46

A figure of Italian national pride, a universal rebel, and the embodiment of experimental science: Galileo is of course all of these. But his mythical status also benefits more than we might think from his reputation as a “man of taste,” which has contributed to the historical and communicational invention of a cultural being with the ability to influence both the individual identity and collective imagination of wine and spirits producers and consumers. Underpinned by an archaic semi-symbol, this trivial use of a textual, iconographic, and intellectual cultural heritage reinforces the mythical dimensions of the illustrious Tuscan, with a consistent but comical leverage effect.