Salute!

Vino della casa di DiNatale As sure as New England's autumn brings the falling leaves, it also heralds the yearly wine making at the DiNatale's. (Scattare qui per la versione italiana)

	It all starts with Papa DiNatale going to the produce market and carefully tasting and choosing 17 boxes of grapes. The grapes are a mixture of red (zinfandel, allagante) and white (muscato) grapes. This secret blend of grapes was brought to this country from Furnari, in the Province of Messina, by Pa DiNatale on his first trip to America in 1907.  [The mixture cannot be revealed here because of a secret Sicilian oath that if broken is punishable by some curse of Vesuvius or - "no second helping of  pasta at Ma's next Sunday]
	First, the grapes are crushed into wooden barrels using the "manginatore". [Quite an advancement from bare feet... also without the social consequence of walking bare foot for the next 2 months with "grappa pede" - purple feet.]
	After all the grapes are crushed, about 4 gallons of juice are heated  and brought to a boil. Here, overseen by Nanny DiNatale, the grapes are boiled for… well,  until she says so!  This is crucial to the fermentation process increasing the chances of a successful barrel of wine. The boiled liquid is cooled overnight and the poured into a cured wooden barrel.
	The next day the juice from the crushed grapes is drained and poured into the barrel… the goal is to collect about 50 gallons of grape juice.
	After all the juice is drained , the remaining crushed grapes are packed into the "stringitore" where they are squeezed until "they can be squeezed no more!"  Here the fruits of the labor are at first plentiful but as the squeezing proceeds less and less juice is produced.
	When the flow becomes almost non existent, the squeezed grape is pried apart, loosened by hand and re-packed into the "stringitore".
	Here is where some serious backbone is necessary to produce more precious  juices. The slowly produced final juice is what gives the wine it's strength when it "boils" during the natural fermentation process.
	As a last act, Papa samples the final juices. He is reassured that all the efforts of "Team Vino97" will produce another successful barrel of wine -    Vino da casa DiNatale - vintage 1997!

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• It takes the DiNatale family & friends 12 months to finish a 50 gallon barrel.
• The cost for a 6 ounce glass [the safe limit of Pa's brew per sitting] is 2000 lira.
• What was the average age of this years "Team Vino "?
a) 79;    b)    23 (ya sure);    c) 58;    d) 86          [click here for answer]
• Total time it took "Team Vino" to create the wine was 12 hours…[not counting the 4 hour Sunday dinner at Ma's]. This also does not count the clean-up time which non of "us kids" knows because we weren't around! Maybe you can ask Nanny or Papa if you are fortunate enough to meet them.

Average Age Answer: Nanny DiNatale ain't tellin'