I went to bed early, as one does when the feline alarm clocks go off at 5 a.m. and I woke up to this news:
giroditalia
micacquarone
"Following of the news Danilo Di Luca's
positive result at an out-of-competition test performed on April 29th,
the team Vini Fantini Selle Italia through its team manager Angelo
Citracca specifies the following: "Danilo Di Luca is an athlete who was
not part of our group, not wanted by the team and he was included in
organic by our Main Sponsor Valentino Sciotti, for friendship and
geographical proximity to the cyclist, he insisted and created the
conditions for the inclusion of Di Luca in the team. Danilo Di Luca
repeatedly involved in problems related to doping and already
disqualified for similar violations, repaid the trust of a friend and
great entrepreneur with another mistake, whose consequences damages Vini
Fantini Selle Italia team even if it is innocent. The athlete, already
returned after a disqualification with other teams, was not included in
the philosophy and programs of our team, working for years in the
discovery and growing of young athletes. Following the news, learned
with regret in the morning, the team has dismissed the athlete,
intimating him to get away. At this point, Vini Fantini Selle Italia
will ask for a compensation for damages, in accordance with the internal
Rules signed by all the members of the team".
The sports director Luca Scinto points
out: "I'm devastated, I never wanted Di Luca in the team and I've never
made any secret to anyone of this, even receiving some critics. We have
built our group on the sacred values of the cycling and we made the
mistake to satisfy the request, expressed many times by our main
sponsor, who is a uccessful entrepreneur passionate about this sport, to
try to give confidence to an athlete dear to him for friendship.
Unfortunately this trust has been rewarded with an incredible mistake,
which I still can not understand". Echoes the disappointment of Scinto,
the deep sorrow of the Main Sponsor, Valentino Sciotti: "What can I say?
I believed in man and in the athlete and it is right that I take all
the blame because I made a mistake. Maybe I was wrong to believe that
after a mistake you can redeem and learn not to repeat the mistakes,
maybe I'm wrong to want to help a person I saw in trouble, maybe I was
wrong to follow the religious values that my family gave me, maybe I'm
wrong in believing that when you talk to a person looking into his eyes,
you can also read his heart. I was wrong and I must ask to forgive me
the fans, the Team, the other sponsors, my partners and all the other
cyclists who are racing Giro d'Italia fairly and honestly and all those
young athletes who will be shaken by this news"."
From twitter:
AndreaGuardini: 'How can we be credible if there's always someone ready to cheat? We can't stand this anymore.'
Actually, with DiLuca, the trick would be to test him and NOT get an EPO positive
joelindsey
6:35am
via
TweetDeck
joelindsey
6:35am
via
TweetDeck
EPO?! Really? Old habits die hard I guess. Related: Di Luca probably still prints out his emails to read.
lancearmstrong
lancearmstrong
 | |
| Yes, Boo Berry. For K's upcoming cereal bar post. |
$32.99 from 67Wine
From 67Wine: Kuenhof, owned by Peter and Brigitte Pliger, is one of the best white wine estates in Italy. Their steep, stony vineyards are in the part of the South Tyrol called the Val d'Isarco (or Eisacktal), not far from the border with Austria. They grow Sylvaner, Veltliner and Riesling organically, and their wines show an almost electric mineral character. If the duty of a great wine is to be distinctive, these wines stand out like beacons -- great terroir, careful grape-growing, brilliant winemaking, and extraordinary wines.
From importer Oliver McCrum Wines:
Kuenhof, owned by Peter and Brigitte
Pliger, is one of the best white wine estates in Italy. Their steep,
stony vineyards are in the part of the South Tyrol called the Val
d'Isarco (or Eisacktal), not far from the border with Austria. They grow
Sylvaner, Veltliner and Riesling organically, and their wines show an
almost electric mineral character. If the duty of a great wine is to be
distinctive, these wines stand out like beacons -- great terroir,
careful grape-growing, brilliant winemaking, and extraordinary wines.
Most of the winegrowing
in the area known as the Alto Adige (also known as ‘Südtirol’ in the
German spoken by the locals) is along the Strada di Vino, just south of
Bolzano. The Eisacktal is a separate, very small appellation about half
an hour north-east of Bolzano, on the way to the Brenner Pass and
Austria. The climate is different here, Continental rather than the
Mediterranean found around Bolzano, most of the vineyards are at high
altitude (in the case of Kuenhof, between 1,800 and 2,300 feet above sea
level), and the soils at Kuenhof are very distinctive, containing
schist, quartz phyllite, lots of stones, and morainic layers of crushed
rock. The vineyards are terraced, exposed to the south-east, and quite
steep. The most recent plantings are in an area that Peter identified as
being famous for grape-growing a century ago, but that had fallen into
disuse, perhaps because the monetary investment (to repair terraces) and
time was too great. Density is high, at 8,000 plants per hectare.
'Kuenhof' is a farmhouse
that dates from the 12th century. Just south of the town of Brixen/Bressanone, it was for centuries owned by the Bishop of
Bressanone, and then for the last 200 years it has been in the family of
the current owners. Until 1989 the grapes were taken to the Abbazia di
Novacella, in nearby Neustift. In 1990 the Pligers started making their
own wines in the cellar under the farmhouse.
The Pligers farm
organically, tending towards the biodynamic approach but not in fact
biodynamic. The grapes are picked in October, sometimes as late as the
end of October. The wines are fermented using only indigenous yeasts
(which take between a month and four months to finish the fermentation),
aged in stainless steel and acacia-wood (30%) vessels, and bottled
shortly before the following harvest. All the wines are bottled under
screwcap, which means that each bottle will taste the way the winemaker
intended. (Pliger is proud of his switch to screwcaps.)The Pliger’s Riesling vines were brought in from France, Germany and other producers in the Alto Adige. Riesling is now making a name for itself in Italy, and Pliger's 'Kaiton' bottling is one of the best. Lime-peel, flowers, petrol and an almost electric mineral character make this wine very exciting to drink; I am reminded of licking a nine-volt battery as a dare when I was younger. Bright balance of acidity and fruit. The name Kaiton is of Celtic origin, and was the name for the area around the estate.
I say: Screw cap! I don't open many of those during the Giro. The grape that I tend to miss the most during this project is Riesling. Not that there are not Italian Rieslings, but many of them are just not that satisfying. Very pale straw in color. Some petrol, citrus and green on the nose. Lots of minerals and some flowers as well. Held up and was very nice on day two.
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