Because last winter was so mild, grape picking in 2007 took place much earlier than usual which meant that our wine tasting visit to Dodgy Tony (above in mid-pour) was brought forward by a month or so. Tony is based just north east of Venice and to be quite frank the landscape is pretty dull and flat. But his wines are anything but dull and flat, being extremely drinkable and, hurrah, CHEAP! This year our dawn raid got off to a flying start with the first samples being drawn off from the concrete vats in his yard at around 10 o'clock in the morning. California this isn't and we all stand around in his office/kitchen and start slurping wine and stuffing our face with local sausage grilled on his very open fire. I sampled about nine different types; from the little I remember of the morning, his Cabernet Franc came out top of his reds and his Sauvignon Bianco is just so fresh and clean, I'm going to have to take a demijohn (56 litres) of that too. I shall also get a half-demijohn of his Pino Grigio and three cases of Prosecco. That should see me through to the end of July. After this we all trooped off to a local restaurant for lunch. Bloody hell.
I think Dodgy Tony may be a little unfair; his rather stylish scarf means I may have to change his moniker to Smooth Tony. The old bags* with our party always go a bit unnecessary when he gets out his corkscrew.
This is a shot of a couple of Tony's various concrete wine tanks; very 1950s.
*Mrs Combo not present, I hasten to add.
3 comments:
Very smart hair do for Tony, although I wonder if perhaps the scarf isn't an affectation. I have a brother-in-law who wears rediculously loud suits which bother me in the same way. Mind you, he also got himself painfully tangled up in the bonnet catch of his 3 series beemer at a gas station in the middle of the night, the lady running the place wisely refused to come to his assistance and called for back up from the local cops in response to his gesticulations and wailing. This car was later owned by Lord Ashley, coincidentally, who found a blackened ring of desiccated skin still caught up in the mechanism.
All too true, sadly. I have preserved the offending particle in formalin in order to show it off at our first Blogger Union. Ron, this is simply wonderful. But what's that bloke on the far right slicing-up? Looks like a Combo-style appendage, but my memory of such things is rapidly fading now I'm eligible for my charabancs pass, none of which pass Ashley Court.
The concrete vat on the left looks like a pig's bottom. Oink oink.
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