Don’t run away and buy a vineyard

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may have had this fantasy: quit your job in the big city, move to Napa or Greece, buy a straw hat and make wine. Sales of wine-estate properties have, in fact, been rising across southern Europe for years. But the reality is, owning a vineyard is stressful, volatile and financially precarious, and the FT's Marianna Giusti warns us to avoid it at all costs. Mari's family runs a vineyard in Tuscany, Italy. As the oldest child, she is first in line to inherit it. But she doesn’t want it! This week, she joins Lilah to discuss the highs and lows of vineyard life, and explain how hard it is to make really good wine.

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We love hearing from you! You can email us at [email protected], we’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.

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Links:

– Mari’s piece, The many perils – and occasional pleasure – of owning a vineyard: https://on.ft.com/46vKMcL

– Mari is on Instagram @mauipippi and on Twitter @mauipippa

– Jancis Robinson on what the rise in wildfires means for fine wine: https://on.ft.com/3NKbczK

– Another recent column by Jancis, about a vineyard in New Zealand battered by heavy rainfall, ‘the first vineyard visit that left me feeling sad’: https://on.ft.com/3NIwjCA

– A more uplifting article by Jancis, on biodynamic wine: https://on.ft.com/3pfq93D

– And one on how German wine has transformed itself, but buyers haven’t noticed: https://on.ft.com/3NIoHAd

– We also mentioned A Good Year (2006) directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe

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Special offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast.

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Clips courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you've ever gone wine tasting at a vineyard, you've probably had this fantasy.
0:06.8	You run away from the big city, throw it all out, you move to Napa or New Zealand or Greece,
0:13.4	you buy a big straw hat and a villa, and you just make wine. There are tons of movies that play
0:20.3	into this sort of escapism.
0:22.0	Like that movie A Good Year.
0:24.1	Russell Crow is a high-powered banker.
0:26.6	He quits his job, runs to Provence, falls in love with this beautiful waitress,
0:31.4	and ultimately, you know, finds himself in wine country.
0:36.3	Who wouldn't want that?
0:38.3	Just listen to how they talk about it in the movie.
0:40.8	It's so poetic.
0:41.9	I enjoy making wine because this sublime nectar is quite simply incapable of lying.
0:48.9	Pictually epitulated matters not.
0:51.3	The wine will always whisper into your mouth with complete, unabashed honesty every time you take a sip.
1:02.5	Mm, delightful.
1:04.9	My colleague Mariana Juisti is set up to do just this.
1:08.8	Mari's family actually owns a vineyard in Tuscany, Italy, which her dad
1:12.5	bought when she was a kid, and she's in line to inherit it. But the funniest thing about this
1:17.9	whole story is that she doesn't want it. And even though sales are going up for vineyards across
1:23.3	southern Europe, her warning for us is don't. Don't buy into the fantasy.
1:29.3	Avoid it at all costs.
1:31.3	Maybe just pick the city like she did.
	...

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