Ciao Giulio

一個星期前看到報導說 Giulio Gambelli 去世了。

意大利人給 Giulio 起的外號包括 Bicchierino (Little Glass)，il grande maestro del Sangiovese (the great master of Sangiovese) 和 La farfalla del Sangiovese (the butterfly of Sangiovese)。

我認為 Giulio Gambelli 是上天給意大利葡萄酒最大的恩賜，他悶聲不響的把Sangiovese 變成最雅俗共賞的意大利酒。Nebbiolo 是貴族酒，所以他的性格是「法國」的；只有 Sangiovese 才能扎根于平民百姓家，但又可以登大雅之堂，既平民也貴族，也因此是最「意大利」的。

所以我很同意 Kyle Phillips 的這番話﹕

Giulio Gambelli left us to discuss wines with the Creator, whose great gain is our great loss.

Chianti Classico 公會很親切的以 Ciao Giulio [大概是 Hello Giulio 的意思] 為標題悼念他在一月二日的去世，稱他是產區最具代表性的造酒專家之一，並同時刊登了幾個會員回憶他的文字。

Le Boccie 的 Giovanni Sordi 講得最好﹕

His art didn’t lie in “making” wine but in revealing it.

Brunello di Montalcino 公會這樣感謝他﹕

Giulio knew how to diffuse the concept of quality of wines at a moment – such as at the end of the 60s and in the 70s during which quality was not yet taken for granted as it is now.

對 Giulio 的工作方式，公會是這樣說的﹕

He didn’t teach anything, but by his example he managed to diffuse his ideas.

Giulio 的偉大是眾所公認的，但所有認識他的人都稱讚他是個謙和的人。意大利名酒評人 Franco Ziliani 便這樣描述他﹕

He was the man who had taught all the producers in Montalcino how to make wine, not to mention a healthy slice of Chianti Classico. He was a (towering) piece of the history of the last 60 years in Tuscan winemaking. But if you told him so, he would start laughing and he would huff and puff, unamused because he didn’t want to carry the weight for something that he did out of pure passion and because he loved to do it.

Il Poggione 的莊主 Fabrizio Bindocci 眼中的 Giulio 是這樣的﹕

He always said that winemakers are the ones who make the wines together with the land and the vine. He was a simple taster who gave his advice to winemakers on what to do in the cellar without forcing them to denaturalize their wines.

孔子述而不作，至于 Giulio，他的稱號是 Master Taster，對酒他是只品試而既不種植也不釀造的，他只憑他品酒的特異功能來幫助造酒人。

Soldera 曾說﹕

Giulio tastes what others do not, there’s no-one like him.

Giulio 的一位好友 Carlo Macchi 的這則故事足以證明 Giulio 的鼻子有多厲害﹕

A few years ago I was with Giulio at the Isvea Laboratory. A woman approached us with a printout of analysis results in one hand, a glass in the other.

“Giulio,” she asked, “What’s the acidity [level] in this wine?”

Giulio took a sip of the wine, spit (with his signature radial spitting technique), and then declared, “5… 5.2 at the most!”

The girl read her results on the printout and then grumbled peevishly, “I must have done the analysis wrong!”

[ 引自﹕http://dobianchi.com/2012/01/05/patiently-and-phlegmatically-giulio-gambelli-more-remembrances/ ]

Carlo Macchi 又說﹕

Gambelli had taught winemaking to so many producers in Montalcino and Chianti Classico that the adjective gambelliano had come to denote true Sangiovese …

我也是個忠實的 Gambelliano 信徒。我是先迷上 Soldera 的，從 Soldera 那裏我發現了 Giulio，從 Giulio 我又發現了 Montevertine，還有 Poggio di Sotto、Pian dell’Orino、Cacchiano、Bibbiano 等等。一句話，Giulio 讓我發現了Sangiovese、Tuscany 和 elegance 的真義。其實在我腦海裏，這三個字早已變成同義詞了，就如 Soldera 這樣說過﹕

Giulio Gambellihas made me discover how sweeter, deeper, longer, more elegant and harmonious Sangiovese is with respect to Nebbiolo or any other variety.

見前文﹕

The Unbearable Lightness of Intensity: Soldera 與 Gambelli’s Children (I): Brunello Quartet。

去年年底的國際酒展期間，我有緣跟幾位與 Giulio 共事過的人聊天，聽了很多關於 Giulio 的聽聞，最有幸的是 Bibbiano 的莊主 Tommaso Marrocchesi Marzi 很慷慨地寄來一本絕版的 Giulio Gambelli 傳記，作者正是上面提到的 Carlo Macchi。書的標題是 Giulio Gambelli: L’uomo che sa ascoltare il vino，意即「能聽酒的人」。可惜我這輩子也沒有機會見到這位偉人了，唯有從這本傳記勾出些珍貴的資料放在這裏，既為自己留個念想，同時也可以與同好分享 Sangiovese 帶給我的莫大喜悅。

書的印刷質量不是很好，就像品酒一樣，讓我們用心去欣賞吧。我的意大利文僅可讓我大概看懂酒標，所以書的內文我是靠查字典來看的，只當傳聞來聽好了。

1925.3.24﹕Giulio 出生在一個勞動家庭，有一個長他 8 歲的哥哥名 Mario，另有一龍鳳雙胞的姐妹名 Matilde，後來爸媽開了個賣煙草雜貨的小店，生活才好一點。

出生至 14 歲（1925-1939）﹕完成基本教育，成績不怎麼樣，離開學校後馬上到當地的最大酒廠 Enopolio de Poggibonsi 當雜工，那是 1939 年，第二次大戰剛爆發。

15-25 歲（1940-1950）﹕把 Biondi-Santi 發揚光大的 Tancredi Biondi-Santi 在Enopolio de Poggibonsi 當過幾年顧問，Giulio 因此而認識啟蒙導師 Tancredi，他試酒的天分最早被 Tancredi 賞識。根據 Giulio 的回憶，有一天 Tancredi 把三杯酒擺在他面前，問他哪一杯最好。Giulio 告訴 Tancredi 他的選擇以後，Tancredi 便說﹕「你明天來實驗室吧！」。這次偶然的會面令 Sangiovese 得以重生！

Tancredi Biondi-Santi

22 歲（1947）﹕Giulio 與 Cosetta Coli 訂婚，25 歲時結婚，育有一子一女，女兒取名為 Matilde，為紀念早逝的胞妹。

37-40 歲（1962-65）﹕37 歲那年，Giulio 在家裏的地庫辦了個小型的試酒室，三年後辭掉工作回家打理煙草雜貨店，又一年之後媽媽便去世（父親在他 27 歲那年已去世），所以估計他是因為媽媽的老病而辭工回家的。同年他也開始當酒莊的顧問，第一批客戶包括 Bibbiano、Rencine、Villarosa 和 Rodano。