The one that got away: Donne Fittipaldi's Lady F Orpicchio

Orpicchio is a white Tuscan rescue-grape. As usual, the story is heartwarming. Although documented since the 19th century, there were only a few vines remaining by recent times. The Unita per Ricerca at Arezzo revived the variety and the Societa Agricola Donne Fittipaldi at Castagneto Carducci (Bolgheri) now makes a monocepage Orpicchio, the only one in the world. Fattoria di Petrolo also has this variety in its vineyard but D'Agata writing in or before 2014 says 'No monovarietal wines are being currently produced to the best of my knowledge.'

So it was with much joy that we tracked down this unique wine at Black Jack, a bar in Campo San Luca, Venice where a very Venetian gentlemen was kind enough to sell us a bottle at a very favourable price - favourable to him that is. Of course as he pointed out we would not find this wine anywhere else in Venice or most anywhere else in the world so we bit the bullet and coughed up.

At the time we noted with approval the paper carrier bag our new friend put the bottle in but this was to be our undoing, literally.

After serenely traipsing around the city all day, at what the Italians call 'un certo punto' there was a sickening sound of breaking glass and there was our treasure in smithereens on the ground with not a drop even for the slightest taste. Only the bouquet rose from the shards and those of us huddled in a knot over the wreckage agreed it wasn't a particularly encouraging odour.

Rather than play Black Jack again, we looked online and discovered that apart from a place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, prices in the few other places where this Orpicchio was sold (Italy, Spain) were just over one-third of what we had paid.

So we'll catch up with Orpicchio soon at a much reduced cost.

In all our history moving wine around by air, sea in wood, cardboard plastic and yes, paper bags, this was our first casualty. Better than seeing your case come off the luggage belt dripping with blood-red liquid but still something not to be repeated.