Wine Pairing: Cantine San Marzano ‘Talo’ Fiano Salento IGT, Puglia (Italy)
I’m glad I chose a white this week, as the moment finally arrived – a white apostle. Mine isn’t Swiss (again, they make great wines that rarely get exported) but despite being from southern Italy it does recall something of that Alpine feeling. Fiano is a native Italian grape not that well-known outside the country, and the wine is fascinating – familiar yet different. Big acidity, waxy body, lots of stony minerality and a distinctly saline finish. Maybe even just a hint of smoke in the background.
As I said last week it only made sense for the apostle to be a white this time, given the theme and setting – I just didn’t think the series would go through with it. It did keep its French security blanket, at least. The whole notion of climbing ethics was really the meat of this arc for me, though. There are definitely times with The Drops of God where you find yourself thinking “What does any of this have to do with wine?”, and that hit me a few times here. But it’s always engaging even when that happens so in the end I suppose it doesn’t much matter(horn).
To be blunt, Issei is the sort of dude that gives climbing a bad name. Rich guys who helicopter up to base came and wave money at a guide until they agree to take them against their better instincts. Those guys die on climbs all the time – and their guides sometimes too. The ethos is that a guide never leaves a client behind (as Issei’s guy, Hauer, did here) – that’s why Andy said their would be a kerfuffle if Hauer showed up without Issei. And the lure of that money often leads to bad decisions. Once they reach a certain point no one wants to turn back, even (maybe especially) on really dangerous climbs like the high Himalayas.
By contrast, Shizuku did this pretty much the right way. He never pretended he was more ready than he was. He found a good guide and listened to his advice, including giving himself time to properly acclimatize. He took the longer route and was ready to turn back if Andy said, but because Andy knew what he was doing they made it without facing the brunt of the weather. Meanwhile Issei wound up on his own after his guide left and ignored his advice not to trust any old ropes he found on the route (which is absolutely the right thing to do).
In that context, it’s definitely irksome that Issei is effectively rewarded for his arrogance and recklessness. He wins the Fifth Apostle because he chooses the right Marc Colin Montrachet – the Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru. Shizuku chooses the Colin Montrachet Grand Cru (by most accounts the better wine), in part because Issei opened it on the summit and Shizuku caught a scent of it on the wind (ROFL). I won’t pretend to know enough to understand why these specific wines reflect their differing experiences – Colin Montrachet is not in my tax bracket.
The reason I kind of give this a pass is because the whole thing is a metaphor for Issei and Shizuku’s lives and their relationships with Yutaka. Shizuku was the legitimate son, safely cocooned, and his problems were first-world problems. Issei was the outsider, whose mother was abandoned by Yutaka and, it seems, attempted to enact a murder-suicide with him as revenge against Yutaka. It ended well for him, as he was the one who would up being accepted and following in Yutaka’s footsteps, but it was a dark ride to get there. Still, he kind of won this round by luck – his topside tipple prejudiced Shizuku’s perception – and I’d like to see fortune even the score in the next round.
