Nutrendo gli altri, nutriamo noi stessi

Cucianare significa capre i bisogni degli altri e desiderare sfamarli quando e’ il momento di farlo. Invece di concentrarci compulsiva mente sulla nostra fame, diventiamo naturalmente consapevoli di quella degli altri. Allora accade una cosa strana: la nostra fame scompare del tutto. Nutrendo gli altri, nutriamo noi stessi. Diventiamo capaci di gustare la vita e le persone che ci vengono date. I nostri rapporti ruotano di 180 gradi. Non e’ piu’ questione di quello che l’altro ci da, ma di quello che noi abbiamo da offrire. E’ un modo completamente diverso di affrontare la nostra fame, il nostro desiderio di venire nutriti. Se diamo tutta l’attenzione ai bisogni degli altri ed ai modi per soddisfarli, non solo la nostra fame scompare, ma iniziamo a sentirci sazi. Troviamo gioia nella capacita’ di soddisfare coloro di cui ci prendiamo cura. Poi, portando avanti questo processo, impariamo una lezione ancora piu’ profonda: che in noi c’e’ una sorgente di nutrimento inesauribile. Non ci sentiamo piu’ vuoi e affamati.

Molti devono ancora imparare questa lezione nei rapporti. Sono costantemente impegnati in una battaglia per avere, per avere di piu’, per comandare, per fare come vogliono. La spinta e’: i bisogni di chi sono piu’ importanti? Chi da di piu’? E’ come se queste persone tenessero un registro aggiornato delle entrate e delle uscite. Vogliono che l’altro sia in debito nei loro confronti, o danno solo ciò’ che ritengono che l’altro si meriti. Un rapporto fondato sul debito e’ un rapporto commerciale. L’amore diventa una merce da vendere o da comperare, ma ciò’ non può’ condurre ad una vita d’amore.

Per cambiare questo atteggiamento, smettete di calcolare quanto date e quanto ricevete. Smettete di voler essere sempre a credito. Non occorre tenere i conti di quanti vi viene dato: prendetelo e ringraziate. Non esigete neppure una briciola in piu’. Inoltre non giudicate se l’altro e’ degno di ricevere i doni che avete da dargli. Questo atteggiamento provoca amarezza e risentimento, vi fa essere trattenuti e chiusi come un nodo. E questa non e’ certamente una via d’amore.

Come dice un grande poeta zen: “Aprite le braccia se volete essere abbracciati”. Date pienamente e senza riserve, senza calcolare ciò’ che vi viene restituito. Piu’ date e piu’ diventate pieni, felici ed autosufficienti. Molto vi verra’ restituito, anche se forse non nel modo in cui ve lo aspettate. Consentire all’universo di darvi delle cose in cambio, ma senza esigerle da una determinata persona.

Brenda Shoshanna Lukeman

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Lutea Wines

Second journey. The second chapter of this new adventure bring me back home, in my region, Trentino. During the year as a consumer I had the chance to meet many very interesting and peculiar people from the wine world. Among them Giulio de Vescovi, young producer of Teroldego rotaliano in Mezzocorona, great red from Trentino, deserve a special place. Not to mention our friendship we decided to make a wine together, as outcome of two completely different terroir, Tuscany and Trentino. Duetti was than born as a blend of 50% merlot from Leuta, Toscana, and 50% of merlot de Vescovi from Mezzocorona. Giulio gave me, as well, the opportunity to meet many other very interesting people but, among them, Nadia Viola ed Andrea Moser were the one that impressed me most. During a misty evening in fall 2007, among all the talking, around a table with a good glass of wine, we knew that Nadia was about to renew her apple orchard up in the mountain of Mezzocorona at 850 m. above sea level. We had than the idea of making a vineyard instead of renewing the apple orchard and it is from here that we start the new project. Making mountain wines in Trentino, two spumante classic method and three dry whites.

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Leuta Wines

A new beginning!

Y2K. A new beginning, back to my origin. Thirteen years ago, bored of a gregarious life by some international financial institution, I started this new journey. I crossed the threshold of well-being and tranquility to enter a whole new world. Back to origin, to the feeling I had with my grandfather and to go on with the journey we started together when I was just a child. After a couple of years of searching, I finally trip over Leuta. A wonderful rolling hill in which I create the Leuta vineyard, one of the most beautiful and interesting vineyard of Cortona area.

Panoramica Aerea 2000

aerial view year 2000

 

Panoramica Aerea 01:13

aerial view year 2013

 

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Who I am

Denis Mezzocorona

Hallo, nice meeting you here, I am Denis Zeni, owner of Azienda Agricola Leuta – Leuta Wines – and I live a little bit in Rovereto, a nice small town in Trentino, and a little bit more in Cortona, Tuscany where I produce wine in my tiny atelier – Leuta -, the rest of the time I am round the world. Here you can find everything that belongs to Leuta World, wine production and wine tasting in Cortona – Tuscany -, our cultural and ethical approach and much more.

The story begins ……..

 

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La mente-scimmia

Zazen is like water in a glass. Leave the water to sit quietly and soon the dirt will sink down”

– Taisen Deshimaru

La pratica dello zazen (la meditazione zen) ferma la nostra frenetica attività’, tranquillizza la nostra mente-scimmia scatenata. La mente-scimmia ama accompagnarci ovunque andiamo. E’ il continuo dialogo interiore e i continui commenti che rovinano tutto ciò’ con cui veniamo in contatto e ci impedisce di stare davvero con ciò’ che si presenta. Eterno sottofondo della nostra vita, lo applichiamo a tutte le persone che incontriamo, a tutti i rapporti. E poi ci meravigliamo di non riuscire ad innamorarci.

Entrando nello spazio dello zendo (centro di pratica zen), spoglio, silenzioso ed aperto, la mente-scimmia sembra diventare ancora piu’ scatenata. Ovviamente non e’ cosi. Si tratta soltanto del fatto che, in assenza di ogni fonte di distrazione, contattiamo e vediamo quello che e’ continuamente in atto dentro di noi. Le porte della consapevolezza si sono socchiuse, e possiamo rimanere davvero stupiti da ciò’ che vediamo.

Quando Henry arrivo’ per la prima volta allo zendo, disse: “Ero cosi stupefatto dai miei violenti commenti competitivi su tutto, che sono quasi caduto dal cuscino. Ero scroccato, sconcertato. Chi era quella persona che viveva dentro di me? Da dove era venuta? Per quanto tempo aveva vissuto la mia vita?”

Henry non aveva mai capito i suoi fallimenti amore. Ma rimanendo seduto sul cuscino, inizio’ a comprendere: se dentro di lui c’e’ davvero una simile furia, come avrebbe potuto dare o ispirare fiducia? Come avrebbe potuto sapere qual era il passo successivo da fare?

‘Semplicemente sedendo’, Henry riusci’ a calmarsi e a capire di essere in grado di liberarsi della sua turbolenza interiore, diventando capace di’ semplicemente essere’ con un altro. A tempo debito si senti’ pronto per un rapporto, che questa volta prese una forma completamente nuova.

  • Brenda Shoshanna Lukeman
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James Suckling Tasting – Another hit!

We made it again. Mr. J. Suckling has tasted Leuta wines for the fourth year and we are getting good reviews and good points, actually we are somehow improving.

LEUTA TOSCANA TAU
Italy – Tuscany – 2013 94

Tau 12

A tangy red with dried cherry, chocolate and cedar character. Medium to full body, ultra-fine tannins and a refined, lightly velvety textured finish. A cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah blend. Drink now or hold.

LEUTA TOSCANA LEUTA NAUTILUS SINGLE BARREL SELECT
Italy – Tuscany – 2014  93

Nautilus 12

The nose is defined by plenty of ripe strawberry character as well as cherry essence, lavender and crushed violets. Full body, round tannins and a ripe yet uplifted finish. Seriously delightful. Drink now.

LEUTA SYRAH 1,618 DOC CORTONA
Italy – Tuscany – 2013  92

A soft and velvety red with plum and vanilla. Medium to full body and a savory finish. I like the underlying acidity. Drink now.

LEUTA CORTONA MERLOT 1,618
Italy – Tuscany – 2013  92

Merlot 750

A linear and fine-grained red with plum, coffee and chocolate character. Medium body, silky tannins and a flavorful finish. Drink now.

LEUTA SOLITARIO DI LEUTA SANGIOVESE DOC CORTONA
Italy – Tuscany – 2013  89

A juicy and light bodied red with plum, orange peel and light vanilla character. Medium body. Drink now.

LEUTA CABERNET FRANC TOSCANA 2,618
Italy – Tuscany – 2014  89

Cabernet Franc 2013

A slightly lifted nose with a light body and plenty of cherry fruits. Drink now

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Ecological Footprint!

At Leuta we strive to have a low carbon footprint, as low as we possibly can. Recently on one of our cellar tours and tastings, we had a visit from a couple from California. They were traveling in Italy and, luckily enough, they stopped by to visit us. We had a chance to speak with them about my wines, Leuta’s philosophy, as well as many other topics beyond the world of wine. As many of you know, we are very concerned about the environment and we do our best to keep Leuta as clean as possible. It turned out that Clay and Ariane were involved in a similar endeavor to ours here. We had a wonderful chat about everything relating to nature, and beyond. Ariane, an artist, writer, and novelist, just launched a new website www.goavap.com which is full of interesting ideas. We decided to write something to highlight what we do at Leuta on a daily basis to be as environmentally invisible as possible.

  1. ORGANIC

Leuta, since is foundation in Y2K, has adopted a clean approach to agriculture. Since the very beginning we have been fully Organic and we are now entering the process to become certified. We didn’t feel the need to do this previously because a few years ago we were so small that we knew all of our customers and there was an inherent trust of what we were doing. Over time Leuta grew and now we are shipping wines in places where we are not yet known so we decided to have the organic certification in order to have everybody understand our philosophy and practices.

2. VEGAN

Since the 2005 vintage, Leuta adopted a vegan approach to vinification. We have never used products of animal origin in any processes related to wine making. Products such as albumin, casein, and isinglass and many other have never entered the production cycle.  We are now approaching step 2 of the vegan protocol. Soon we are going to eliminate the use of every other material needed in the vineyard/cellar such as leather gloves, leather boots and so on in order to be even less invasive on the environment. Only one more step will remain to be done in the future, regarding which we are still searching for a solution. At present, we use some organic manure to emend the soil and we haven’t yet found a product able to substitute for cow manure, but we will continue to search and I am sure that sooner or later something will be available. A natural approach is becoming more and more important every day and so I am confident that the market will make something available in the near future.

3. ENERGY

Regarding clean energy Leuta has adopted a two prong approach. Since we have two production sites, vineyards and cellar which are intertwined we were forced to split our approach. In the cellar, since we are renting the space at present, we just recently made an agreement with www.lifegate.it  a company that guarantees to produce energy only from environment friendly resources. For the vineyard, which we fully own, we are building a little photovoltaic facility that will be more than enough to provide the energy we need. We still need to find a solution for the night hours, during which of course we cannot produce our energy. We are working on it right now and we are confident that the solution will present itself soon.

4. PACKAGING

Regarding packaging things are a bit more complicated. We just recently made an agreement with a labeling company and we will be using, starting vintage 2015 bottling, paper Favini Crush which is FSC certified, GMO free, contains 30% post-consumer recycled waste and is produced with EKOenergy, resulting in a 20% reduction in carbon footprint. Both the production process and the product are protected by European patent. Corks, bottles and sleeves are already certified for vegan use. The next step will be to use even environmentally-friendly cardboard for our boxes. We are currently evaluating some options and we will choose the one that can guarantee the lowest environmental impact

5. GREEN BUILDING

Green Building will be in a foreseeable future the approach that Leuta will adopt to build both the new cellar and the new house in the middle of our vineyard. The project is under way but it will take few more years before we will begin actual construction. The idea is again the one that is oriented to avoid an excess of stress of the environment. It will be our priority to keep all of you posted on what we keep on doing at Leuta to deliver to our worldwide clients even better and cleaner wines to satisfy not only your senses but also your emotions, always keeping in mind that where there is a will there is a way.

Cortona June 2017 – DLZ –

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Leesburg – Virginia

Great venue yesterday in Leesburg. Thanks to Glen, Gale, Craig and my great assistant Marla. I enjoyed very much to spend a wonderful evening with my friends and I had the chance to meet some very nice people. I hope everybody enjoyed the time they spend with me and my wines. Thanks to Chef Daniela as well, a nice touch of Italy in Virginia, another ambassador of my beloved country. Thank you to Kay for introducing me to some interesting Californian Chardonnay, she is trying, with some success, to make me change my mind about those wines ;-).

img_6671img_6673img_6678

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Leuta Wines USA Tasting Tour

Hello everybody here you can follow my trip to USA.

– January 11th through 15th: VIRGINIA

– January 16th through 19th: GEORGIA

– January 20th through 21st: VIRGINIA

– January 22nd through 27th: GEORGIA

– January 28th: NORTH CAROLINA

– January 29th through February 3rd: FLORIDA

– February 4th through 9th: MISSOURI

– February 10th through 11th: KANSAS

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James Suckling Evaluation

Another year has gone and we are now back with the tasting made by the most important wine experts. We start this little journey with Mr. J. Suckling. He has tasted Leuta wines for the third year and we are getting good reviews and good points.

LEUTA TOSCANA LEUTA NAUTILUS SINGLE BARREL SELECT
Italy – Tuscany – 2012  93

Nautilus 12

This is wonderfully soft and caressing on the palate with ripe plum and berry character, plus hints of chocolate. Full body, long and flavorful. Drink or hold.

LEUTA TOSCANA TAU
Italy – Tuscany – 2012  91

Tau 12

A delicious blend that delivers plenty of spice, dried fruit and berry aromas and flavors. Full body, silky tannins and a crisp finish. Lightly austere tannins. Drink or hold.

LEUTA CORTONA MERLOT 1618
Italy – Tuscany – 2012  91

Merlot 750

Aromas of lightly cooked fruit, tobacco, green olives and and herbs follow through to a full body, soft and velvety tannins and a savory finish. Delicious finish of fruit and leafs.

 

LEUTA CABERNET FRANC TOSCANA 2618
Italy – Tuscany – 2013  91

Cabernet Franc 2013

Subtle and fruity cabernet franc with chocolate, berry and hints of almond aromas and flavors. Medium body, firm tannins and a fresh finish. Drink now.

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