Just a moment in time and there would be nothing left of Conterno Barolo or Montfertino, known as the best wine in Italy. We have dinner with the winemaker Roberto in Piamonte, Italy. He is the grandson of Giacommo and the son of Giovanni carrying on a tradition of family winemaking that reaches back to the 1700’s. Same grapes, same land, same line.
Roberto tells us about his grandfather’s restaurant and hostel where anyone was welcome and served. In his broken English he relates the story of this moment in time, this flicker of history, when the Nazi Germans where interrogating his grandfather about who was there, were they housing or feeding any Jews?? They would all be killed. Just in the other room, behind one door where one Nazi soldier stood, there was plenty of evidence of Jews. But his grandfather was quick, Roberto explained, and under this immense pressure of life or death he made a casual and convincing argument that there was nothing back there but storage of food and restaurant supplies. Satisfied, the Nazi’s left without looking behind the door.
One moment
If they would have decided to open the door, for whatever reason, Roberto would not be, this fabulous dinner with white truffles and bottles of the best wine would never have been. As we are driving back from this quaint, family-run restaurant called Art and Oak, I say,
“It is just the difference of that one moment in time that we are here, that there is Conterno wine, that you are here.”
Roberto looks at me and with a slight shift of his head back and forth I see him travel back in time in his mind.
“It is one second, “ He replies.
We have all had our “moments”.
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