I came across today’s words while doing some research on Italian wine, and I thought they were pretty terrific. And for reasons unknown to me (the reflex of an old teacher??), I did a Google search for the words, and found them in half a dozen blogs — all without citation or attribution. If I were still teaching, I’d unleash my red pen of unhappiness on all but the oldest blog* (likely, but not definitely, the original source of the words). All writers and artists borrow a word or a turn of phrase once in a while. But, if you borrow 27 consecutive words, and you don’t give some kind of credit . . . that’s plagiarism. And it’s not cool.
Regardless of who wrote today’s words, I love them. I’ve been spending an absurd of time lately trying to wrap my brain around Italian wine (my CSW exam looms). And I’ve decided you could spend your entire life studying Italian wine and still never master it. Every time I think I have it . . . I don’t have it. The more I learn, the more there’s left to learn. Italy has a mind-bending number of autochthonous (that’s fancy wine-speak for indigenous) grapes (somewhere in the thousands, depending on who you ask), so thanks for that, Italy. And most of the grapes have aliases, depending on which wine region grows/uses them (Nebbiolo has upwards of 40 aliases). For the love of Bacchus, tax law is less confusing.
But . . . Italian wine is pretty dreamy.
Here’s to the complicated, barely-understood, rule-breaking deliciousness of Italia. I’ll sort it out . . . one of these days!
Cin-Cin!
