I found the unkindest words from a wine writer in one of those long forgotten big coffee table books. In the Italian wines section there was a simple entry about Cinque Terre wines. I also recall that Icewine and wines from Canada weren’t even mentioned in the book so this was a very long time ago.
“They make white wine mostly. Some years it is passable. Other years you wonder why they bother.”
I’ve always remembered that phrase as the compelling reminder of cruel dismissal in a very minor section by a long forgotten author in a book so far in my past that I don’t recall the colour of the cover.
Of course I had to go to Cinque Terre and explore the wine.
Cinque Terre is a chain of five small towns on the Western side of Italy’s boot, about halfway between Genoa and Pisa. They are connected by an impossibly convoluted mountainous road and the walking trails that make these five jewels, each with a different character, such a destination for hikers. They also are connected by trains which rival any city’s subway for easy use.
I drove down from Munich, which gave me a chance to enjoy the mountains of northern Italy, where the locals still cling to the belief that they are Germans, down to Lake Como. Along that road, at no particular spot the locals begin to relent and embrace Italy. Then the mountains spit you out into Amarone country, through the vast vineyards of the Po valley and on through Lombardy until mountains reappear and one arrives in Liguria.
Long ago, while Britain’s King John was signing the Magna Carta, and the Vikings were settling Canada, the Mongols ruled China and were sacking Moscow the people in the Cinque Terre region began terracing their vineyards on the slopes of the Mediterranean Sea.
I did the math. They moved more rocks to build the Cinque Terre terraces than the Egyptians moved to build the great pyramids.
Today, the greater efficiencies of the flatland vineyards have turned many of the terraces into wonderful local gardens growing white asparagus, lemons, olives, and grapes. While the local wine industry is under threat from more efficient areas of Italy, Cinque Terre remains an amazing place to hike, eat and vacation.
And now my beef with that wine writer. Local wines, wherever you find them, can be simply amazing if you wrap them in a traveler’s experience.
Wake up early in one of Cinque Terre’s striking villages, perhaps in Manarolo or Vernazza. Open the shutters of the trattoria and let the light stream in, and hit the market early. Pack fresh focaccia, sun dried tomatoes, hard and tangy Genovese cheese and pick a local bottle of white wine.
Hitch a train or hike over to Manarola , and begin climbing south until you reach the ancient church, Santuario della Madonna di Montenero, at the top. Then sit down and enjoy a late breakfast with wine made of your morning’s market shopping on the side of a hill, 400 meters above the Mediterranean Sea. Talk, doze, watch, wonder at how this part of the world is so elegantly put together and yet everything is on a slant. It doesn’t matter, and nothing else in the world matters.
Then head down the hill into the towns and explore, looking for the perfect place to share a bottle of wine and watch the sunset. That can take an entire afternoon. Pick up a different local white wine. Catch an early dinner of fresh local fish and Fettuccine di Pesto alla genovese. Then head down to the rocks under the fort at in Vernazza’s harbour or settle in to natural armchairs carved out of rock high up in Manarola, or a private beach off the Via dell’ Amor walkway and make the wine last through the sunset.
Do this with a lover each day for an entire week and prove that anyone suggesting that local wines anywhere are just passable should get off their couch!
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