The House of Della FranciaA few days later, I decided to pay a visit to the house of Giovanni della Francia. I knew the younger della Francia, having met him at various social functions that were popular among the wine merchants. He, Paolo, was the eldest son of the founder, Giovanni, and carried on the business for his aging and ailing father. Paolo had aspirations that were more in tune with the greedy wholesalers of Bordeaux and was always devising schemes to increase the yield of the vineyards, a subject he knew little about except that it translated into more profits for himself.
“There is only so much quality in each acre of land,” Nonno Filippo would say. “If we force the land to share its quality with too many grapes, its character is spread too thin and the entire crop suffers be
