Italiano
Polemics and pretense
That Facebook is always the place where people insult other people on the base of pretestuous controversy is well known. Daniele Cernilli has been insulted for things he didn't even say.
The Web is full of polemics that are much heavier, dangerous and reckless than those I will write about here and that involve me, personally. But it is when it becomes personal that one realizes how haste, a certain amount of superficiality and, above all, the desire to take a stand and find a scapegoat at any cost, even without reason, is strong and widespread. In an earlier DoctorWine editorial, I criticized Slow Food for the sponsorship it accepted from Ferrarelle mineral water for their restaurant guide Osteria d’Italia. Mine was not a reprimand but an observation how this appeared to be inconsistent with the principles they have championed over the years and which I share. I also wrote that Slow Food appeared to ignore products from wine cooperatives in compiling their guide. I specifically chose the word ‘appeared’ because I was not sure and thought that it would suffice to indicate this doubt. I have no problem admitting I was wrong. In their guide there are, in fact, wines from several wine cooperatives even if many others and more important ones are missing. However, their attitude towards cooperatives appeared to me to be almost dismissive for a sector that involves 58% of Italian wine production and thousands upon thousands of winegrowers. Cooperatives are also social phenomenon and so it seemed odd, if not inconsistent, to me that such an attitude would be held by an association that has its roots in leftist ideals. Giancarlo Gariglio, one of the Slow Food guide’s two editors, first said that what I wrote was “twaddle” and then dared me to name the cooperatives I thought were missing. He also accused me of “breaking the ranks” by criticizing a competitor and that this only diminished the authoritativeness of the whole guide sector. Despite an apparent, and I hope unintentional, appeal to respect a code of silence, which I ignored, I drew up a list of the wine cooperatives I felt were valid and important and which were not in their guide. These included Cavit in Trentino, Cevico in Romagna and Vite Colte in Piedmont. Their reply was that Vite Colte was not included in the guide because in the past (at least five or six years ago) their commercial Barolo, bottled under the Terre del Vino brand, was sold in supermarkets for under 10 euros which meant that the winegrowers received “only” two euros per kilo for their grapes, for slow food was practically nothing. I tried to explain that even at that price, which is much higher than what growers get in other lesser-known areas, a winegrower with three hectares of vineyards in Barolo earned more than an assembly line worker at Fiat. All hell broke loose. Gabriele Succi, a small wine grower and producer who owns an estate in Costa Archi, in Romagna, apparently misunderstood my point and republished sections of my reply on his website which served as a pretext for a flood on personal and unfounded attacks against me. I was accused of the worst things imaginable and insulted on both a personal and professional level. Now I would like to set the record straight. First, the director of Vite Colte Piero Quadrumolo told me that they currently pay 4.5-7 euros per kilo for the Nebbiolo grapes they use to produce Barolo, much more than the two euros Gariglio claimed. Second, my argument was in no way aimed at defending those who paid little for grapes but quite the opposite. It was as criticism of those who pay as much as ten time less to growers. I am in no way looking for apologies, even if some of the attacks were quite heavy and even made in private. What I would like is for people to read in full and correctly quote what is written before criticizing, perhaps even with good reason. I have no problem taking responsibility for what I say and write. What I cannot accept it that anyone put words into my mouth, or that of anyone else, that I would never dream of saying.
