Sometimes You Need A Quest
Life’s not about the material things you get. It’s not even about the end result, but rather the moments in between. The life that happens along the way. These moments are what make up our lives. Yet sometimes we need to walk outside and fill the birdfeeder to see and feel dawn’s first light. Or in a faraway city, it’s the quest of a new museum and the trek across town when you disinter your own visions along the way—hidden courtyards dotted with flowers, city inhabitants who run on four legs or extend branches to sun, even the flaky croissant you munched into ravenously for a snack. Lest we forever fall into set routines, however comforting, sometimes we need a quest in order to see the world afresh.
When exploring foreign cultures, my sister and I would say to each other, “What’s the quest?” Hers would involve some form natural beauty, art or aquariums filled with sea creatures. Mine: chocolate and pastries. But whatever our chosen quest, it would be the moments along the way I now remember—the quest itself long forgotten.
In the quest for the best wine, I’ve met friends along the way, and perhaps that’s the best part about it. For the term “best wine” rarely has anything to do with arbitrary points that pundits and reviews love to tout. Nor has it much to do with a price tag. (Wise is the man or woman, indeed, who falls in love with the $6 bottle.) Rather, it has to do with something less tangible, something ineffable and often personal. The best wines are those made by the best people. Kind people, humble people. The best wines are those that respect the earth, and are therefore made using organic principles. The best wines for me are wines that are interesting. They’re different and unusual, not mass-marketed, filling grocery store shelves. But not everyone agrees with my taste here. So, the best wines are wines that taste good to you; that part goes without saying.
The wines from Arianna Occhipinti have passed the quest test and qualify as wines worthy of your time and effort to seek out. Or you could just hop on over to Basics.
Tami’ Frappato 2014 (organic) – Arianna Occhipinti, like Elena Panteleoni, has goddess-like status at Basic Necessities. We love her philosophy, and we love her wines. The Tami wines are Ari’s line of everyday-drinking wines, fresh and fun. If you don’t know Frappato, September is a good time to meet this grape, as, being lighter, it makes for a good transition wine. Aromas of just picked strawberries and raspberries, with a medium body. Arianna explains that Frappato stems from a girlhood dream to make a wine that knows the land she loves: “It is the wine that most resembles me, brave, original and rebellious. But not only. It has peasant origins, for this it loves its roots and the past that it brings in; but, at the same time, it is able to fight to improve itself.”
Tami’ Nero d’Avola 2013 (organic) – Nero d’Avola is Sicily’s superstar. Rich, earthy and chewy, yet often half the price of a good Cabernet. Notes of ripe black cherry and dried figs. We’re visiting Sicily and staying at Arianna’s estate in 2018. If this particular Sicilian quest interests you, contact me now.
http://www.agricolaocchipinti.it/en/
Kay Pfaltz