Is This Bottle Corked__ The Secret Life of Wine - Kathleen Burk [46]
What wine is “pampered by the sun”?
GERMANY’S southernmost border runs in a wiggly line for 250 miles east-west at between 47°N and 48°N. This means that all of Germany’s vineyards are north of the great French winegrowing regions of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the Rhône. It is for this reason that Germany’s production, like England’s, is mainly of white wine. However, the southwest corner of the country, Baden, around Freiburg im Breisgau, is proud to be one of the hottest regions of Germany. To the visitor, Baden has almost a Mediterranean feel, despite its being a long way north of the sea. Here, three-quarters of the total acreage is given over to red grapes, primarily Pinot Noir, called Spätburgunder in Germany. The climate also means that Baden whites are generally more alcoholic than other German whites. This is because the sunshine enables the natural sugars in the grapes to rise to a higher level than is possible in the cooler north of Germany by harvest time, and the higher the sugar level, the higher the alcoholic strength. Baden wine is promoted as von der Sonne verwöhnt, which translates as “pampered by the sun.” As applied to children, the usual English translation of verwöhnt is “spoilt,” but this translation would not, perhaps, convey exactly the nuance desired.
Was Pliny the first Robert Parker?
GAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS, known to posterity as Pliny the Elder, is probably remembered primarily for being killed, perhaps by sulfur fumes, perhaps by a heart attack, as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii. But in his own day, for centuries thereafter, and among those today who are interested in the ingathering of knowledge, Pliny was famous above all for his Naturalis Historia. In its thirty-seven books, he surveys all of nature—animal, vegetable, and mineral, and sometimes human. He is indefatigable. His nephew and adopted son, Pliny the Younger, wrote about his uncle’s work habits (Letters 3.5.14–16):
In retirement only the time for the bath deflected him from his studies. (When I say “the bath,” I mean when he was in the water, for when he was being scraped and toweled, he was either listening to or dictating something.) When on a journey, as though freed from other preoccupations he devoted himself solely to study. His secretary sat by him with a book and writing-tablets; in winter his hands were shielded with gauntlets so that not even the harsh temperature should deprive him of any time for study. For this reason even when in Rome he was conveyed in a chair. I recall his rebuke to me for walking: “You could,” he said, “have avoided wasting those hours.” For he believed that any time not devoted to study was wasted. It was through such concentration that he completed those numerous volumes [of Naturalis Historia].
He clearly lived up to the conviction he wrote in the Preface to Book XVIII: Vita vigilia est—life is being awake.
Pliny was born in AD 23 and went through several careers. He was an equestrian or cavalry officer, serving in Germany; he then had a very active legal practice; following this, he was appointed to a number of high procuratorships—that is, he was a senior civil servant—in which he won a reputation for integrity. Finally, in semiretirement, he was given command of the Misenum fleet, that part of the Roman navy stationed in the Bay of Naples. His sense of duty plus his curiosity killed him: when Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79, he led a detachment to the disaster area, landed at Stabiae, went into the city, took a nap, left it too long, and, when he was dragged out to the beach, collapsed. It was this curiosity that drove him to learn, and duty that drove him to write up what he had learned. His literary work was carried out alongside his official work, which apparently did not suffer from a lack of his attention. His output was phenomenal, but all that remains is his Naturalis Historia.
Book XIV is devoted to the vine and wine. He lists, he describes, he considers,