A man with a nose for a sexy red

Tag : Patchwork Rugs
Outside, sitting down for lunch on a leopard-print garden chair, heprofesses ardent devotion to the pine nuts in his bowl of freshpasta. 'I love them - the taste! I love the small things,' hecontinues, breathlessly plucking a white flower from a nearbytrellis. 'What you see in one flower is so fantastic. The detail onthis one leaf ...'
But most of all, the 68-year-old Cavalli loves women. 'I love theskin,' he says, clasping my arm. 'I love to be watched frombeautiful eyes.' He gazes at me intently through reflectivesunglasses, leaning forward so that his unbuttoned black shirtgapes open. The giant diamanté crucifix he wears round hisneck bangs gently against the table.
But as well as loving women, parrots and pine nuts, Cavalli hasdeveloped another outlet for his considerable reserves of passion:he is about to launch his own red wine. 'I love it,' he says, notentirely unexpectedly. 'I drink only this and nothing else.'
The Cavalli Selection wine is the culmination of an eight-yearcollaboration with his son, Tommaso, who manages the 70-acre Tenutadegli Dei family estate in the Panzano region of Chianti. The first2004 vintage, limited to 500 cases, has been on sale locally sincelast November but the family is now on the verge of internationalexpansion.
It is for this reason that I find myself eating an al fresco lunchwith Cavalli in Il Poggio, his spectacular 14th-century Tuscanvilla, surrounded by Bengal cats, half-empty bottles of Moëtand poodles wearing pink bows. The thudding bass-line of LennyKravitz's 'American Woman' reverberates through the corridors.Several glamorous Italian women waft about chain-smoking andwearing fabulous jewellery. The floors are covered with soft rugsthat appear to be made from fur. The whole thing feels like anelaborate stage set for a film shoot.
That Cavalli is a man of extravagant extremes comes as no surprise.Since launching his own collection of women's clothing in 1970,with a modest line of animal print T-shirts and patchwork jeans,his dresses have become synonymous with a certain kind of gildedexcess (think tight satin brocade with a dash of tiger stripe) andhis business empire is now thought to be worth in the region of£350 million. He has dressed Brigitte Bardot, Sharon Stone,Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez.
'When I create clothes, I do it to help you,' he explains. 'In themoment, you must feel sure that you want the dress, that you lovethe dress. I became a designer to have more of a chance withbeautiful women.'
In that, at least, he succeeded. He met his Austrian-born wife,Eva, when she was the 18-year-old runner-up in the 1978 MissUniverse contest. Cavalli, then 37, was a judge. It is Eva who hasbeen credited with turning around Cavalli's fortunes after salesslumped in the 1980s, edged out by yuppie business suits andminimalist trends. She still oversees much of the day-to-dayrunning of her husband's burgeoning empire - everything frombranded espresso cups to beaded bikinis. And now, of course,there's the wine.
If Cavalli's wine were a woman, I ask him, who would it be? 'Oh myGod,' he says, clapping his hands together. 'I hate to speak namesbecause all the others will be jealous.' Perhaps Eva is his muse?'Next question,' he says, waving his hand dismissively. 'She usedto be.' Ouch. 'My wine is like me; it breathes art. Have you triedit? You must try it!'
A member of staff suddenly materialises to pour us two glasses ofCavalli Selection 2005, each one the size of a small goldfish bowl.Cavalli takes a sip. 'It's too hot. No, no, no, this is no good,'he says, seizing my glass and pouring the wine theatrically into anearby flowerbed. Another bottle is instantly produced.
It is delicious: velvety, earthy and, it must be said, surprisinglysubtle given that it bears the name of a man who probably thinksrestraint is a type of handcuff. But Cavalli has taken theproduction of this wine very seriously indeed. That is to say, hehas handed the responsibility for it over to Tommaso, his eldestson from his first marriage, a mild-mannered 40-year-old who seemsmore mature than his father.
'Oh yes, we are completely different!' says Cavalli, cheerfully. 'Iam more impulsive, but we love each other. I used to try and takehim backstage at catwalk shows when he was just 18 and he wouldn'tgo. He was too embarrassed to see the models naked.
'He makes me very nervous; he's so strict with me. When he startedmaking wine, I was begging him to let me try some and he keptsaying: "No, you can't drink that, it's not ready."'
When I meet Tommaso in his family home, a renovated farmhouseoverlooking the Chianti hilltops, it is almost impossible tobelieve they are father and son. Tommaso shows me round the familyvineyard dressed in a white shirt tucked neatly into slightlytoo-short black trousers. 'Yes, they are all Roberto Cavalliclothes,' he says, slightly defensively. 'If you can save money,then why not?'
For 20 years, Tommaso has been breeding racehorses on his estate,where he lives with his wife, Dorothy, and their two youngdaughters. In 2000, his father decided to cultivate the land forwine production, having already successfully launched his own brandof vodka, marketed in a frosted glass bottle with a snake wrappedaround it (a big hit, apparently, in the nightclubs of Dubai andRussia).
The wine-making has become, under Tommaso's guidance, an extremelyprofessional enterprise. He sought the advice of Carlo Ferrini, oneof the most respected wine consultants in the region, and thenoversaw the planting of 25 hectares of vines, divided equallybetween Panzano and the grounds surrounding his father's villa, 15minutes south of Florence. The resulting Cavalli Selection is ablend of mostly French grapes: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, CabernetFranc, Petit Verdot and Alicante Bouschet. Each variety isharvested and aged separately in oak barrels in the cool expanse ofa stone-walled cellar for 18 months. The Cavallis then taste thegrapes and decide on the final blend, ageing the wine for a further12 months in the bottle. Eventually, they aim to produce 50,000bottles a year.
'Wine is my passion,' says Tommaso, as he walks through the rows oflush, green vines. It is an idyllic setting. The vineyards arebordered on all sides by dense poppy fields. In the distance, youcan make out the silhouettes of horses grazing and the aquamarineof a swimming pool built into the edge of the mountainside.
'I never wanted to follow my father into fashion,' Tommaso says.'That's why I started with breeding horses. It was important for meto do something without his help. Now, my aim is for this wine tobe considered first for the quality and second for the package. Iwould like it to be elegant, a joy to taste and, like the dressesof my father, to have its own personality. I want it to be moreabout the wine than the name.'
So far, it has been well received: Wine Spectator rated it'beautiful, well-crafted' and gave it a respectable 90 out of 100.The Roberto Cavalli touch is in evidence none the less. Each newvintage carries a different animal-print label: cheetah for 2004,zebra for 2005 and butterfly for 2006. An extra-special limitededition Cavalli Collection wine comes in a unlabelled black bottle,with the 'RC' logo embossed on it in brass.
Does he ever disagree with his father? 'No, we get on very well.But I tell you one thing that's very funny. Once, we had animportant wine journalist doing an interview. The journalist askedmy father what kind of wine it was. My father said: "This wine issexy." I wanted to jump across the table and stop him.' Tommasolaughs quietly, then shrugs his shoulders. 'Maybe he's right. Atleast sexy is not banal.'
In the grounds of his villa, Roberto Cavalli is doing his utmostnot to appear banal. He poses for photographs in front of hisswimming pool, eating handfuls of fresh cherries in a flirtatiousmanner.
'It is a pity I don't have a banana to eat,' he says suggestively,suddenly leaping off his chair and lying on the ground. 'You arenot wearing knickers mio amore!' he screams delightedly at themortified female photographer, who is most definitely wearing fullunderwear. 'I can see!'
Despite this, he is rather charming, unthreatening, a bit like yourfavourite uncle. 'I try to change my expression in photos,' Cavalliexplains, brushing a hand through his hair. 'I try not to be likeother people.'
In fact, he doesn't seem to have much time for professional models.Although he publicly defended Kate Moss after she was filmedallegedly snorting cocaine, he now dismisses her as 'not havingwhat it takes to be a true star'.
'There are thousands of models like all the other thousands ofmodels. Naomi Campbell is the same way. For me, models are justpieces of wood that I carve to make clothes look beautiful.' Headmits that he prefers to spend his time hanging out with musicstars - he counts Victoria Beckham and P Diddy as close friends.'Oh Puffy!' he says, before launching into a long anecdoteinvolving a party on board P Diddy's yacht in St Tropez. 'He hassuch a big heart. He is so sweet.'
It seems Cavalli surrounds himself with younger, more beautifulpeople because they are the only ones who can keep up with him.'What keeps me young is that I love women and my work - these arethe two ingredients to a good life.'
He shows no signs of slowing down, despite being two years shy ofhis 70th birthday. 'I give you my mobile numbers,' he says at onepoint. 'I can show you a crazy time.'
He says that his interminable energy comes from an innate desire toprove himself. Cavalli is a self-made man with a troubled past -his father was killed by the Nazis when he was two and the youngRoberto did badly at school, developing a severe stutter in hisadolescence. At 21,
he enrolled at the Florence Academy of Art where he began designingprints for T-shirts. Soon, he had sold enough to buy himself a Fiat1500 sports car - 'Open top,' he says proudly, 'English style'.
'I don't feel myself important most of the time,' he says, in arare moment of reflection. 'I'm still like a little boy in my mind.I think I have a lot of wish to make money and to show my mummy Iwas not like she thought I was.'
There is something rather moving about this admission, as if he isstill trying to shore up his place in the world all these yearslater. The wine, he says, will be his most lasting legacy - thatis, if he doesn't drink it all first. 'To create a good wine is tocreate something you can pass into the future. For me, it is thebest wine because my son created it and he loves his work with abig passion. Love is the most important ingredient when you dosomething.'
But then, just as it's all getting a bit poetic, Cavalli leanstowards me. 'My wine,' he says, patting the back of my hand, 'issexy.' Poor Tommaso. I can almost see him rolling his eyes, armsfolded like a schoolteacher dealing with a naughty child.
I think he might be fighting a losing battle. Whatever else itmight become, the family wine is forever destined to be 'sexy'.After all, Roberto Cavalli simply wouldn't want to be associatedwith anything that wasn't.