The oldest evidence of a drink made from bunches of grapes, preserved inside a clay jar discovered in northern Iran, dates back 7,000 years. Just to say that the history of wine is so ancient that it is confused with the history of humanity itself.
We would have bet, given our miserable times, that everything would be over now.
Yesterday the news came that an entrepreneur from Asti has begun experimenting to produce “wine without alcohol”. And unfortunately it is not an oxymoron.
Aside from the fact that at Vinitaly a few years ago we had already had the chance to drink a terrible non-alcoholic sparkling wine; and apart from the fact that alcohol-free wine has existed for quite some time and is called grape juice; what is striking is the inexorable tendency of the contemporary era to eliminate, together with undoubted possible risks, any pleasure.
After all, after vegan Nutella, anything goes. Zero-alcohol beer. De-glutenized flour. Tobacco-free cigarettes to smoke after decaffeinated coffee. Synthetic meat. Vegetarian carbonara. Lactose-free milk. Cocoa-free chocolate.
And the electric car.
The next frontier is sex without orgasm. But we will get used to that too.
We also accepted Forza Italia without Berlusconi…
It is the de-vitalized life. The one that always takes away the best part of everything. Now everything is “free”. Which if you think about it is a curious way to indicate the opposite of freedom.