An Italian racer with a private vineyard

_{source: F1.racing-live.com}

Panasonic Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli escapes the pressures of Formula 1 by retreating to his own private vineyard in the Abruzzo region of his Italian homeland, where he is laying down some fine wines for the future.

On top of a hill in central Italy, Jarno Trulli is picking cherries in a vineyard. Yes, you heard that right. Rows of vines trained higher than a tall man march across the summit and then vertiginously down the slopes. However, they're fringed with mature cherry trees. It's a question of decoration. Italians have an eye for landscaping needs, even when nature has excelled itself. Certainly, there's something rhythmically just right about the scene here, as man's ordered cultivation runs down and then up to the savagery of snow-capped Apennine peaks beyond.

Trulli is lobbing cherries alternatively into his mouth and his basket, as he's quite entitled to do. These are his cherries, his vines - and this is also his country. He looks at ease, at last. Trulli is not the planet's only celebrity wine producer. These days, people from the people pages queue up to buy vineyards. Gérard Dépardieu and half the rest of French showbiz have their own. Ornella Mutti is among those who have followed suit in Italy.

Last year, Bob Dylan joined forces with a wine maker in the nearby Marche region to put out a few thousand bottles of Planet Waves. Evidently, wine enhances glamorous standing as other agricultural products don't. It's somehow difficult to imagine Bob or Ornella buying into processed peas or a pig farm.