Wine wisdom from the source(s)

One of the great perks of being a wine writer is getting to know vintners: winemakers, vineyard managers and winery owners, who tend to be interesting people. Here are some wise words from such folks, none of whom I have yet met, alas:

• Cape Mentelle’s Simon Burnell (left) on cork closures: “Open a case of wine after several years, and you can have twelve different wines.”

• Vignai da Duline’s Federica Mocchiutti on why she doesn’t put “organically farmed” on her labels:  “Why would we list what we don’t put into our wines? We think non-organic farmers should have to put on the bottle the fertilizers and pesticides that are additional to the wine.”

• Niepoort’s Dirk Niepoort (left) on “wasting” too many good bottles in one evening: “The greatest enemy of a good wine is a better one.”

• Banfi’s Philip di Belardino on bottle variation: “Wines are like children. You don’t know what they are going to say in front of company.”

• Chateau Petrus’ Christian Moueix on pairing: “More important than the food pairing is the person with whom you drink the wine.”