Stefano was still roaming around the Napoleonic land, close
by the Bordeaux region. Looking at the timetable at Gare de Saint-Jean, in a
sudden decision full of sweet flavours, his next destination was settled.
-
Monsieur, un billet vers le sud, svp! On y va!!
The train slowly starts its course towards the south, having
only the Garonne River as company, Stefano notices a magazine on the seat next
to him, probably forgotten by a distracted passenger. Skimming through it, our
Enofriend sees himself diving into a story from long long ago, and interesting
as it was he went with the flow.
The Roman Empire is a well known period, full of legends and
stories almost crossing the lines of the believable, led by limitless emperors
and characters known as the old version of latinos mucho locos. Before that, however,
there was a time known as the Republic, full of rules, regulations and a severe
code of conduct where men where allowed everything and women… well, women were allowed
nothing.
Difficult times to our Roman girls; it was nothing about voting
rights or anything political, to them it was denied the right to drink wine.
Wine! They were not allowed to drink the precious Baco’s nectar, reserved only
to men wash down their smoked boar ribs.
Still having the Garonne as company, Stefano asked himself
whether to continue reading this story; how come wine could have been object of
such an outrage. Confident the villain would ultimately become the hero, he
carried on reading.
That ancient Rome, by a Senate’s decision, forbade women to
drink in public. The poor Roman ladies could not feast on wine and laughter
with their friends in white tunic outfits and chat about the future of the land
of Romulus and Remus. A privilege only granted to the bearded, armored loyal
servants of the Republic… men!
Well, well, Stefano thought, all in all, it seems quite an
easy rule to break. Leave a small bottle on that purses’s hidden pocket and
when the Pretorian is not looking, glup, glup, one little sip and then another…
just to see the world in brighter colors.
These Romans conquered almost all the world known to men at
that point in time, for sure they have thought that through, right?
Indeed, they did! It was called the breathalyzer. It was not
a high-tech device as we know today, but the concept was similar… in essence,
one could say. Lacking the electronics and chemicals we have today, guards had
to smell the Roman ladies little mouths to detect any trace of wine. And that’s
how they did it, men inspecting women’s breaths; a smart hunting to Roman bad
girls had started and with the natural evolution of things, latin spirits
flying high, it was not long before their
lips were touching and for the first kiss to ever happen. In essence, wine was
responsible for the birth of kiss!
Stefano was relieved. Wine could not be the villain in this
story, it was the hero after all. Without this ban on wine for women, there
would be no kiss, it looks like every cloud has a silver lining, Stefano
thought.
Last stop. The train had just arrived at the Gare of Langon.
Stefano steps out of the Gare and heads to the great Chateau D’Yquem to discover
this particular Sauternes, considered as the holy grail of sweet wine, made
from Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle grapes. This tiny region
aggregates a series of climate factors contributing to the arrival of the noble
rot. This fungus leads the grape to lose water leaving it with a raisin like
aspect and high levels of sugar, essential for the production of Sauternes.
After visiting the caves and discussing with the winemakers,
Stefano tasted the world-class Sauternes and was impressed with the outcome of
the work of a Fungus. Anywhere else in the work, at any given crop, Fungae is a
disgrace, but not here, in Sauternes it is a blessing. Like the weather in Ancient
Rome, every cloud has a silver lining.
