SEARCH
Justinian News

Does the NSW Law Society have rules about a solicitor who reposted racist and antisemitic remarks and urged "freedom minded" people to read the "brilliant" Mein Kampf... More >> 

Politics Media Law Society

My Role in Gough's Downfall ... Reporter-at-Large … Scoops that flushed out the deceit behind the Dismissal … Big anniversary chinwag in Canberra on November 11 … The combined forces of Kerr, Ellicott and cousin Garfield … Constitutional manipulation … Maurice Byers to the rescue ... Read more >> 

This area does not yet contain any content.
Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Knit one, purl one ... Iron Lady of legal rectitude endorses Gageler ... The chief justice wants judges on the straight and narrow ... The cardboard cutout model of legislative supremacy ... The evils of judicial activism ... Procrustes on the dance floor with the Legislative-Judicial Foxtrot ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


 Hard on the heels of Prima Facie comes Inter Alia ... More >>

Justinian's Bloggers

Berlusconi's dream world ... Revenge politics in Italy ... Independence of prosecutors under attack ... Constitutional assault ... The years of lead ... Investigations reopened into old murders ... High drama at Milan's Leoncavallo ... Rome correspondent Silvana Olivetti reports ... Read more >> 

"If we’re only picking people who have got completely lily-white records then we’ll be missing out on a lot of people that can contribute to public life.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, endorsing Mal Lanyon, his pick for Police Commissioner, whose contributions to public life include shouting drunken obscenities at a paramedic who came to his aid, and commandeering a police launch for private entertainment on New Year's eve ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Schmoozing and betrayal ... Judge Water Softener rides into Integrityville mounted high on his horse ... Judicial review of corruption finding ... Intriguing submissions ... Unprecedented assistance to morals monitor ... The scale of the sub-rosa intrigue ... Plenty to think about ... Ginger Snatch reports ... Read more >> 

Justinian's archive

News Desk Special ... Angelic death notices from the bar ... Soapy slips on FOI changes ... Unusual interlocutory costs order for Chris Dale ... Judge ticks off Abbott in letters' page ... Knock About's festive salute to the coppers ... January 19, 2015 ... Read more >> 


 

 

« Algorithmic injustices | Main | Winners and grinners »
Tuesday
Feb272024

Veneto Verona Vino

Know your Valpolicellas ... Justinian's wine correspondent let loose in the vineyards of Veneto ... Thomas Becket and Mozart get together ... The perfect drop with stew and polenta ... Lots going on in the mouth ... Gabriel Wendler gets back to Italy  

After a ten-year absence it was time to return to Italy. This time to Verona and the Veneto viticultural region of northeast Italy that also comprises Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

The wonderful city of Verona, bisected by the Adige river, lies in the Veneto.

Shakespeare, who never left England, wrote two fictitious plays set in Verona: Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, a romantic comedy about infidelity.  

Tourists cram the small cul-de-sac adjacent to the Piazza Erbe and marvel at the famous balcony where Romeo and Juliet supposedly declared their inviolable love for each other.

There are more compelling curiosities in Verona.

The Arco Della Costa, an archway with a very large, suspended whale bone leads into the Piazza die Signory, where historically lawyers once gathered. Legend has it the whale bone will fall when an honest person passes under it.  

The Chiesa Santo Tomaso Becket is one of the many astonishing churches to be found in Verona - dedicated to Archbishop Becket, martyred by Henry II. 

The author - with bottlesIt is home to a magnificent baroque grand organ which, according to the records, was played by the boy Mozart in 1769. Mozart was so enamoured by the quality of the instrument that he carved his initials into it.

Meantime, his imperious father, Leopold, was hawking the genius chosen by God around Europe like a performing circus monkey. 

From curiosities to viticulture the Veneto demonstrates a broad range of wine styles categorised as Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino. 

Corvina, referred to as Corvina Veronese alongside Molinari, Rondinella and Garganega are the principal indigenous grape varieties of the region.

It was not until the early 1980s that internationally Italian wine began to be taken seriously. Today, some of the most outstanding and sought after wines are Italian.

In the Veneto names such as Masi, Allegrini, Bertani, Castaneda and Buglioni, are among the leading growers and winemakers producing world class wine. 

Wine producers in Tuscany, Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Trentino, Friuli-Venezia, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna and in particular Sicily, are also producing wines of outstanding commercial quality.  A general Italian wine renaissance has occurred since the early 1980's. 

There styles of Valpolicella, conveniently described as basic, are Valpolicella Ripasso, Recioto della Valpolicella, and Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone.       

Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone, Veneto's famous and unique wine that, unlike other Valpolicellas, is subjected to passito - a process or method that concentrates sugar and flavours by semi-drying the grapes over some four months. 

Vinification consumes all residual sugar leaving the wine completely dry and significantly alcoholic, between 15.5-16%.

Amarone della Valpolicella has a corpulent mouth feel and powerful, complex black stone fruit dimensions, in a way reminiscent of an aged Barossa old vine shiraz. Surprisingly, the high alcohol is not intrusive, unlike some heavy Australian clarets that invoke a hot tin shed. 

Hot - like some Australian clarets

Pastis Sada de Manzo con polenta is a traditional Verona dish - unlikely to be available at any trattorias near you. Amarone is the perfect wine with this dish as it complements the richness of the stew and the simplicity of the polenta.

Valpolicella Ripasso is made by placing the fermented wine in casks containing the lees from a prior batch of Amarone and left for up to three weeks to promote colour, body, and complexity. It is sometimes unfairly described as the poor cousin of Valpolicella Amarone .

Most impressiveRecioto Della Valpolicella can be sweet and sauterne- like.

Recioto di Soave die Capitelli, a dessert wine made also using the passito method, is a fabulous, fat, sweet wine suggestive of honey, cream, tropical fruits, and cinnamon.

Of the number of Amarone wines I sampled over six weeks in the Veneto I thought the Buglioni 2019 was the most impressive. 

Italy once ruled the known world. In a sense she still does in the areas of food, wine, engineering, fashion, design, film, art, and architecture. 

Her most regrettable historical blemishes were the dictatorship of Mussolini and, during the unification of Italy, Giuseppi Garabaldi's decision to permit the Pope to retain the Vatican following abolition of the Papal States.

As the famous lexicographer, Dr Samuel Johnson, observed: "A man who has not been to Italy is always conscious of an inferiority." 

Gabriel Wendler is a criminal trial and appellate barrister at Seven Windeyer Chambers 

 

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Editor Permission Required
You must have editing permission for this entry in order to post comments.