It's a sweet blast, the Fortana del Taro. A wine with many centuries of history behind it and a great future ahead of it. There is no wine that goes so gracefully with the cooked shoulder of San Secondo, but also with culatello and all the other cured meats of the Bassa. For the Cantine Bergamaschi, the Fortana is an authentic flagship. The company, born in 1909, is in Samboseto, a few kilometers from Busseto, the country of Verdi, and a few more from Fontanelle di Roccabianca, where Giovannino Guareschi was born. The famous inventor of Peppone and Don Camillo chose the wines of the Cantine Bergamaschi for his restaurant and designed its labels, still used today for special editions. But, mostly, the cellar is a few meters from the unforgettable Trattoria Cantarelli, a temple of good food that has had no small role in the history of catering in Italy. Cantine Bergamaschi were official suppliers of Peppino Cantarelli with their reds (Fortana and Lambrusco) and the Riesling-based white (the "Champagnino"). In 1909 it was Demetrio Bergamaschi who founded the company: he had a restaurant and - like everyone else, then - he was pressing grapes. In a shed that served a bit as a cellar and a bit as a ballroom, he set up the company. The children expanded the business, buying land. Today, several generations later, they are the grandsons Demetrio (with his son Luca) and Maurizio to go on. The Podere Rosa, of four hectares, it is the one consecrated to Fortana.