattoria Alois) accompanied me on a trip in Tuscany and Le Marche, in part because he wanted to add soil and rock samples to his growing collection of "terroir" from around the world. Massimo has samples from Napa Valley, the Mosel, Finger Lakes district in NYC, and even the St Croix River Valley in Minnesota, displayed in jars at his winery in Pontelatone, near Caserta, in Campania. After our recent trip in France, he can add Le Montrachet (pictured above), Romanée Conti, plus vineyard sites in Cornas, Brouilly, Côtes de Jura, Châteauneuf du Pape, and others. By the end of the trip, the suspension on the little car rented by his buddy Giovanni (our van was too small for 6 people, after Giovanni arrived midway through the trip) was showing signs of ...mmm...stress.