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Night Wine
A Novelby Nick Taddeo
"Not every immigrant who
comes with high expectations
to the new world finds a
dream waiting."
--- ForemostPress.com
About this book, read ...
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Inside the house, Dante's wife and three daughters had joined Inga. The two women and Maria, the oldest daughter, plus Celerina who had come over, cooked a meal with assorted German and Italian dishes. Amerigo and Kurt were also busy outside where they set up one long table using construction timber and covering it with white sheets. They had told Sun Man not to cook that day because everyone was invited to the feast. The girls brought out flowers to decorate the tables before Dante's sons started carrying out dishes, silverware, glasses and jugs of wine. Sun Man said they forgot chopsticks so he furnished them.
From sauerkraut to Italian cheese pie, it was a grand affair in three dialects and lots of laughter.
Dante wanted to give a toast, so he tapped his glass to get attention. "When you put 'em up a building with stones from the ground, you have froma the start an edificé that will live through many life times. I put a part of me in each building. I give it a soul, and each building lives longer than me. I wanta thank everybody for help so far. Tomorrow, my sons and I, we start to lay the walls. We set the stone, and each day we step back and look at what we've done. Lil' by lil' and stone by stone, a new winery gonna grow." He lifted the glass of red wine and finished it completely before setting it back on the table.
Everyone drank and cheered loudly. Then a momentary lull, and Amerigo surprised himself when he raised his glass to say, "May we always have dreams in our heart and wine in our glass."
"Hey!! Hey!!" they shouted and drank again.
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Readers > Taddeo_N > Night Wine
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Excerpts | Comments And Reviews | Author Info
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When young Italian immigrant, Amerigo Pugliesi, arrives in New York in 1916, he tells the immigration officer on Ellis Island his full name and declares his wealth: "I gotta seventeen dollar and a fifty-four cents."
With some training in the French and Italian vineyards, he's determined to become a winemaker. Moving West by working on the railroad, he finally arrives in Napa Valley. He finds, however, that he cannot even find a job as a barrel washer.
After being drafted and wounded in WWI, he returns and finally secures employment with a small struggling winery. With his determination and the help of a multitude of diverse minorities, he develops the winery into a decent operation. But then Prohibition hits, knocking out many grape growers and wineries. In addition, prejudice and bad weather send forces against him.
Against this backdrop, Amerigo's generational family continues to grow amidst personal tragedies, as well as pleasures.
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From A Review
Night Wine is ultimately a story about the enormous influence diverse minorities have contributed to developing the California wine industry into the highly respected position it holds in the world today.
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Night Wine does not follow the usual well-known wine families of Napa Valley. Though the work is fiction, the development of the protagonist, Amerigo Pugliesi, can be traced to my father and an uncle, both immigrants
who introduced me to the art of winemaking and the myriad characters who ferment, age, consume and sometimes even sell the product.
I hung out in Napa Valley, further researched the art of making wine and what is involved in operating a winery, finally creating the Immelhoff Winery, and the many other characters of Night Wine.
Meet me at the cantina. We'll have a glass of wine and some good conversation.
Nick Taddeo
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Other Tales By Nick
Tinnemaha Creek - Wildlife vs. human rights clash when a cougar approaches two young girls searching for wildflowers near the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas. Cobra Stevens, wildlife biologist, must restore peace out of chaos that erupts between the ranchers who form a hunter's coalition and the animal rights advocates. Time is clearly running out in this deadly battle. And what of the cougar? Will he be the ultimate loser? more
August in the Mind - Tony Antonelli can't explain why he attacked a total stranger without provocation. He suspects genetic memory triggered his action, an ancient hatred inherited. He journeys to Italy, back to his roots, to seek the answer and preserve his sanity. Provides grand insights into Italy today and its remarkable history. more
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