A TAVOLA NON SE PARLA DI CORNA*
(Italian saying)

literal = No talking at the table about horns

figurative = No talking at the table about men whose wives have cheated on them

* "cornuto" = cheated on;    "corno" = horn

14 Marzo 2004
Fattoria Cerreto Libri
Pontassieve, IT
(this house is over 200 years old)

1. The Libri family's name is derived from a trade they practiced back in the 1200's: manuscript making.

(libro = book)

2. Wine has been grown on the hills surrounding their villa since 1791.

< -- le vigne (the vineyards)

IL GENERO (The son-in-law)
Andrea

<-- un bicchiere (a glass)

IL BABBO (The father)
Massimo

3. Olives in this region have been picked by hand for over 1,000 years. In 1960, a company convinced him to buy a machine to shake the olives out of the trees. It worked. The olives fell to the ground, and so did all the leaves. The next year Massimo went back to picking olives the way he'd always done... by hand (this being said as he shakes his head.)

LA FIGLIA (The daughter)
Valentina

4. In the spring of 1997, Valentina realized that they had no butterflies or wildflowers on their property. Thinking it had something to do with the pesticides used in their vineyards, she decided to go "biodinamico"  (biodynamic).

IL AGRONOMO
(the agronomist)
Leonello

5. Making vino "biodinamico" begins with treating the land as a living organism and restoring its vital life energy (which has been stripped away by an overdependence on pesticides and fertilizers). To this end, a number of rituals are performed, including spraying the fields with a mixture partially composed of cow dung and plant essences packed in a cow horn during the Autumnal Equinox and left underground for six months. The horn seems important so I ask to see it. Leonello frowns. This isn't about "il corno" (the horn), he tells me. It's about helping nature recapture its equilibrium.

IL CANTINIERE
(the winemaker)
Gaspar

<-- la cantina (the cellar)

6. Vino "biodinamico" is made in the vineyard. Nothing is added later.

7. After a few years, Valentina's butterflies returned. The same neighbors who once called her "abbraccio albero" (tree hugger) now ask for her advice.

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