La quête d’excellence: Aldo Vajra, Livio Felluga, Pierre Lurton, Élyse Lambert, Ian D’Agata

How do you translate the French expression: « La quête d’excellence »  in English?  « the pursuit of Perfection »?

IMO this English translation is not satisfying. Perfection is an elusive quest… and is unattainable.

The french version IMHO is way preferable and, if translated literally, would be more akin to: « the Quest for excellency » and this (methink) speaks volume.

The quintet of personalites that I am about to present here are all questing and have attained excellence in their own distinct ways. Lets present them and put forward their original traits and take on it:

1- To be ahead of its time and accept the difficulties: Take Aldo Vajra in Barolo; When Aldo decided to live the life of a winemaker somewhere in the 70’s he told me that in Barolo in those days if you wanted to have a girlfriend you better not be a farmer… the ticket was to have a job at FIAT and live in Turin (!).

2- Unrelentless pursuit of quality, making it your mantra… for a hundred years. Livio Felluga thought that the hills of Collio had a great potential and he was the one to reveal it…. (he sure did). Ok, I cheat a bit, on the picture he was not one hundred years old but merely 99 (it was taken last year). Video at 100

3- Pierre lurton (3rd at the right) on top of the newly built Chai at Cheval Blanc in the summer of 2011. No, PL didn’t created the reputation of CB but: He not only coped with the pressure of maintaining excellence at the Château, he pushed the quality even further up.

4-  Élyse Lambert first Master Sommelier in Québec (05/15). Ladies palate in Qc are world renowned, but being the First at getting this academic distinction here is remarkable.

5- Ian D’Agata. Dr D’Agata dropped a brilliant medical career to bring a level of  scientific and academic ballast ubeknownst before in wine literature with a seminal book: Native Wine grapes of Italy which became in 2014 an instant classic. This book depicting 541 grapes took Ian 13 years to write showing formidable persistence and stamina.

In Vino Veritas!

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