The wartime roots of Italian Pinot Noir

Wine-making can have a tragic dimension, and rarely more so than with Italian Pinot Nero: that is, Pinot Noir. It is often made amid blood-soaked landscapes, where tragedy regularly arose out of pretensions to grandeur. If you wish to read an overview of modern Italian history in order to understand why, the place to start is David Gilmour’s The Pursuit of Italy.

Despite the quality of the prose, mention Sir David’s book even to thoughtful Italians, and you might be surprised by the lack of enthusiasm. He applies a revisionist scalpel to national myths, without benefit of anaesthetic.

One might have assumed that he would share the 19th–century Liberals’ Gladstonian enthusiasm for the Ris-orgimento. Not so. He is sceptical about the House of Savoy and indeed finds good words to say about the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Gladstonedescribed it as the negation of God erected into a system of government.