Wine Tasting in Italy

Transcript

Buongiorno. Si, due. Dieci euro.

Va bene. Grazie. Grazie mille.

Ciao. Come on, let's go. Come on.

Follow me. Isn't this place just fucking beautiful? So obsessed with the renaissance and medieval architecture.

Just incredibly beautiful. Mesmerizing even. I mean look at the little building.

It's just so quaint. So I'm really glad you came with me. I've got some fond memories about this town and about Italy in general.

My Italian is not what it used to be. I used to be almost fluent but sadly the lack of practice made me forget a lot. Maybe I should start practicing again.

That would be nice. Anyway, we should get started. I know you're not huge on wine but I'm not huge on wine.

I just like white. And even those, I'm not overly keen on dry. Oh no, I'll drink it.

I will drink it. But I don't know if I ever told you but my favourite, this is where the memory comes from really. I don't even know where to start.

Come on, the store is over there. Might as well just try it. Yes, the one that says Tenuta Della Fonda.

That's the one. Buongiorno. Sì, muscato? Grazie.

Bellissimo. The reason I love it so much is because it's so, like, don't get me wrong, I don't know shit about wine. I don't know anything about wine.

I don't even drink red wine at all. I just can't. I don't like it.

But this wine, because it's so light, slightly sweet, slightly sparkling, but not too sweet. It's rather fresh and fruity. And it's just left such a fond memory with me.

Hang on a second. Sì, prendiamo due bottiglia. Grazie mille.

Ciao. Arrivederci. Come on, let's go for a walk.

I know a lovely place nearby. When I was, I don't really remember how old I was. I just knew that I was barely over 18, maybe 19.

It's been a couple of years. My mum was dating someone who owned a vineyard. Isn't that a dream? Italian boyfriend with a vineyard.

Anyway, he was one of the storeholders here and he invited us to come for a wine tasting. And at the time, I thought it was so cool because, you know, I was barely an adult and I've never done anything like that with my mum. We've been on holidays together, but still, it was special.

So we arrived early afternoon, just lunchtime, and we met up with her boyfriend. Boyfriend sounds weird. We're talking about like a 45, 50 year old man.

We met up with him and we had lunch together. But the way we had lunch was really cool because on the town square, look over there, you see? There was this huge table set up and it was just for the storeholders.

So it was like, well, obviously not one table, just like a bunch of tables pressed together and made it into a massive long table. And we all sat down and ate together. We had a risotto with parmesan.

It was very simple, but very, you know, you've had risotto before. Risotto is quite nice because of its simplicity. Anyway, we've had lunch together.

We had a little walk, had a couple of wines to try, and then we went to this place. Look, it's right over there. This church on top of the hill.

It's quite magical, isn't it? Like you can see right down into the valley. And the weather was just as beautiful as it is today.

Hi. Come, let's sit down. It was nice of that gentleman to give us a bottle that was already cold.

Why don't we open it? I know, I know, we were supposed to go and actually taste the wine, but I want to stay here for a little bit and just enjoy the view, you know? And just enjoy your company.

Anyway, let's open this. Cheers, or should I say Salute? Where was I? Oh yes, we came here with her and him and his friends, you know, a bunch of adults.

At the time I still felt like a child. It was funny because we all sat down in a big circle and they started smoking weed. And at the time, my mom and I didn't talk about drugs at all.

It was such a taboo for me, and I was just looking at my mom like, oh my god, what is happening? Well, she was quite cool about it. I didn't have any because I don't like weed, but it was just, I don't know, it was so odd to see my mom in that situation.

She didn't have any either, but it was just nice. We had a couple of drinks, we sat here, chatted. Yeah, it was lovely.

And then we headed back to the town to continue the wine tasting. Well, we haven't even started actually. So we walked around and tried a lot of wines, almost every store.

And then we arrived to this one, Tanuta Dalla Fonda. And we tried this, this exact wine, and I thought, oh my gosh, it's the best thing I've ever had in my mouth. Don't look at me like that.

You're funny. You're funny and dirty. Shut it.

Anyway, this was just so lovely. We picked up a couple of bottles and then took it home with us. But all in all, it was just a wonderful day, you know.

It's a really fond memory with my mom. And because she didn't raise me, I treasure these memories. Just, we were there until late night, walked around, tried a couple of wines, had dinner, sat down on the square with her friends, her partner and her friends.

It was really nice. It was really nice. And then we headed back to our hotel, slept.

How was it? So I went back home, went to university, and a couple of months later I opened this wine one evening. I drank it.

I took a picture and I uploaded it to Instagram. Anyway, fast forward to present day. Well, not present day, like a year ago.

I was talking to someone about wine and I did say that I'm not, I'm not huge on wine. I don't know that much about wine. It's just, I don't know, I like this one wine and that's it.

And he asked, what's your favorite wine? I said, well, there is this one wine I really like, but I didn't remember the name. And it was really bugging me.

So what did I do? I kept the wine glass from the wine tasting. So I looked at it and I saw the logo engraved of the wine tasting, the events logo engraved on the glass.

So I thought, maybe I should look at their website, because the wine tasting is still happening every year. Obviously, I mean, it's happening today. Anyway, I looked at their website and I looked at the list of stores they have every year.

And I, God, I had not much to go by. So at first I just started clicking on every single one of them and I thought, I'm not going to find it. But then I remembered, I have that picture on Instagram.

So I scrolled back to the very beginning of my Instagram. This was like my third picture on there. And so that was the picture with the bottle on it.

But you could only see the back label of the bottle, which is obviously tiny little letters. And the picture was bad quality. But you could make out a logo, outline of a logo or something like that, tiny little one.

But it was clear enough to be distinguishable. So back I went to the website, you check out every single wine merchant. I clicked and clicked and clicked and clicked and clicked and clicked.

Feels like I did that for hours, but I didn't. Probably like 10 or 20 minutes, maybe half an hour of work. And eventually I found this website, Tanuta de la Fonda.

You see, there's the logo. And the ecstasy I felt, oh my gosh, you have no idea. I told him, the person I was speaking to, this is it.

I found it. Fucking found it. Can you believe it? I got so excited.

And I even texted my mom. Mom, look what I found. I found a wine that we had.

It's funny because I was so excited and mom texts me back, what? What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's funny that this memory is so vivid for me, but for her, I mean, not necessarily. She does obviously remember that we went and had a great time, just didn't remember this specific wine. Anyway, a couple of months later, mom came to visit from Italy and she asked me, do I want her to bring anything?

I said, well, you can bring me a couple of bottles of gin and some white wine. That would be nice. She said, okay, okay.

So she comes back, two bottles of gin and like five bottles of white wine. And one of them is the tenuta della fonda moscato. Like, oh my God, you remembered.

I was so happy again. She looks at me again, darling, I have no idea what you're talking about. I just picked this up.

I was like, gosh, the coincidence. Anyway, I was really happy and really, really happy. Now I have a bottle myself.

I've been treasuring it ever since. I really want to drink it, but I was scared that if I drink it, I won't find it again. But I knew I can find it again because I knew their website now and I know where to buy it.

I mean, you probably can't buy it back home, but you can just buy it in Italy. And I do go to Italy enough. We're here right now, aren't we? So I'm stocking up for sure.

Anyway, that was the story. And that's what inspired me to bring you here, because I wanted to share this experience with you. I wanted to share this fond memory and I was hoping that we could create fond memories like this too.

I'm so happy you came. And yeah, let's finish this bottle and then head back to the town for more. Saluta.

Actually, cin cin. So lovely. You want to learn some Italian? No, my Italian is not that good anymore, I did say.

But I do know some endearing words. Tesoro means treasure, but it's used in a way as darling is used. So, tesoro, you're my treasure, you're my darling.

Tesoro. What else? Oh, you know amore mio.

That just means my love, but everyone knows that. I like tesoro because it's special. You can also say just caro mio or caro mia.

My dear, that's just my dear. O stella, stellina, star. Lover.

Innamorato or innamorata. It is really nice, I think. Innamorato.

Oh, my beloved. Mio amato, mia amata. And you know how soulmate is? Anima gemella.

Anima means soul and gemella means twin. Well, sort of. You know, twin souls.

Cute, carino, carina. Oh, and how do we call someone as gorgeous as you? Bellissimo or bellissima.

And did you know there are two ways to say I love you? Ti amo is for lovers only. Romantic love.

Ti voglio bene is it can be a friendly love as well or family love. Ti amo expresses the burning passion I feel when I'm in love. Ti voglio bene translates to I wish you well.

There are some other cute names people use sometimes. Poppetta or poppetta. Meatball.

No, I will never call you meatball. Zuccherino, little sugar. What else can I say to you, tesoro? Luce dei miei occhi.

It's a apple of my eye, well, literally light of my eyes. Luce della mia vita, light of my life. Sei un raggio di sola.

You're a ray of sunshine. Sei la persona a cui tengo di più. You're the person I care the most about.

Sei la ragione di ogni mio sorriso. You're the reason for all my smiles. Sei il mio mondo.

You're my world. Sei il mio tutto. You're my everything.