Gianfranco Soldera was the least distracted human being I can recall spending time with.
Over a four hour lunch many years back he found numberless ways to communicate the same urgency: wine and food are not mere inputs of a life fully lived but are in fact themselves life’s largeness.
Contemporary American culture, many wine and food writers included, fiercely warns the dangers of indulgence. Gianfranco's deeper humanism would have smilingly replied that wine and food constitute a secular transcendence without which life - whatever its 'wellness' goals - would be a mistake.
For him wine meant Italian wine, there being ‘no good wines made outside Italia.’ Only he could have delivered such a line charmingly. Someone says ‘What about great Burgundies?’ as Gianfranco pretends to choke.
‘Rotten!’ comes the reply.
Cheers,
Jason
