You can also follow this podcast on your platform of choice! It helps us grow beyond just Substack!
This Week’s Trivia Question:
GREEN PORNO is a multi-season YouTube series created, written, directed, and starring Isabella Rossellini, which originally debuted at Sundance in 2008.
Two years prior, Isabella featured in the Guy Maddin-directed short film My Dad Is 100 Years Old, a tribute that Rossellini created for her father. In the film, she plays almost every role, including Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock and her mother, Ingrid Bergman.1
After seeing this short, it was Sundance's own Robert Redford - who was then deeply intrenched in the creation of the New Media space - who asked Isabella to consider creating a new series precisely for the purpose of direct internet release.
After much discussion, Rossellini and her callaborators decided that nature would be the central theme, as Rossellini and her family had always been nature lovers and part of various conservationist movements. Rossellini herself even returned to school to achieve a Masters in Conservation and Animal Behavior!
The resulting project, Green Porno, took shape and premiered at Sundance in 2008. There are now 4 “seasons” released, covering much of the insect, sea life, and land animal groups.
This episodes only run 1-3 minutes each, and they are unforgettable. Go check them out and tell us which are your favorites!
The Wines
The Green Wine
You wine nerds knew where we were going with that the moment you saw the phrase: a Vinho Verde. (Literally, a “green wine”!)
Now the Vinho Verde is officially a designated region in Portugal.
They’re called this due to the wines’ (usually white) traditionally high acidity, which shifts the color to a lemon-green.
I paired GREEN PORNO with a Lemon-Green wine, in the Vinho Verde style though not officially from the Vinho Verde region.
Quinta Varzea da Pedra Branco Leve “Nat Cool”
A “Leve” style is a purposefully, naturally lower acohol wine from the Lisboa region of Portugal. This bottle is only 9.5% ABV and comes in a full Liter! The low alcohol keeps it light and crisp and very refreshing. The acid is high like a Vinho Verde, and the whole experience is easy warm days drinking that will keep you company through the whole series!
You can find another “Leve” or just a Vinho Verde, alternately.
The Porno Wine
This was the answer to LAST week’s Trivia Question!
A wine from Bosnia-Heresgovina, made from the Blatina grape:
2020 Krs Crni Blatina, Skegro Family
Why is this a “Porno Wine”?
The Blatina Grape from Bosnia-Herzogovina is functionally a female flower, and lacks the male stamen required for self-pollination which is a state known as auto-sterile. Auto sterile varieties, like the Blatina, rely on a partner vine to fertilize and produce fruiting bodies.
Commonly, a co-planting cross-pollination process is undertaken in which the Blatina grape is planted along side other grape varieties to provide pollination. This process is testy and comes with a laundry list of risk to the winemaker; including micro-climate considerations in which thick, foggy mornings and hard rainfall can block the process of insemination. Not to mention that the fertilization window is small: 7-to-10 days, adding another layer of difficulty.
In general, a good grape relies on the right soil and the right climate, but in Blatina's case, another condition must also be met - the partner vine must come into its flowering phase at the exact same time as the female Blatina flower awaiting pollination.
Locally, it's the Trnjak (rhymes with “train wreck”) grape that is the preferred partner for the Blatina. And while traditionalists would love to rely on the wind and climes of the region to carry the pollen to the female flower, human intervention has its place. Growers can often be found manually collecting pollen and distributing it to the expectant flowers.
What better to pair with a film series about sex in nature than a rare grape that reiles on a sexual partner in order to propogate! A “Porno Wine”!
This Blatina is wonderfully rich and peppery - dark bramble fruits and a rainbow of peppercorns for days. Sip slowly as you enjoy your Green Porn(o).
The Normal Wine
2023 Argiolas "Costamolino" Vermentino di Sardegna
Dallas paired the show with a Vinho Verde-like, crisp and lemon-green (so high acid!) wine made from the Vermentino grape and hailing from Sardinia.
Think of Sauvignon Blanc, but more aromatic and a greater depth of fruit. This particular bottle undergoes partial malolactic fermentation - transforming some of te sharper malic acid into softer lactic acid - to give it a slight roundness and softness.
Generally can be found for $14 USD, so a great budget buy. And if you’ve never tried a Vermentino, you owe it to yourself to do so!
Rossellini's twin sister, Isotta Ingrid however did not find the tribute as a glowing representation and called it an "inappropriate" tribute.
Share this post