Finished Cork Plate Debut

Well I finished that cork plate project. After writing a post about how hard it was to find real corks these days, even in Italy, the original gift-giver sent me another package from the states. This time it was full of corks her friend saved, including French and South American wines.

Although I cheated myself out of authentically showing only my own history of wine bottles that had passed through the house in my life with F, I do have a completed project in much less time.

It's definitely one big hot plate. For now, I have it hanging on the kitchen wall.

The Unfinished Cork Project

Shortly after throwing away a bag full of supposedly useless wine corks, I received a gift in the mail: a wooden frame to use to make a big cork hot plate. The idea is that you fill in the center area with all the corks you would otherwise throw away and have a unique hot plate to show for it.

That was 2 (or even 3?) years ago. I don't remember exactly. I started to collect the corks again. But in the meantime the wine industry changed gears. It stopped making wine stoppers out of cork, using a plastic substitute instead. Perhaps it was for environmental reasons, like saving the cork trees from over harvesting. Or maybe the aziende agrigole realized that there was no risk is selling a bad bottle that tasted like cork without real cork stoppers. Anyway, the fact remains that it has become virtually impossible to regularly find real cork, even in Italy.

This is a picture of the state of my cork project:

I buy wine. I live in Italy, so I often drink wine. I like a glass at dinner. But here I am with only these corks to count after all these years! I need double that to finish the plate! I even thought of asking a café or enoteca (wine shop) owner to pass on some of her stoppers to speed up the process, but then my plate would lack my own history in its completion. I want to know I actually drank those different wines featured by the corks. I also want to see the visual variety of the various brands. The enoteca owner will probably just give me dozens of corks from the same brands of tocai and merlot (popular regional choices).

The funny thing is that now a new labor protest in going on, led by the cork peelers. These people are losing their jobs because of the drop in worldwide cork sales. The country of Portugal claims part of its bad economy on the drop in this single field! Now the workers are campaigning to get the wine industry to start using the real stuff again, claiming that it is environmentally better because it's natural. But is it sustainable?

In Italy, Sardegna's the largest cork producer. I haven't seen any Sardinian cork protesters picketing during this crisis season, but they are probably suffering, too.

So is topping bottles with cork good or bad for the environment? I'm confused.

What's your opinion?

It's just such a great material: soft yet hard, light, solid yet airy, and heat-resistant, best of all.

Read and watch more about the cork scene at Time magazine and at Sughero Naturale.

From Benetton to Wines and Olive Oil

Only in Italy do you become famous, get rich and then create your own line of wines and olive oil. Oliviero Toscani has done just that.

He is best known for his controversial work for Benetton, a Veneto company from the Treviso area near Padua, including over 20 years of photos as part of the clothing manufacturer's advertising campaign. Some particularly memorable images for me growing up were a nun kissing a priest and close-ups of bloody death and slimy birth, featuring a newborn still attached to the umbilical cord. The billboards, magazine ads and COLORS magazine, which develops a journalistic aspect to the research, all ruffled many feathers and got millions of people talking about society's contemporary issues and problems.

Toscani was even responsible for founding Benetton's creative think-tank of young designers and artists from around the world who win residencies to work on-site at the company's compound space called Fabrica. The work produced there receives accolades across the art and design spheres as well as helping continue making innovative shop displays and ad campaigns for the mother company, United Colors of Benetton.

In recent years, Toscani has slowed down on his direct contributions to all-things Benetton. He's got a new project: he has chosen to produce and promote his own wine and olive oil collections named OT. As for the wine, it is colorfully labeled in separately yellow, cyan and magenta. By the way, those are the three colors used to create all printed material, of course with the addition of a fourth component, black. He may be making wine, but he's still a graphic designer and photographer at heart! And in fact, he is still doing his trade, but not with the big B. Go to La Sterpaia for that.

Another noted (clothing) designer who has a winery is Diesel brand apparel's founder Renzo Rosso. For my post about those wine and olive oil lines, click here. But that stuff's got the company's brand name on the label.

I have to admit I have never casually found either of these wines or olive oils in my giri around town, the region or Italy, but maybe one day I will actually get to taste them and see how they stack up to their founders' reputations. If you do first, let me know what you think. Grazie.

What's the Perfect Wine?

Since my husband and I will be closing on our very first house tomorrow, I would love to celebrate with a fantastic bottle of wine. I welcome your suggestions for what would be most appropriate.

I can splurge a little but can't break the bank since there is simply too much furniture and so manyappliances to buy by April, when we plan to move in.

So please share your wine saggezza e consigli.

Diesel Jeans, No...Olive Oil and Winery

The famous jeans-maker extraordinaire not only designs cutting-edge and trendy clothes, but also boasts land that produces wine, grappa and olive oil. Renzo Rosso, who created his dynasty in 1994, wants to go back to Italian tradition and work the land-with design in the bottles and tradition in the fruits of the land.

In Marostica (Vicenza), Diesel company owns 7 hectares of land that they dedicate to farming, an azienda agricola.

I find this an interesting addition to the company. Something like this would only happen in Italy. Would Gap company ever make cheddar cheese or open up an authentic hamburger joint in the USA?

Diesel's wine list includes the following: "Bianco di Rosso" Chardonnay; "Rosso di Rosso" Merlot and Cabernet (together?); "Nero di Rosso" Pinot Nero; "Grappa di Rosso" with a combination of all the plants together; and "Olio di Rosso" with mostly the Leccino tree and some additions of olives from the Frantoio and Ascolane varieties.

I wonder how good these wines and oil are being that a business guru, most interested in design, is trying to produce some quality food and drink products. It's definitely an interesting project. It's probably mostly in the hands of farmers with just the label put on the bottles and promotion.

Click here for the website of Diesel Farm, including online store. Of course, the site looks great--it's pure design!

If any of you taste these products, let me know about the quality. Thanks!