Pull-apart, quick on quick off spectacles - to look at a centenary bottle and sparkling blush wine from cantinepaulis in Sardinia, Italy

Video by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

He pulls the spectacles apart at the bridge of the nose and puts them aside. To replace the spectacles, he pushes them back together. Connected by magnets?

He said he bought them on Amazon. I saw these and looked them up once before.  I had thought they would be handy whether traelling or at home. If I remember rightly, the cheapest spectacles (now only fifteen pounds for a pack of two pairs) were those for eyes the same strength (or weakness) in both eyes. You can order online glasses from a prescription done by an optician, with both eyes different at a higher price. They are not - yet - available from my optician for varifocal lenes, and when I asked my optician he said he could order them, but they were not ideal for me because they did not come up with lenses to correct for eyes which had slight astigmatism

  

But if you have a separate pair of reading glasses used at home and when travelling, a handy idea.

I had such an entertaining time talking to him.

His company is on the island of Sardinia. The company name is cantinepaulis. Not Paul's canteen. A pauli is a marsh. the large marsh is a park with pink flamingoes.

I asked, 'Aren't all flamingoes pink?'

He answered, 'I don't know. But ours are, because they eat prawns.'

I used to eat pink prawns. I didn't turn pink.

Until I developed all allergy to shellfish.

I has stopped at his stand at the Real Italian Wine & Food, trade show, at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London on April 29th 2025. I was attracted by the blush wine he was displaying, and his welcoming smile. 

The blush wine is available as sparkling. It also comes in two shapes of bottles, straight-sided and curvy.

After I got home, I went onto their website and clicked on the little Union Jack symbol to read it all in English, quicker than my Italian from 6 months of learning Italian on Duolingo. However, their leaflet is in Italian, so I have translated some words below.

I learned that the winery is a co-operative. So, not a family business named after a Mr Paul. Instead named after a marshy area where there are lots of growers who formed a co-operative years ago.  That accounts for the large numbers of bottles, red, white and rose, and sparkling, and different bottle shapes.

The Co-ops

Co-ops operate like supermarkets. They bring together lots of suppliers giving you a big choice in one place. 

I went to the masterclass at the show, featuring Sardinian wines. The most memorable statment for me was that co-ops, although often considered suppliers are cheap everyday wines, not as good as the individual suppliers, perform a very useful service for their own members. The co-ops provide employment, sustaining their members through the bad years, economically and/or weatherwise, and promoting them in the good years. And offering reasonable prices within the budgets of tourists and locals alike.

I went onto their website and was able to find a blush sparkling wine for about ten Euros and another for twenty. I like sweet wines, but many people prefer drier.

Sardinian and  Italian

The co-op has operated for over one hundred years. One unique wine was launched with a special label to celebrate the centenary, celebrated in 2024. I had tried translating paulis in google and the Italian translation brought up nothing. But google went to AI, I kept googling. Eventually I found out the answer. The translation was marsh, but it was the Sardinian language. I had heard long ago that Italy had had many languages and Garibaldi united the country and made one of the many languages the universal Italian. I think of Sardinian as a dialect. Yet I find it confusing when the Chinese call their totally distinct languages dialects, giving status to Mandarin. Now I sympathise with the Chinese. From a foreigner's point of view, it's challenging enough to learn one language for Italy or China. Anyway, you and I now know one word of Sardinian. The word is easy to remember. It sounds like the name Paul. Pauli for marsh.

I have translated words from their leaflet, which will help any look at bottles and websites and leaflets in future.

Handy Translations For Wine Lovers, Wine Drinkers, Wine Buyers, Wine sellers

Italian - English

allieteranno - they will cheer up

antica - old

bianco - white

brut - dry

Cantine - cellar

caraterra - character

cari - dear

coi - with

cui - which

dal - from the

della - of the

di - of

dolce - sweet

e - and

enologo - winemaker

fondatori - members (the i ending is msculine plural)

giorno - day

Giulio Cesare - Julius Caesar

it - short for Italy

maestria - mastery

la (feminine) - the

nostra - our (feminine)

nostri - our (plural) nostro - our (singular masculine)

ogni - every

oltre - beyond

pauli - Sardinian language for marsh

per - for 

più - more

ricordi - memories

scorci - glimpses

soci - members

spumante - sparkling

Sardegna - Sardinia

sapore - flavour

scelte di vite - life choices (choices of life)

selvatica - wild

terra - earth/terrain

tra - between

uve - grapes

via - street

vigneti - vineyards

vini - wines

vitigni - vines

English - Italian

Useful Websites

wwwcantinepaulis.it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Otcmuky-Magnetic-Presbyopic-Adjustable-multiplier_x/dp/B0C73NK6WW/

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