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Jan 15,2006 - Jan 22,2006 |
18 - «I had a dream: to become a pilot»
Angelo Lo Cilento (Vin Bon e Cilento Wines) talks about his life and his company
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-12-22
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Angelo e Grazia Lo Cilento
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Can a man who worked in a bank for 23 years produce excellent wine? Instinctively, one would say no.
But the correct answer is yes, if that man surrounds himself with first-class oenologists. And that is what Angelo Lo Cilento, a Lucanian born in Ferrandina, did in his Vin Bon and Cilento Wine plants, where he gathered the best technicians. Starting from his wife Grazia, who has wine in her blood because she comes from a family of vine-growers from Pisticci (also in Basilicata).
Told this way, the story is no different from that of many other Italians who achieved success in Canada. But the story of Angelo Lo Cilento and his wife Grazia runs parallel to the history of the development of vine-growing and oenology in Canada, and consequently of taste development. A story deserved to be told.
Lo Cilento understood that Canadians were discovering wine, and he produced it. "But always a quality wine," he specifies, "because bad wine can be made with no difficulty, but in five or six months you'd be shutting down your company. I've been here for a quarter of a century. I remained faithful to how our old folks in Southern Italy made wine: something to be respected because it's not only a drink but a food as well. Maybe this is why the ancients offered it to the gods. And it was not a trifle, if you think for a moment to 'Lacrima'. You're a Southerner like myself, so you know how the Lacrima was made and what was its meaning, don't you?"
I don't know how it was made, exactly. But I know that my grandfather took out the bottle of Lacrima only on great occasions and those drinking it did so with great respect.
"And they were right in respecting Lacrima. Now I'll tell you how it was made: first of all it had to be done with Malvasia grapes which, when ripe, flood the fields with its smell. Then, after being cut, the bunches were put into two small, wide-mouthed barrels, hanging from a donkey's yaw. When the barrels were full, the donkey was led to the cellar. The rocking movement of the animal and the weight of the bunches caused the ripest grapes to crush along the way. Here you are: Lacrima was the juice of those grapes that had crushed spontaneously. Juice of pulp alone, no peel, and when it fermented it gave a wine for celebrations."
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