Pietrovini – My First Wine blog post

Dear World

Well I have been on twitter now for about 3 years mainly rambling on about wine and my #yearofwine2015 & 2016 & now 2017.

As quite a few of the wine twitter gang keep telling me…. write a bloody blog!….. The trouble is they are all really very good at it! So I guess I have quite a lot to live up to in the wine blogging stakes. I am sure I will not be in the same league as these guys for a good while yet or ever!, but given time I am hoping that my blog blossoms into something that people will want to read.

Well here is my first post and the reason why I have the interest in wine that I have.

I was born in the early seventies, in the UK, and like most people hardly ever saw wine at home. My earliest recognition of seeing wine at home was Mateus Rose (I am sure I am not the only one there) This brand was huge in the late 70’s and 80’s

Amazingly it seems to me making a comeback now too.

My parents started to get into wine mid 1980’s and when I was about 14/15 my father asked me to taste some wine he was having. IT WAS JUST A TASTE! Well it was a Premier Grand Cru St.Emilion. I remember it being very good but also powerful(what I now understand as Tannins), my intrigue was ignited. When I was 18 (obviously UK legal age to drink) my father bought me a bottle of Ch. Palmer, (Dad if you are reading this feel free to drop some off anytime) I remember opening and leaving it for a lifetime before trying…1 hour ticked by and then BOOM! that bottle was the start of my life enjoying wine.

In the ten years prior to my father’s retirement, he was collecting & also drinking 1er Grand Cru Classe St Emilion, not everyday I hasten to add!.

So in the mid 1990’s my mother bought a bottle of 1982 Cheval Blanc which was to be saved and stored for my father’s retirement in 2003.(I have just telephoned my mum to see what it cost in the mid 1990’s Well it was £120 / $155 / €138 I have just looked up todays price and wont be buying anytime soon)

I had spoken to my father about this bottle (THE HOLY GRAIL) and told him under no uncertain terms that there is no way this was to be opened without me being there! I only wanted a taste I assured him!. Well in June 2003 my dad called me, told me he was retiring!, My only thought was Cheval Blanc 1982!, I didn’t mention it because I knew it was a done deal. He had invited my wife and I, then informed me that my brother and his wife were on the invite list too…. OMG the 82′ glass volume was dwindling by the second.  When I arrived my brother was having a beer and his wife a coke! As they didn’t want wine….WINNER! We sat down to eat and my father came in with a decanter of the 82′ and poured for the 4 of us trying the Holy Grail!. We let my mother try first… Hmmm she said it’s not that great!!!! I’m now thinking that this is one of the holy grails of wine and you said “its not that great!”. I let my wife taste it next and saw her smile, then my father, then it was me. Well it is still one of the greatest wines I have ever tried for sure. I would give you some tasting notes however it was 14 years ago and I didn’t take the same notice of wines as I do today or indeed knew how to descibe it…

My parents are both alive and well and in their mid 70’s, They drink a bottle of wine every evening together with their supper which they have done for the past 30 years! Salute to that!. It is shared out by my mother, which is hilarious to see as there is no way my father gets 1ml more than her.

Today I enjoy wines from all over the world but my real passion and LOVE is for Italy and its diversity of wines. So there is going be a lot of blog posts for Vini Italiano

I hope you enjoy

Peter ….. Pietro