Italian wine-maker Roberto Bava resembles a doctor scribbling a prescription as he jots down combinations of wine and music on a slip of paper— “Adagio for Stradivari, Ennio for Barolo, Gavi di Gavi for contemporary composers”. But he’s not rigid.
He’s just a passionate about his wine, and his music.
Bava and his brothers were born into a family of wine-makers. Pioneers in the Barbera variety of local grape, the Bavas are known for such revolutionary wines like the Rosetta, the Stradivario and the Barolo — a sought after brand in the international wine market. The distinctive labels of the Stradivario or the ‘Piedmont Super-Barolo’ are testaments to the new way of winemarketing pioneered by the latest generation of Bavas. Borrowing the name from the legendary Stradivarius violins known for their fine wood that give them the unique sound, the Bavas take similar care to make their wine barrels. “If you see a double bass on the label, you know that it’s a richer, heavier vintage,” says Bava, interpreting their very successful marketing technique. “It’s our way of combining culture with wine. We don’t like to boast about the quantity of our produce. Then it becomes just an object, and wine for us is more than that.”
Inspired by Keith Jarret’s 1979 performance at the Montreal Jazz festival, Bava returned to his native Asti, in the Piedmont region of Italy, with a grand idea. “At that time my father was restoring one of our older cellars. My brother and I asked him to let us host classical music concerts in the cellar,” he recalls. Musicians performed for entire days at their cellars and kept trying different wines. As the day progressed, the musicians identified certain compositions or instruments with certain wines. “If you propose this to a mathematician, he will rubbish it. So it’s obviously not mathematical. And how many people in the world understand mathematics?” he shrugs. But the wine connoisseur takes pride in his grape-pickers who can “tell you the exact temperature and rainfall that contributed to a particular vintage from any year,” he beams.
Bava’s wine estate boasts of a steady stream of musicians performing classical and jazz music at their vineyard, which now has two dedicated jazz halls.
In India through Finewinesmore, a wine promoter, to judge the India Wine Challenge in Delhi next week, and to promote his wine, Bava regrets the elitism attached to wine consumption in India. “My own wine is too expensive for me to afford here. I hope that changes in future.”