I told him that there is an ancient proverb saying that "we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors: we borrow it from our children."… and he knew it… he knew also the name of the native American to whom is attributed the proverb…

…and he told me referring to his young son… you know: “my little boy already planted a row of the vineyard… he is still a child but this is his row… I helped him to plant it… I want him to understand that it is his vineyard and hopefully one day he will take care of him as I did with my father…”… I enjoyed listing these words from Mr. Piero, and in his words I recognized the way I was educated… and my mind went to a part of Mate Balota’s “Tijesna Zemlja” novel that I had with me… and I read a paragraph that associated me to what he was saying … and we smiled like children together…

“Sin – zove ga Marko – vidiš, ja ovo kopan kako jeno spomenuće. Ja sigurno neću imati na grobu križ od stine, pak neka ostanu brajde. A sve okolo naokolo ću lipo ozidati. To će biti moje brajde i moj zid, to će biti moj spomenik.”…

ENCICLOPEDIA DI ENOLOGIA...

There is one window in the wall of POLETTI’s family tavern that is located at the beginning of their wine cellar opposite to the traditional Istrian fireplace… and that window with objects that are placed inside attracted my attention when I entered POLETTI’s tavern…

In particular I liked the Enology Encyclopedia I noted first… it dates back at the beginning of the 20th century …

An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge… and this one was referred only to enology and wine making… and when Mr. Pier open it to show it to me… he said look “it is like Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert but just for wine…”…

One of the earliest encyclopedic works to have survived to modern times is the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman living in the 1st century AD… I am pleased to recall Pliny the Elder because me and Mr. Peter Poletti also shared our views on the note left by Pliny the Elder on Livia Drusilla and the wine Pucinum…

It is an interesting the story, documented by Pliny the Elder, where he write that Livia Drusilla – Julia Augusta loved the Istrian wine… he wrote: “Julia Augusta (Livia Drusilla) lived to her 85th year of age by merit of the wine Pucinum; and drinking only that wine, whose grape grows in the Hadrian’s Bay, not far from the spring of Timavo, on a rocky hill…”

It is not known which wine it was but some sources are saying that could have been Teran… and also Mr. Pier POLETTI told me that genetically Teran is a particular sort belonging to Istria thus Teran could be a relative of the wine enjoyed over 2000 years ago by Emperor Augusts’ wife…

The main Istrian wines are: Malmsey (Malvazija), Teran, Refosc and Muscatel…

In Mr. POLETTI's cellar you can taste Malmsey, Teran, Red Rose Muscatel (Rossella) but also Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon…

He asked me which one I would like to taste and I told him about excelent Muscatel I tasted at Mr. Libero Sinkovic property at San Mauro in Momjan… and in end I decided to try Red Rose Muscatel ROSSELLA… it was to me a new half-sweet taste, very delicate and intriguing…