The Barrique and Geppetto
Marco Pallanti Notes
...But just as he was handing it over to his friend, the piece of wood gave such a strong jolt, and bolting suddenly out of his hands, banged against the thin and shrivelled shins of poor Geppetto. “Ah! So that’s the courteous way you make a present of your goods? You’ve almost crippled me.” “I swear it wasn’t me!” So it was I then?!” “It’s all the fault of this little piece of wood.” “I know it’s the wood’s fault, but it was you who...”
“Unless I, too, like Geppetto, am witnessing a metamorphosis, I have grave difficulties in believing those Maestro Ciliegias who place all the blame on the wood. Oak does not contain disobedient Pinocchios who maltreat wine; if we notice a lack of fruit aromas in the glass it is because that “noble wood” has been badly wielded. I am referring to the “dispute about the barrique,” that Gallic barrel which twenty years ago crossed the Alps and landed in Italian wine cellars. Wine is put into wood for two reasons: to acquire stability and complexity. All wines need stability, but it can be achieved by other technical means as well, but complexity, or mutual interaction with oak, is desirable only for wines that will not be overwhelmed by oak aromas. Paraphrasing Polendina, then, I say: I know that it was the wood (that transformed the wine), but it was you (winemakers) who....”
25.04.2006