Rupi del vino

(Vineyards on the Rocks)
by Ermanno Olmi
53’, Italy, 2009

“The are five reasons to drink: the arrival of a friend, good wine, the thirst you feel and that to come, and any other.” The vineyards on the rocks, on the northern side of the Valtellina, are the remote terraces on mountain slopes still fashioned today by manual labour, according to a tradition that dates to 1400. Th ere grow the grapevines from which the wines of the Valtellina are made. Ermanno Olmi turns to documentary and embarks on a voyage among the valleys, slopes, tradition, and culture.

Ermanno Olmi
Born in Bergamo in 1931, he earned a place among the greats of Italian cinema with his Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival for L’albero degli zoccoli, the first in a long series of prestigious international awards. In the 1980s he moved to the Altopiano of Asiago where he still lives in a house on the edge of the woods, opposite that of Mario Rigoni Stern.