A bad day for wine drinkers in Barga as a tiny accident this morning turned the air purple and the grey stone streets of Barga Vecchia a deep red wine colour. In many bars and restaurants wine is now sold in bottles or sometimes even “Shock Horror Probe” in boxes but in Barga Vecchia there are still a few establishments using the old methods – bringing in their wine in large glass containers which are then siphoned off into flasks or bottles. Outside of Aristos bar one of the large glass demijohn containers that are used to transport wine in bulk broke under its own weight as it was being carried into the bar and 55 litres of red wine was lost for ever. A deeply disturbing experience for Marino who was drenched from the waist down in red wine – his red wine.
He stood and watched helplessly as the litres and litres of good red wine following the law of gravity raced down the hill towards Barga Giardino. This is now the third time this unfortunate event has happened to Marino in all his years at Aristo’s maybe things happen in threes ? Anyway it could be worse – earlier this year it happened to Riccardo inside the L’Osteria … imagine that ! – 55 litres of red wine right across the floor or how about this…. a few years ago it happened to the previous owner of the Osteria as they were transporting the wine in their car …. the smell of vinegar in that car lingered for years after the event.
che scempio
Ducks arrested.
Apparently most of the wine flowed into the duck pond just below Barga giardino (under ponte vecchio). A few took a liking to the reddish stuff and a couple became quite aggressive. A few mothers complained, and so for safety reasons the ducks were taken into custody to sleep it off.
The local vet said that the ducks were doing fine but to prevent them wondering up to old town they would only be left loose after Marino had closed.
Talking about the duck pond, what will happen to it (and other wild life) if the Rio Fontanamaggio project goes ahead?
Talking about Marino’s pants just what is the best way to remove wine stains.
There is a product which claims to remove red wine stains at
http://www.wineaway.com but I prefer a more traditional method.
Place pants over a bowl
-Rub in some ash
-Pour boiling water over the pants/ash
-Leave for 20 minutes
-Wash.
one second … are we talking about pants as in underwear (british) or pants as in trousers (usa) ? there is a difference after all
Looking at the photos and taking a rough guess of the saturation levels, I would say both British and American.
S’è perso poco
povero vino del marino.. baci rita
I know that feeling – sort of. We brew our own wine and beer (although not in those quantities!) and last year I’d left a batch to finish fermenting while we spent weeks near Trassimeno. To my horror, on our return I found 15 pints of Woodfordes Wherry all over the floor! I’ve lost wine as well due to demijohn breakage. Tis trully a sad moment and I commiserate with him.
The ducks would have been micely marinated from the inside wouldn’t they…. ;0) ??
We’re coming to Barga for 2 weeks in August. Our 3rd visit to Italy – I’m more excited than the kids!! Not allowed to bring my bass though… so will have to just listen to the jazz.