I Met the Vice Mayor of Santa Maria of La Morra

And of course I didn't get a selfie.

He looked like an Italian Spiderman. Well, the actor that plays Spiderman, anyway: Tobey Maguire. Also, he’s part of the 7th generation in a long family line of wine producers. And he’s the vice mayor of his village.

In the past two months, I've had the privilege to receive two wine producers at Burgundie's Wine Cafe. It’s one of the many perks of owning a wine shop.

Just before noon on the last Thursday of July, I sat with a rep and winemaker from Calyptra, an Argentinian winery, at the large wooden table in the front of the shop. The business-y Argentinian was tall and business-y. He spoke English very well, tried to keep the conversation moving along, and sat more upright in his chair.

The winemaker, though, was a dark-skinned, thin young man with dark brown, wild hair, piercing green eyes, and very thick cologne. Christian. That was his name. He sat with a bit of a hunch like I would expect from a grouchy old Frenchman smoking a cigarette. The circles under his eyes were dusky, leading me to believe that had we been in Argentina at an outside bistro table, he would have been taking a deep drag of a cigarette while telling me about his wine.

I hadn’t really spoken to anyone yet that day, so it took a few full sips of the first wine on the list to get my social skills moving. Thankfully, it was delicious, because I’m not at all good at faking it when face to face with the person I need to be polite to. 

My face lit up.

Christian, noting my response, started into explaining the general details about how m\he made the wine - the type of barrels, time aging, etc. etc. Stuff most wine sellers probably should care about, but I wanted to dig even deeper. 

He received a text and showed me that as we were sitting there, his team was harvesting grapes. 

“Like, right now?” I asked. He nodded. Smiling.

“What time is it in Argentina? Midnight or something?” I asked. I imagined dedicated wine people harvesting under the full moon at the exact minute the ripening was complete.

Now! Someone would have hollered. It must be now! Get up!

Instead, “now” was around normal breakfast time. The folks doing the harvesting probably had their coffee that morning at the same time I did.

“Eets the same time zone,” Christian said in harsh English. Just in the southern hemisphere. 

This blew my mind. Normally they wouldn’t have had a time difference to deal with except that they had gone to Japan before coming here. 

From then on, I asked all kinds of nerd questions about how Christian made his wine, which he seemed to happily indulge. He explained the daily care of the grapes on the vine, the process of harvesting by hand, and then he explained how he made the barrels.

I’m sorry. You MAKE the wine barrels?

He nodded and pulled up a video. Turns out, there’s a French woman in their area who is a cooper. She makes barrels. Except, Christian wants full control over which wood to use based on the density of the grain and which wine he’ll be making in it. He buys the steel from her to make the hoops, and then bends and makes the barrels himself. He even toasts the wood just the way he wants to enhance the oxidization and flavor of the wine.

Obviously, I was impressed. Who wouldn’t be? Also, though, I was jealous. This man had worked hard, studied hard, and probably made life decisions I never would have had the nerve to make. And now, look at his life! This is his JOB. And based on the amazing wine I tasted, he was doing it very well. 

The wine was delicious, but I suspect I could have thought tomato juice was amazing after being around this guy five minutes longer.

I did buy some of his wines, though, primarily because they fell within the pricepoint I think our customers are willing to pay. And, within an hour of getting those bottles on the shelves later in the week, they started to sell.

~whew~

Last week, I met Pietro Oddero from the Oddero winery in Piedmont, Italy. Per his bio on the website, he doesn't have specific duties at the winery, he just does whatever needs to be done. His education and experience are impressive and point to a person who should follow the family business.

Pietro, is the vice mayor, 7th generation wine producer that looks like Spiderman.

He’s knowledgeable about wine in general as well as his family’s wine. He studied in France and Australia - like many in the wine industry. He’s funny in a refreshingly surprising kind of way. Humble in an ironic kind of way. And he brought a map.

“I see by your map of France that you like maps. So, maybe you’ll appreciate this.” He pulled out a folded up map, unfolded it, and flattened it on the table. 

I'm pretty sure I coo'd.

Map of Barolo region in the Peidmont area of Italy. Flags indicate the various vineyards owned by Oddero.

Unfortunately, he did this only one wine into the tasting, so I honestly can’t remember a thing about any of his wines other than they tasted good and were out of my price range.

I.love.maps.

First he pointed to the small boot and tapped the little spot where this Piedmont, Barolo region was (up in the western furry part if these were thigh-high boots).

The area south of Alba is what we're looking at on the larger map.

Then he pointed to all of the many vineyards Oddero owned as well as some that weren’t on the map. I noted the different colors for the different official geographic domaines. Here, you can only grow certain grapes to make specific types of wine. 

He pointed off the map to a place where they had a bit more freedom from the old traditions and rules to make red blends that were just as good but couldn’t legally get a certain designation. 

That’s why he loved America, he said. Because we’re curious and unbound by old rules. In Italy, they did things because they had been doing them for centuries. Tradition matters, even in the face of climate change. Here in the U.S., we can experiment with planting grapes anywhere and blend grapes to make whatever makes an excellent wine. We aren’t bound by centuries of “the way things have always been”. 

I couldn't help feeling a bit cynical, but it was interesting to see our country from someone else’s eyes. 

As the great-granddaughter of a Sicilian immigrant, I understand tradition. It roots you somewhere, reminds you of home, and gives you a larger identity. That’s why I embrace my Sicilian and Italian roots (they are very different, in case you don’t know), for the community of it. The sense of belonging, even though it’s a culture I never really grew up in. Sure, Grandma was unmistakably Italian, but we didn’t have the big, loud, stereotypical Italian family. We didn’t even have the small, quiet Italian family, necessarily. We just had a small family. 

I envied his family and their traditions, and also their small village. 

Why did you decide to become the vice mayor? I asked him. 

He explained that it was an apolitical, civic position. Just the other day he had officiated a wedding. He has days of shaking hands and kissing babies. And also making sure his village is taken care of. Mostly, he said, he took the job because it’s fun. 

In my head, I commented that I hoped we in the U.S. could get back to that sometime soon: things being apolitical, done for the benefit of the community, and just because it was fun. 

While he sat with me, sharing his wine and his super cool map, his mother texted him about his car and his dog. I think his car needed work done and his dog missed him badly. He tisked and smiled, then said something about Italian mothers. There’s a stereotype for a reason, after all.

At the end of our wine tasting, I had to admit that I wouldn’t be able to buy his wines, but it didn’t seem to phase him. I thanked him for his time and education about his family’s wines. He complimented me on a beautiful shop then folded up the map and said I could have it.

!! I gasped. I’m sorry not sorry to admit that I was more excited about being given a map than I was about all the wine I drank. That’s how much I love maps. 

My rep suggested he sign it for me. 

And so he did.

I guess it’s ok I never got the selfie.

From La Morra to Virgina. Pietro Oddero, Your favorite vice-mayor.