Still on the trail of the Black Rooster

Forgive me some self-referentiality this time. Only because the book “On the Trail of the Black Rooster,” which I wrote with the valuable collaboration of Paolo De Cristofaro, a good writer, won the Bruno Lunelli literary prize “a wine book.”

At my age, quite different from Paul’s, who of professional satisfaction will have time to have it, this is good news and I want to share it with you. That book, written in the scorching summer of 2023, and Dedicated to the history of the Chianti Classico Consortium which would celebrate its first 100 years in 2024, turned out well, and this award attests to that. It is not just a book about wine.

Tracing the history of Chianti Classico.

With Paul we wanted to go through the history of Chianti Classico and its symbol, the Black Rooster, precisely, many events that have shaped our country since the Battle of Montaperti in 1260. I dusted off the old studies of Medieval and Modern and Contemporary History that I did fifty years ago. I saw myself as a student of Paolo Brezzi, Rosario Romeo and Renzo De Felice, as well as Gennaro Sasso and Guido Calogero.

Then, I had to deal with Marco Bolasco, a former collaborator in the Gambero Rosso days, who is now a manager at Giunti, the book’s publisher. With Davide Mazzanti, a relentless tutor whom we hope, Paul and I, impressed with the punctuality of chapter deliveries.

Obviously with the leaders of the Chianti Classico Consortium, from the president Giovanni Manetti, a longtime friend, to director Carlotta Gori. Then Silvia Fiorentini and Caterina Mori, who read everything. So did Francesco Ricasoli and Giuseppe Mazzocolin, learned men, and Lucia Franciosi, who was one of the pillars of the Consortium for at least two decades. She too, an educated woman, read and corrected.

Journalistic prose and fast-paced pacing

Basic idea, and it was Paolo De Cristofaro’s, to write everything in the present tense, as if it were a chronicle of what was happening and not what had happened. The result is a Journalistic prose, with a brisk pace and no rhetoric. This is enough to be happy that we were understood. So I thank the jury and the Lunelli family for the award and the truly unexpected surprise.