It said Hippocrates, "Wine is an extraordinarily appropriate thing for man if, in health as in sickness, it is administered with judgment and the right measure, according to the constitution of each". And before him in the old testament reads “Bonum vinum laetificat cor hominum”. Perhaps it will be for this good viaticum that wine has become a protagonist in the history of humanity, not only as an intoxicating drink but also as a medicine, as a disinfectant, anesthetic, tonic and diuretic.
From 5000 BC, i.e. from the first traces of a winemaking practice from a remote corner of China, it has traversed the history of religions transversely, from the Catholic one where it is a founding element of the mystery, to the Greek Dionysian cults, Roman Bacchic, Mithraism spread from West to East, of culture, art, literature, philosophy.
Acclaimed, celebrated, but also condemned, wine continues to be at the center of fiery disputes between those who extol its curative properties and a current opinion in the medical establishment that issues intransigent sentences
Paolo Brinis, born in 1962, journalist for News Mediaset, had the original idea of going to check what kind of relationship exists between doctors and wine, resulting in an original volume “Goblets & Gowns”, who does not want to investigate a hypothetical relationship between the devil and holy water but much more simply proposed to outline a stimulating and entertaining virtual journey through vineyards owned by famous doctors and surgeons who, after putting down scalpels and stethoscopes, are transformed into passionate Vignerons and produce wines of excellence.
“I liked the idea of writing about wine, avoiding taking oneself too seriously, in a light-hearted way and with a pinch of irony, proposing to the reader – says Paolo Brinis – what cardiologists, ophthalmologists, shrinks, urologists told me on the subject , primary doctors, dentists and other wine-lovers who wear a white coat”.
Memories, notes, anecdotes, advice, and digressions alternate chapter after chapter. Trusting that the reader can be a generous censor and that reading pushes him to conscious drinking, without neglecting prevention.
A book of meetings and friendships, of shared passions and love for wine, to better understand the benefits (many) but also the dangers (few but serious) that can be encountered in the relationship with the most symbolic and ritual product of our civilization .
The volume published by Cinquesensi, with illustrations by Paolo De Cuarto. will be presented on 11 August in Cortina at the Hotel Posta.
Prinis' oenological journey between clinics and wards begins in Padua where, in November 1985, Professor Vincenzo Gallucci performed the first heart transplant in Italy. 35 years later, in the spring of 2020, in that same institute now dedicated precisely to that pioneer of cardiac surgery, the transplant number one thousand was "signed" by Professor Gino Gerosa.
“I am originally from Rovereto and whenever I have to celebrate a “special” event I give myself a return home, not only physically but also with the senses and therefore I choose a bottle of Trento DOC sparkling wine”. And if he does it who, incidentally, between a mitral valve and a coronary bypass, also manages to organize symposiums on issues related to well-being that correct nutrition can provide, understood as food but also as conscious drinking, we can look at a good glass of wine with greater serenity.
A choice that at the time had an authoritative international endorsement, that of the mythical Christiaan Barnard rose to worldwide fame for having practiced the first heart transplant in the history of medicine on December 3, 1967, in Cape Town, Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old girl, in a state of brain death, due to the injuries sustained in a car accident to Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old Lithuanian sportsman, who suffered from diabetes and of an incurable heart disease.
In 2001 – Gerosa recalls – the legendary Christiaan Barnard was an exceptional testimonial at the fifty-sixth national congress of the Assoenologi which was held in Milan. He also visited the Costaripa winery in Moniga del Garda, in the province of Brescia. Also in that year, in telephone connection from Cape Town, during Vinitaly, he had no doubts in stating that "Drinking a couple of glasses of red wine with dinner is a pleasant way to protect the heart."
Even more reassuring, given his specialization, is the example of Professor Carlo Adami, an internationally renowned cardio vascular surgeon from Verona, who in 1977 at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston developed the first innovative surgical technologies in the field of vascular and endovascular surgery, inventing two internationally patented minimally invasive surgical devices, author of over 200 scientific papers published in the most prestigious scientific journals worldwide abroad, founder in Verona of the first European reference center for minimally invasive endovascular methods. Galeotto, for Adami and his wife Paola, was a ancient vine discovered by chance in a seventeenth-century villa that her father Count Dionigio Serenelli, had bought in Negrar, on the hills of Valpolicella. After years of study and research in that land that slopes gently towards Verona on one side and Lake Garda on the other, the “Ca Pigneto” a model company that produces a precious Amarone and an even more celebrated Ripasso which are now exported all over the world.
And it goes without saying that a glass of his refined Amarone is always ready for his guests or patients. And even in this case, if the invitation to a toast comes from a vascular heart surgeon, you can rest assured.
But the list of the pleasant volume of Prinis is long. For example, the case of Jan DeBruyne specialist in rheumatology, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, who twenty years ago left Belgium for love and passion settling in the Langhe with his Italian wife, Paola Invrea. In Diano d'Alba their farmhouse is surrounded by Nebbiolo vineyards, Barbera, Merlot and Dolcetto. With the last harvest, almost 40.000 bottles were filled.
If, on the other hand, you pass by the parts of Gorizia, you can go and find it Nicola Manferrari, a former pharmacist which is described as follows on the web page of his company, Borgo del Tiglio: "I graduated only as a favor to the family and at 23 I was already working in the pharmacy owned by my mother, who, when she got annoyed, fired me, to then rehire me a few hours later. On the fifth red card received, the decision never to go back behind that old counter, to devote myself to the vineyards that belonged to my father”. Among the wines produced, there is also a blend of Riesling, Sauvignon and Friulano to leave you speechless, even in terms of price.
It is gone from the surgery to the cellar also the Tuscan neurologist Saverio Luzzi. In his estate in the province of Arezzo he bottles Sangiovese and Syrah and even among the vineyards - he says - he continues to put into practice an approach of diagnosis and therapy. His daughter Claudia, a pharmacist, instead creates cosmetic products to counteract skin aging by exploiting the many properties of grapes.
Remaining in Tuscany, but in the province of Livorno, Silvia Cirri, head of the Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Intensive Care service of the Sant'Ambrogio Clinical Institute of the San Donato Group in Milan, decided to devote herself to the production of wine. Podere Conca – this is the name of the company – is located in Bolgheri, a couple of kilometers from the avenue of cypresses sung by Carducci, immediately after the Ornellaia and right in front of the San Guido estate.
Going down the boot, in Abruzzo they meet Andrea Ledda, an andrologist of international renown, and Angelica Bottari, a gynecologist: they found themselves in passions: one for medicine and one for the Montepulciano they produce on the hills around Vasto, in the company winery that bears the name of his wife.
Sebastiano Gulino, otorhinolaryngologist and owner of the cellars of the same name, works in Syracuse. 15 hectares of vineyards between Fanusa, Ispica and Pachino. Almost 80 bottles produced, most of Moscato Dolce, ideal for a velvet marriage with desserts after a meal. But Dr. Gulino also recommends the dry version of Moscato di Siracusa, presented en primeur last year. He called it Eileos because for the ancient Greeks this adjective, whose meaning is "tortuous", "twisting", described the vine plant very well.
Also in Sicily, in the province of Ragusa, a farmer pharmacist – as Paolo Calì likes to call himself – recovering the family tradition, produces Frappato, Nero d'Avola and Grillo. Friends who understand wine tell me that his Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG Classico Manene 2016 must absolutely be mentioned. It didn't seem nice to not do it.
Even in the province of Palermo there are those who have abandoned leaflets, tablets and syrups for the vineyard. After a quarter of a century spent in the pharmacy, in 2005 Marco Sferlazzo managed to realize his dream, not so secret. Catarratto, Nero D'Avola and Perricone, for a total of 60.000 bottles a year, are the wines from his cellar, also sold in Japan, the United States, Russia and Denmark.
To conclude, reading Brinis' book is not only pleasant for a common thread that combines stories of doctors and a passion for wine in an amusing and certainly original anecdote, but it is above all reassuring for those who think of a glass of wine with senses of guilt. In this sense Brinis takes us back to Hippocrates and even more to the Bible, and inspires us to cultivate the "cor hominum".
