For the artistic combination with the wines of Lenza we chose the 1976 Steno film “Febbre da Cavallo”, with Gigi Proietti and Enrico Montesano. The sympathy and vitality of Guido, along with his unbridled passion for his work, in fact, have reminded us of the protagonists of this Italian Comedy Movie, who choose to risk everything for their “fever”
Before choosing “Febbre da Cavallo”, we at Ritmodivino examined different films and more than a work of art.
We wanted to choose something that would tell – to those who do not yet know it – all the character and sympathy of Guido. In particular, we wanted to highlight its freshness and its personal verve with the determination of this boy to emerge in a difficult world like that of viticulture.
No work, however, fit perfectly like the Steno film of 1976. The other works seemed too serious and could not be a leitmotiv able to put together a family story made of love for horses and the ability to innovate, deciding to produce wine.
As the protagonists of the film come to play all for their unbridled passion (their “fever”) for horse racing, so Guido decided to use family land that would have yielded much more if they were dedicated to intensive crop, to plant grapes. Plus, deciding to produce wine in a land like Campania, in a highly urbanized area like the one that surrounds the second city of the region, can rightly be considered almost a gamble.
We are not in a tourist area as can be the nearby Amalfi Coast or the Sorrento Peninsula, here the countryside has been replaced by businesses. And, as we said in the article in which we present the wines of the Viticoltori Lenza company, the land is exploited for the production of vegetables and, in particular, rocket salad.
While we move from Pontecagnano to Montecorvino Rovella, Guido tells us, moreover, that all the fresh products we find ready to taste in supermarket fridges come from here.
And, in fact, it is not difficult to find the establishments of renowned companies that face the main street of the city. Industrialization is not always synonymous with sustainable production, so if nine out of ten producers decide to supply large-scale retailers, someone like Guido decides to produce wine is a good reason to be a hero. In other words, one is willing to lose some potential earnings to follow one’s passion.
Hence the choice of “Febbre da Cavallo”, a classic of the Italian comedyby Stefano Vanzina (aka Steno). A film that depicts Rome in the Seventies in a goliardic way and tells the obsession of a group of friends struggling with this irrepressible passion for the game.
The film was rediscovered after an initial flop and is now a cult movie that can reasonably be matched with the biggest of these films, Amici Miei. Perhaps it is the film that has given more fame to the talented Gigi Proietti, which recalls the scene “Tognazziana” of the “Whiskey male without scraping”, made in order to advertise the liquor Vat69 for the historical advertising container “Carosello”, which is popular in Italy.
In the case, paraphrasing Proietti, we can say that Guido’s wine is a “male wine without scraping”, an aglianico that is truly a wine without compromise, with its decisive tannin and its full-bodied structure. There is no trick and there is no deception here. This is magic!
