Assuming I come out of this one okay – cough! – I’ve always tried to put a positive spin on the annual bout of flu. It’s the body’s way of telling you to slow down (cowboy) or risk coming a cropper. Flu and other such afflictions (losing one’s Ashes for example) provide a natural boost to the immune system. Ah! So that’s why the flu jab’s  foistered upon us from the moment we graduate from crawling to walking (or running if you were one of those). The old double-bluff, very good! 

Anyway, now where was I? Yes, here am I on my death bed – the situation’s worsened – in the middle of the Langhe amid the nebbia, reflecting on quite a few things actually and trying to focus my mind on the plans for 2011 – that’s when the headache sets in again. I remind myself, quietly, that I should count myself lucky to be grounded; to recharge the batteries and the palate; to have time to think and not simply ‘to do’ – which I’m told was a shrewd distraction concocted by the Victorians to avert another Civil War. 

Now if I was doing, what would it be? Dining, along with a bit of imbibing, certo, in the company of Marco Pallanti of Castello di Ama. For Marco and his kings of Ama have forsaken the annual pilgrimage to the holy land (Burgundy), and brought their gifts instead to the feet of the Langhe hills. A sign! A sign that even Tuscans have heard of great going ons in these parts; that the tide has turned. Or they simply figured the food’s better this side of the border! And this evening they’re hosting a dinner here in Serralunga d’Alba to repay their countryman’s hospitality. 

But as I’m ill I’m not there, so I’m thinking instead. And I’m thinking about one of the topics of conversation that arose in his rounds; I have spies. That of prescriptions, no sorry, certifications for organic or biodynamic products which have until very recently become the most asked question by visitors. Now apparently it’s just been trumped by ‘maceration time’, but no certification requested for that one – yet! 

It seems that Signor Pallanti has struck a chord with my Piemontese friends, notably over producers’ inane pursuit of certificates as the end in itself, as goaded by the markets; those seeking black or white when the reality’s often grey. Producers concur that continuing to deliver a higher quality wine, per forza, they need to treat the vine as respectfully as possible. Not by systematically dosing it with horrid chemicals but by sensitively creating an environment predisposed to delivering the finest, cleanest fruit. Stepping in with the antibiotics only when pneumonia threatens. 

 My pills please nurse! 

Image: ‘Pensieri’ by Alex Sanchez, a Spaniard living here in Serralunga, married into the historical Barolo family, Brovia, for whom he also makes the wine