Garda Wine, Heart Health Research, and Professor Barnard’s Foundation

Among its 50 tips for a healthy heart, there is one that encourages following the “Cretan method”: in other words, aligning oneself with the dietary habits of the Greek island, where heart attack is a sort of exotic rarity. The pillars of the method? Red wine, extra virgin olive oil, fish, and fresh vegetables: coincidentally, all products that are also part of the agro-food basket of Lake Garda.

Could this be why Professor Christian Barnard, the pioneer of heart transplants, became deeply enamored with the Garda Riviera, to the point of establishing an exclusive partnership here with one of the most dynamic and prestigious wine companies of Garda Classico: Costaripa of Moniga, owned by brothers Imer and Mattia Vezzola, renowned as the producer of the official wine of the South African professor’s foundation.

The relationship with the foundation and the visit to the Riviera

A relationship that in recent days further strengthened during a visit to the Riviera, where Barnard spent two days hosted by the Vezzola family. The scientist’s stay in Valtenesi, age 79 and remarkably vigorous, concluded on Tuesday with a visit to the municipality of Moniga, while on Monday evening Barnard was hosted at the “Esplanade” in Desenzano, where he also met with local press representatives to discuss both his personal story and that of his foundation, as well as the achievements it has made in just a few years of activity, such as building a hospital for children with AIDS in Zimbabwe.

“With the Garda Classico Barnard Foundation, we contribute to funding the foundation’s projects” – explained Mattia Vezzola. – “Another source is Barnard’s book, which has already sold over 700,000 copies in 22 countries around the world. We, in our small way, aim to reach a contribution of half a billion euros in five years.”

Symbolic value and the prevention of heart diseases

But beyond the figures, what matters is the symbolic value of this partnership, perfectly aligned with the professor’s beliefs about the therapeutic properties of red wine as a complement in preventing heart disease. “If I had paid more attention to prevention earlier, instead of saving 150 lives, I could have saved 150 million” – Barnard explained on Monday, now fully convinced that a gentle and positive approach to life coupled with healthy eating can work miracles in fighting heart attacks.

Lake Garda and its red wine are therefore just the latest stop in an extraordinary research journey, which began on the night of December 3, 1967, with that first, historic heart transplant. A night that Barnard still remembers vividly, and one he often recalls with a playful tone. “We were simply doing our job: studying, we arrived at the conclusion that some heart diseases were impossible to treat without resorting to transplantation. We didn’t realize at the time that it would become such a major event. I only understood later, for example, when I discovered that the gloves I used during the procedure have become collector’s items”