Massimo Volpedo, as we saw in the last episode, loves life and people on a breathtaking scale.
Let us see what he has to say about wine.
The setup: It’s a bitter cold Boston evening in January, 1930. Pinky DeVroom, his best pal Unctual Natchez, Elfred Norcross and Massimo Volpedo meet in Stuyvesant’s, a swank Beantown restraurant.
Prohibition is in full swing, and the Great Depression is deepening. Still, it was almost always possible to obtain alcohol during Prohibition, even outside of speakeasies. One just had to know how to ask the right way, and each establishment had its own unwritten rules. Just before this excerpt, Massimo has managed to order wine for his party. Not quite by following those rules, but close enough.
Here’s what he says at the moment he’s successful in spite of the Volstead Act:
“Ah. Yes, I see how it truly is with you all. You feel imposto—yes, yes, put upon. But the wine! Wine, my friends, is not just for the drink.”
Pinky looked about. The man had everyone’s attention; Stuyvesant’s had gone silent.
“No, no, no. The wine—the wine is poetry, it is fantasy, it is love!”