#16 - Malbec's Tale, Marco Polo's Prison & the Shortest State Ever
+ W.A.S.P.(s) 🐝
Cześć from somewhere between Warsaw and Kraków! 🚆👋
The other week I had a random conversation about Helen Keller, the famous(ly) blind and deaf activist, with some nice American WASPs1 I randomly met, and we all realised how improbable it was that someone with such limitations, even with a lifelong teacher/companion, was eventually able to write and speak so eloquently.
I think about all the abstract concepts and language constructs, and how impossibly slow (or just downright impossible) it must’ve been to grasp when things had to be written on her palm, one letter at a time…
Anyway, I’m not doing a write-up on her as I just got bored halfway through reading about her 😂 But I did come across a nice quote:
"There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his." – Helen Keller
🏰 History
The Shortest-lived State in History
The Republic of Benin was an unrecognized secessionist state in West Africa that existed for only 7 hours in 1967.
It was established on 19 September 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) as a puppet state of the (Republic of) Biafra – itself a partially recognised state that only existed during the war – following its occupation of Nigeria's Mid-Western Region, and named after its capital, Benin City.
The state was officially declared even as the Nigerian federal forces were reconquering the region and ended the following day as they entered Benin City.
This is not to be confused with the current country of Benin, also officially called the Republic of Benin, which is west of Nigeria.
🍷 Drink
How Argentina Stole Malbec from France
My favourite wine is Malbec. And like everyone else, when I hear Malbec I think of Argentina. But it turns out that it hasn’t always been Argentina's grape to claim.
The grape was actually France's most widely planted variety during the country's early winemaking years. A popular myth says the name came from a Hungarian named Malbec who first planted the grape in France centuries ago. But it’s probably more likely it originated in northern Burgundy, where the variety’s original name was Côt.
Malbec took root in the southwestern region of Cahors, a dominant winemaking region in during the High Middle Ages. Power slowly started to shift from Cahors to their western neighbours Bordeaux.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Bordeaux, much like today, was the most famous wine region in the most famous winemaking country in the world. And like in Cahors, Malbec dominated Bordeaux. Up until the mid-19th century, it was the most planted grape in Bordeaux.
In the mid-19th century, when Argentina lacked a strong wine industry, provincial governor Domingo Faustino Sarmiento hired a French agronomist named Miguel Pouget to bring grapevine cuttings to Argentina from France. Malbec was just one of the many varieties Pouget brought with him, and he planted the grape in the Mendoza region on the foothills of the Andes. The grape thrived in this new climate and soil and quickly became Argentina's most planted grape.
Meanwhile in France, Cahors was badly hit by "the Great French Wine Blight," which wiped out over 40% of France's vineyards in the mid-19th century. The long and rich winemaking history in Cahors disappeared, along with their plantings of Malbec.
Bordeaux, the other Malbec-producing region, experienced the same blight, plus a frost, destroying much of their Malbec acreage. Vintners in Bordeaux took this as an opportunity to replace Malbec with different varieties, like Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. These varieties grafted best to imported American rootstocks, which was a new method to help prevent future blights.
Therefore, the once-king of grapes in France fell into obscurity. And very slowly, over about two centuries, it became Argentina’s.
🏛 History
Marco Polo’s Magnificent Prison
Some have been calling me Marco Polo recently2, so here’s one about the travelling Venetian himself.
The Palazzo San Giorgio (Palace of St. George) was originally constructed in 1260 by statesman Guglielmo Boccanegra. He had the palace built as a secular centre of power in the Genoese Republic to compete with the religious leaders of the nearby St. Lorenzo Cathedral, but was overthrown and exiled to France only two years later. To add insult to injury, the municipal palace was soon turned into a prison, where political prisoners of the Republic would reside.
In 1298, Marco Polo was captured by the Genoese in the Battle of Curzola and imprisoned in San Giorgio. By chance, his cell was located right by romance writer Rustichello da Pisa’s, who transcribed Polo’s oral accounts of his travels through Asia and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.
Rustichello’s The Travels of Marco Polo3 would later be published in Europe, originally in Franco-Venetian, making the name Marco Polo famous throughout history.
After its service as a prison, the water-facing structure would go on to serve as the headquarters of the Bank of St. George for almost 400 years. Crumbling by the early 18th Century, the citizens of Genoa petitioned to save the building from demolition and the palace was restored, in both form and function, as it’s back to its original use as a municipal office building.
Incredulous embellishments notwithstanding, historians have found Polo’s stories to be broadly true in essence. But perhaps the most astonishing part of his tales is that if he’d never been jailed, no one today would’ve even heard of them! ⛓
🎶 Music
And now to finish the way I started, here’s my favourite track from W.A.S.P.:
Before you go…
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Thanks for reading, and remember, always dance with the one that brung ya!
Prince 🦊
Every time I meet one I feel they’re too nice. I’d consider a partner like that if I believed… pretty big IF
I guess spending 4 out of 5 months this year visiting/living in 6 other countries kinda counts
Originally known as Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Book of the Marvels of the World) and also ”Il Milione” (The Million)