I have many memories of Paolo De Marchi, amongst Italy’s brightest wine men of all time who created one of the country’s twenty-five most important wine estates. In the process, he also helped kick-start the rebirth of Chianti Classico. Two stories that I can share are the following.
Such is the life of a serious, devoted wine writer that on the Saturday before Easter of many, many, many, years ago, I was in Chianti Classico toiling away visiting wineries and tasting the new vintages for the piece I had to write for Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar. During my visit at Isole e Olena with the always gracious Paolo, he mentioned that the next day, Easter Sunday morning, he would be tasting through all his caratelli of Vin Santo and would come up with that vintage’s blend then and there. I asked if it was Ok for me to join him as it would have made for an unbelievable learning experience. I well remember how happy Paolo was that I was not only genuinely interested in his Vin Santo (a wine category that was already then out of fashion) and was even happier that I asked if I could participate in the blending exercise. Clearly, the always classy Paolo made sure to tell me that it being Easter Sunday we could only work for a few hours; by eleven o’clock we’d have to leave because he had his big family Easter lunch to attend. No problem, I was just happy to be there.
