Valtellina

the protestant cause was in the hands of a reckless soldier of fortune named mansfield who was alienating friends by plundering and slaying the peasants of the rhine districts the protestant union gave up the struggle and the saving of the elector's cause was rendered hopeless when heidelberg his capital fell in september of sixteen twenty two the intervention of spain on which james had relied was as far off as ever and the spaniards having now secured their object were inclined to finish the negotiations by pleading the impossibility of obtaining the pope's assent to the marriage at home james was without a single wise counsellor digby was in spain trying to construct a policy out of spanish politeness and his master's fears bacon the lord chancellor had fallen a victim to his own carelessness in accepting presents which can only have been meant as bribes and was in disgrace buckingham and the prince over whose weak character the quick and reckless favourite had complete influence now determined to go to spain and arrange the marriage themselves james was induced to assent to this absurd scheme but his counsel preferred to send an ultimatum to spain asking whether philip would fight the emperor to force the restitution of the palatinate this brought a deceptive reply but it showed the spaniards that their game was nearly played out the situation when the travellers reached madrid was remarkable the king philip the fourth and his ministers as well as the infanta herself were all in reality averse to the match james never meant to promise the repeal of the penal laws and the spaniards never meant to take less charles imagined that he was in love as soon as he saw the princess while buckingham offended all the spaniards he could offend in the short time given him the pope refused to be made the cause of a rupture of which the spaniards meant him to bear the blame and philip the fourth found it impossible to propose any terms which charles was not foolish enough to accept even after bargaining to obtain a repeal of the penal laws in three years the prince still failed to carry off the prize and left madrid in a fit of ill-temper when he was home again his pride outweighed his affections and he called for vengeance on the spaniards he was still pledged to the marriage but it was now england's turn to raise the terms and philip was asked to arm against his family and his religion to secure a restitution of the palatinate the dilemma was in fact so hopeless that another parliament was summoned for february sixteen twenty four buckingham and charles were able to pose as national heroes who had burst the chains riveted by spain to fetter english freedom the treaties were dissolved and money voted but the chance of acting with parliament speedily vanished buckingham now became anxious for an alliance with france the old foe of spain and wished to secure the hand of a french princess for charles parliament was more than ever determined to keep to the penal laws and in foreign affairs to renew the work of elizabeth and smite spain by sea and land the King of England was thinking only of the Palatinate, and was as willing to rely on French charity as on Spanish, but hated all idea of a religious war.

The French were delighted to see Spain injured, but cared nothing for the Palatinate, since they were only bent on recovering the Valtelline, the alpine valley by which the Spaniards had an access to Germany from the Mediterranean.

nor was france sufficiently in need of the english alliance to waive her claim for toleration of roman catholics in england the result of this confusion was soon apparent james having given a clear promise to parliament not to repeal the penal laws thought he could still write a secret engagement with france by which the roman catholics were promised toleration the marauder mansfield was hired to lead english troops to recover the palatinate but when they crossed the sea they were left to die in hundreds of cold and hunger on the dutch frontiers the marriage treaty with france however was duly signed and the french king was promised assistance against his rebellious protestant subjects while Buckingham, who still retained the unmerited confidence of the nation, won on his return from Spain, was thus unwittingly concocting a series of national disgraces, the king died on March 27, 1625.

He was only in his sixtieth year, but his unhealthy habits and hard drinking had made him old and decrepit long before his time.

And they have, uh, they cooperate, they collaborate very well, so that's useful.

Valtellina, again, not before time.

Mm-hmm.

Right up against the, the Swiss border, the, the sub-Alpine south-facing slopes.

And then we think about areas that are getting more and more important and popular.

For instance, in the eighth edition we added Alto Piemonte because Alto, uh, you know, which ha- ha- has become a lot more exciting and of interest now that people are mad about Nebbiolo.

And then the same argument, uh, substantiated the addition of the Valtellina map.

Right.

Great people to work with, um, and, uh, yes, certainly specializing in Italian varieties and, yeah, we're, we're really happy with the out-- the, the, the result of the Neb.

It's, um, I guess inspired by sort of the Nebbiolos of Valtellina with a, a lighter, you know, more aromatic focus and, uh-

Hmm

... yeah, it's sort of where we've taken ours.

And Muscadet must be one of the best value wines in the world, so it deserved a bigger map.

New, completely new maps include Valtellina, you know, that

area because Nebbiolo is so popular now.

And it's Nebbiolo made sort of right up against the Alps, sort of almost in Switzerland.

Rider Heijerdahl, 2012 Giro d'Italia, stage 20, That stage, we went over the Mortirolo early in the stage.

A lot of teams sent guys down the road mindful that their domestiques would ordinarily be dropped on the Mortirolo, but if they sent them over there in advance parties, so to speak, as point men, and they might come in useful later and indeed they did for Ryder Hejdal and Max9124 on Twitter reminded me of this, that Peter Stettiner and Christian van der Velde were sent over the Mortirolo ahead of the GC group, Hejdal caught up with them and they rode in the, what's the, where's the Valtellina? They did fantastic work in the Valtellina and they limited Heijdal's deficit and Thomas de Gendt was up the road and they effectively saved the Giro for Heijdal.

He went on to win it the next day.

Number nine, Pellacci.

a change in the French ministry had placed Cardinal Richelieu at the head of affairs, and this fallen kingdom soon began to feel that a great mind was at the helm of state.

The attempts of the Spanish viceroy in Milan to gain possession of the Valtelline, and thus to form a junction with the Austrian hereditary dominions, revived the old dread of this power, and with it the policy of Henry the Great.

The marriage of the Prince of Wales with Henrietta of France established a close union between the two crowns, and this alliance Holland, Denmark, and some of the Italian states presently acceded.

Its object was to expel by force of arms Spain from the Valtelline, and to compel Austria to reinstate Frederick, but only the first of these designs was persecuted with vigour.

James I died, and Charles I, involved in disputes with his parliament, could not bestow attention on the affairs of Germany.

Savoy and Venice withheld their assistance, and the French minister thought it necessary to subdue the Huguenots at home before he supported the German Protestants against the emperor.

Yeah.

I mean, a few years ago, it was so great to transition people from a great bottle of Barolo to a great bottle of Inferno Reserva from Valtellina.

Well, now the price of that looks the same as the price of the Barolo.

So we're walking them into Valtellina Superiore, you know, or Lange Nebbiolo.

And even the price point on something like Lange Nebbiolo has gotten so high, you're going, what are the next versions of this wine that we can lead people into? If somebody was spending $150 in a restaurant five years ago, they're still spending $150.

They're just not getting the cocktail, the app, the main, the wine, the

It just makes sense.

Oh, a hundred percent.

This does not detract from the fact that all of them have great value for the conservation of biodiversity and for use in genetic improvement programs.

Only a few grape varieties supported by successful DOC or DOCG, such as Nebbiolo for Barolo, Barbaresco, Valtellina, or Sangiovese for Brunello, Chianti, Nobili, to name a few, are expanding.

Some ancient vines have been enhanced, no thanks to the institutions, but to the passion of a few winemakers.

Few vines have emerged from oblivion in recent years to be registered in the National Register of Vines Authorized for Cultivation.