Enxertia

A long time ago, in the place of Lagarinhos, lived a wine grower that didn’t have his feet on the ground, a direct consequence it was said, of his overwhelming love for wine. This man dedicated much of his life levitating with a book in his hand, a glass in his lips and the head in the clouds, and maybe that's why it was so successful, despite the extravagance of his ideas. He became an expert in the art of grafting, which he considered "a kind of surgical intervention of delicate beauty".

When asked how he always managed to get the same magnificent grape variety each time he practiced grafting a vine, he replied that this was mainly due to the use of a mirror. And immediately he explained: a mirror is, in itself, an authentic single grafting machine. Any excerpt from reality can be grafted in a mirror, without ever losing its fascination. It is enough that I graft the first vine with the best grape variety, to watch, through the mirror, the infinite reproduction of everything I have done.

And how did he managed, with just a mirror, to end the scourge of phylloxera? Very simple: confusing the insect. He hired a helper, a plump and somewhat predictable peasant, in charge of strategically holding a large mirror that reflects the vineyard. As insects have a huge narcissistic predilection, they tend to attack the reflex first and forget of the true delicacy. They get all splattered over there.