I’m so humbled by the outpouring of support for my Kickstarter campaign to raise $13,000 to fund the second printing of my book Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte.
Loyal friends and readers helped me pass 50% of my goal today with 18 days left to go of the 30-day all-or-none funding campaign.
Since I am offering the book as a reward, there are many opportunities to obtain it with free shipping (in the United States and special book rate shipping within Italy) and discounts for multiple books (rewards of 2, 4, and 6 books are available). There are also some exciting, unique opportunities for Piemonte wine family experiences and a ski day with the author in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Three generations of the Oddero family of Poderi e Cantine Oddero. (Back row: Giacomo Oddero and grandson, Pietro Viglino Oddero, and the Langhe ladies of the family – left to right – Mariavittoria Boffa, Isabella Boffa Oddero, and Mariacristina Oddero) Photo Credit: Elisabetta Vacchetto
Luigia Borgna Oddero (1854–1943)
Giacomo’s grandmother, Luigia Borgna Oddero, was the wellspring of the family’s current landholdings, not through a landed dowry but through her savvy financial transactions. Giacomo described her as an “entrepreneurial spirit, a strong and smart woman with a tough character.” Luigia was born in nearby Albaretto della Torre in 1854. School attendance was not compulsory at the time, and literacy was almost unattainable for women, but Luigia’s enlightened parents paid for her reading and writing lessons. Their unconventional decision set the stage for their daughter to become a key figure in the Oddero lineage.
Following her marriage into the Oddero family, Luigia began purchasing vineyards while still in her 20s. Giacomo recalled that Luigia “lived her life with a lot of debts.” She would save money. She would buy more land. Luigia repeated the cycle many times from the 1870s until her death in 1943. In the late 1800s, Jewish families from Cherasco to the north, who owned most of the land below La Morra near the Oddero home, decided to begin selling their land. They sought buyers who could demonstrate an ability to care for vineyards, and Luigia convinced them to sell to Oddero. Over the closing decades of the 19th century, Luigia began acquiring parcels from these Cherasco families, securing important vineyards for the family business, including the highly regarded Bricco Chiesa cru. Giacomo credits his grandmother with vision and courage. “We must be thankful to Luigia for the land she acquired,” he said. His daughters and granddaughter nodded their heads in accord. It was a solemn moment of deep recognition for a pioneering ancestor.
Luigia possessed not only the financial competence to expand the family’s holdings at a crucial time when land was obtainable, but the instinct for an innovative collaboration with her husband’s uncle, Luigi Oddero. The “almost priest,” as the Oddero family refers to Luigi, studied at seminary and suffered a personal crisis before he could take his final vows. What that crisis was, Giacomo didn’t say. Luigi returned home to his enraged father, who forced him to work in the vineyards as punishment for not finishing his studies. After one week, Luigi threw down his shovel.
Want to know the rest of the story? Pre-order your signed, first limited edition copy of “Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte” from my Kickstarter campaign today! Kickstarting my labor of love just one click away at:
A groundbreaking book about generations of inspiring women in 22 Piemontese wine families coming
into their own as vintners and leaders
Ciao!
I am Suzanne Hoffman, the author Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte, a book unlike any ever written about wine families. I tell the hidden stories of the women of 22 wine families rooted for generations in the Italian wine region of Piemonte. Whether famous the world over or known only within Italy, each family is rich in history. Wine family women in Piemonte are stepping out of the shadows as owners and vintners, undreamt of a generation ago. And how that came to be is a story I have held in sacred trust…until now.
Who am I to write this book?
I love food. I adore wine. I am Sicilian on my mother’s side. I was born and raised in the rich gastronomic culture of south Louisiana as a member of the third generation of a vibrant, loving Sicilian family of immigrants. Being Sicilian means knowing and craving tradition – in wine, in food, and in anything to do with the family. From the moment I first set foot in Italy in 1975, I’ve been on a very natural path to becoming a wine family expert. It has taken many years.
My gramma, Frances Castrogiovanni Manale, and my mom, Gloria Manale LeBlanc. Both women are gone, but continue to live in my soul.
“With her sensibility and passion, Suzanne has slowly come ever closer to our culture and has absorbed its intimate values. Only the completion of this wonderful book will contribute to the legacy of female culture in the millennia-long history of Italian civilization.” ~ Maurizio Rosso, author, historian, and owner, Cantina Gigi Rosso (Barolo)
It could have been an opera; it could have been a novel…
I lived and worked in Switzerland for 20 years. Traveling the short distance to the Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato regions of Piemonte pulled me into another world that I instinctively understood and felt as though I belonged to. I heard stories drawing me into an immense 19th century novel of sacrifice, joy, loss, and triumph.
The lives of these families – some aristocratic, some rising from abject poverty – were worthy of great Italian opera plots. All the while I was witnessing a tremendously moving process – an agrarian society coping with seismic change.
The shedding of societal norms that kept women in the shadows – queens in their houses, but serfs in the wineries and vineyards – meant that wine family women could now share control of their families’ patrimonies, and take a firm hand in shaping their own destinies. Daughters began to take the reins of some of the most famous wine brands in the region, unimaginable only a few decades ago. To see an entire generation of women rapidly striding into the forecourt of the region’s lifeblood industry awed me.
Oh, my – I felt such urgency to tell the story of this transformation, and to tell it as the wine families themselves experienced it. Time was of the essence. Many patriarchs and matriarchs were approaching their 90th year. Would I tell their stories in time for them to read the book?
The first wine family women to inspire me to write Labor of Love were Giovanna Rizzolio of Cascina delle Rose in Barbaresco, and her late grandmother Beatrice Rizzolio. The stories of many other women and their families soon captivated me. You can see why they are special.
Beatrice Rizzolio faced down Nazis during the German occupation and is memorialized in the garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Yet few, outside the family know of her heroism. I happened to see photos of her in various stages of her life, and asked for the story of the woman with infinite gravitas. That’s how I came to know her. This was a woman who never had a moment’s trouble knowing the right thing to do, even when doing it might have cost her everything.
Memorial wall in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Beatrice’s granddaughter Giovanna Rizzolio overcame societal scorn as she, a single woman, struggled to build a successful winery in her family’s ancestral country house in Barbaresco. She was alone, she had few allies, and many saboteurs. Her wine is internationally recognized and her life has blossomed as she never thought it would.
Proprietress of Cascina delle Rose in Barbaresco, Giovanna Rizzolio. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
To the west in Barolo, the very young Chiara Boschis convinced her father to purchase a winery after a centuries-old farming family ran out of male heirs in 1981. Today, the gutsy, beloved woman who never spent a day as an oenology student is one of Barolo’s most notable winemakers – male or female.
At home in the tasting room of Chiara Boschis, E. Pira e Figli, in Barolo, Italy.
Isabella Oddero of Poderi e Cantine Oddero originally chose a career in international marketing, far away from her family’s generations-old winery in Barolo.
Isabella Boffa Oddero with her beloved grandfather and Barolo icon Giacomo Oddero.
But the deep instinct that keeps Piemontese families together brought her back to help save and contribute to the patrimony that generations of her grandmothers had helped to create. Family, wine, land: the youngest, like Isabella, hear the call as plainly as their ancestors did.
These women, their Piemontese sisters — and the men and children in their lives — are real people who want you to know where they came from and who they are. What began as a modest effort to write about the families I knew best exploded into an odyssey of over 200 hours of interviews and countless email exchanges with members of 22 families. I was given access to private histories, family photos, and I was given trust – most precious of all.
“This book IS a labor of love, for the author and her subjects. You can sense it on every page. But most of all, this book records the spirit of what fuels wine. It’s an essential contribution that helps to fill the gaps in the history of wine. It’s essential, especially, for those of us who love what wine brings to our lives.” ~ Cathy Huyghe, wine industry journalist and author of “Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World Through the Lens of a Wine Glass”
“Thank you for your incredible work. I can really feel your love for the story of our region. We could not ask for more.” ~ Isabella Boffa Oddero, Poderi e Cantine Oddero
Sneak Peek
My determination to share these stories with the world before more of the wine family elders died drove me to create my own publishing company. The slow machinations of traditional publishing were not for me. Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte is the flagship publication of Under Discovered Publishing LLC in Vail, Colorado. The stories of wine families across the world are still to be told and Under Discovered will produce them.
Labor of Lovewill be a beautiful 9-1/4” x 11-1/2” (23.5 cm x 29 cm), 320-page hardcover, jacketed book containing 22 chapters about the wine families, plus an introductory chapter on Giulia Colbert Falletti, the Marchesa di Barolo, considered to be the mother of modern day Barolo wine. It will look like a coffee table book, but read like a novel. The chapters were written to be read independently, but will captivate readers such that they may find it hard to put down this treasure.
Each chapter begins with a genealogy of the family to provide a generational roadmap for the reader, particularly useful for those families with more than eight generations on the land they now farm.
The chapters, based on interviews I conducted with families and individuals, are beautifully designed to draw readers into this special world – a centuries-old agrarian life committed to family and land and wine.
The book is filled with vibrant, captivating color photographs of landscapes and family members…
Monte Viso on the western border of Piemonte with France can easily be seen from the vine-covered hills of Piemonte, 50 miles away. Photo credit – Pierangelo VacchettoMariavittoria (left) and Mariacristina, the Oddero sisters of Poderi e Cantine Oddero in La Morra in the Barolo denomination. Photo credit – Elisabetta VacchettoBrigitta Correggia, daughter of Ornella Correggia and her late husband, Matteo. Photo credit – Pierangelo Vacchetto
…and family photos from generations past
Beatrice Rizzolio, grandmother of Cascina delle Rose’s Giovanna Rizzolio.
Each chapter ends with an overview of the family’s winery to give readers a feel for the size, age, and location of each winery.
My Stalwart Team
Independently publishing a book of this magnitude and superb quality – worthy of the families who placed their sacred trust in me – required that I assemble a team of high-caliber editorial and design professionals.
PHOTOGRAPHERS: In the final year of Labor of Love’s development, my trio of photographers from Alba, Italy, in the heart of Piemonte – Pierangelo Vacchetto and his daughter, Elisabetta, and son, Eugenio, all Piemontesi themselves – traveled about the Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato wine producing areas to capture real life photographs of the 22 wine families.
EDITOR: Elatia Harris, my developmental and conceptual editor, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a writer and editor with a long list not only of publications about food and culture but also of satisfied clients, including myself.
COPY EDITOR: Jody Berman of Berman Editorial in Boulder, Colorado, an editor, writer, proofreader, and publishing consultant, performed the final copyediting of Labor of Love.
DESIGNER: Cindi Yaklich of Epicenter Creative in Boulder, Colorado, put her more than 30 years of experience to work designing the entire book. Her front cover design is a mesmerizing representation of the love and tenderness inherent in the hard work done by the wine family women in their vineyards.
And what will readers get for my labor of love?
Do you know families who live far, far away, making their living from the land in a remote and beautiful place? Making one of civilization’s highest gifts, vintage after vintage, for hundreds of years? Have you listened to the voices of women reared in tradition as they assume leadership and experience their power for the very first time?Labor of Love delivers these behind-the-label stories, in the words of wine family members who have lived the life up to now known to so few. There is harsh labor, there is a far-seeing vision, and there is splendor in stories like these.
How Clotilde Rey, the mountain village schoolteacher, understood finance and risk, and became a revered Gaja matriarch
Clotilde Rey, grandmother of Angelo Gaja of the iconic Barbaresco winery bearing the family’s name.
How Carla Oddero, the pharmacist, made years of real estate investments to bless her family with cru vineyards
Carla Oddero, late wife of beloved Barolo producer, Giacomo Oddero of Poderi e Cantina Oddero.
How La Mej, a gutsy young woman from Canale who started working as a child of nine, lifted her family from deep rural poverty and created a winery that her descendants run today as Monchiero Carbone
Clotilde “Tilde” Raimondo, matriarch of the Monchiero family of Monchiero Carbone in Canale (Roero), Italy.
How Super Nonno, the patriarch of the Grasso family of Cà del Baio, inspired his three adoring granddaughters to join the family winery
Ernesto Grasso, the late patriarch of Cà del Baio in Treiso (Barbaresco).
How Cornelia Cigliuti chased pesky chickens in her vineyards, making a diversion to save her family and partisans they protected from the Black Shirt fascists on the Bricco di Neive.
The bucolic Serraboella vineyard was the scene of fierce battles between partisans and fascists between 1943 – 1945.
You can see the unique and characteristic stories emerging from my labor of love. You can feel my sense of mission. As I write this very day, Piemonte wine families are taking the night watch to keep the caterpillars from destroying the tender buds on their vines. Their labor never ends.
Bringing my labor to life
Printing and binding, the next step in bringing Labor of Love to life, is now in the hands of VeronaLibri, a leading printer of art and museum books based in Verona, Italy, a city where books were first published over 500 years ago. The first printing is 2,000 copies. An additional 1,000 copies may be ordered shortly after publication.
The publication date of Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte is set for June 2, 2016, in Barbaresco, Italy.
Want to support the next step of bringing these wonderful stories to a wider audience across the globe? Go to my Kickstarter project page and check out the great rewards available to supporters, including books (free shipping and reduced prices available in US and Italy, respectively), unique items featuring the copyrighted cover art, and exclusive Piemontese wine family experiences.
Back cover: The Giulio Grasso family of Cà del Baio (Treiso, Barbaresco) grateful for the earth’s bounty and looking to the next harvest with hope. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Top: The hands of world-renowned Barolo farmer and winemaker Chiara Boschis tenderly extract grapes to leave only the grapes for her to begin her winemaking alchemy. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto Bottom: Castello della Volta in Vergne above the village of Barolo. Photo credit – Pierangelo Vacchetto
The Presses Are Rolling in Verona
The final stages of the birth of Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte began at VeronaLibri early Monday morning, April 18th. The presses began rolling to bring the product of my three-year adventure in Piemonte to life. Soon I will be able to hold this precious book in my hands and share it with the world.
But it’s time to look ahead to the next printing.
When we first began shopping printers for my book, we looked first at China for quotes to print 3,000 copies of the 320 page book. We could not find the quality we believed this important book and the wine families who shared their stories with me deserved. So we looked into Old World printers and found a leader in the production of art and photo books in Italy: Verona Libri.
VeronaLibri is a the choice of such luminary organizations as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the White House Historical Society. Seeing their beautiful work confirmed that they were the perfect choice to print Labor of Love.
Not suprisingly, we discovered the prices in Italy were much higher. Well worth the added cost. The comprise we needed make to print in Italy was to reduce the first print run from 3,000, to 2,000 books.
Now that we’re seeing the initial excitement about this groundbreaking, unique book about the women of 22 Piemonte wine families, we want to print the additional 1,000 books we initially intended for the first print run.
For that, I’ve turned to Kickstarter to crowdfund the $13,000 needed for the additional copies.
Please take a look at my Kickstarter program and consider one of the many delightful rewards, such as:
Pre-ordering opportunities for the book (discounted for purchases of two books)
Items such as coffee mugs, canvas tote bags, and canvas wine bags printed with the beautiful, copyrighted cover art featuring world famous Barolo vintner Chiara Boschis’ hands, and
Opportunities to meet the families and hear their stories firsthand while you sip their beautifully crafted wines.
Supporting my book project on Kickstarter is not a donation. By pledging the purchase of a reward, you pledge support to the project – and the wine families whose stories must be told to a wider audience. If I fall short of my $13,000 goal by May 19th, 2016, you owe nothing. If I succeed, which I am confident I will, your credit card will be charged and you will receive your chosen reward(s) this summer.
So please check out my Kickstarter campaign and learn more about me, my labor of love, and the people I’ve grown to know and love.
The Giulio Grasso family of Cà del Baio in Treiso (Barbaresco) look with hope to the next wonderful vintage awaiting them. Back cover of “Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte” Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto Design by – Cindi Yaklich
At 7:30 a.m. Central European Time on Monday, April 18, 2016, the presses at VeronaLibri (obviously in Verona, Italy) will begin to run, bringing to three-dimensional life Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte. It will three years and one month to the day when I left for Italy to begin my Labor of Love odyssey (although I didn’t have a title yet, it was truly the beginning of my labor and I have certainly loved every minute of it).
First of many Labor of Love journals.Departure for Italy from DIA on the first of many Labor of Love adventures.
Monferrato Labor of Love Wine Families
Now I would like to introduce you to the three Monferrato wine families I did not know that day I left Denver International Airport for the unknown, but whose stories have become part of life and, as a result, part of my book. Yes, I know there are many more wonderful wine families out there with stories yet to be discovered and told, but a girl has to start somewhere. I believe that I chose 22 fabulous starting points for a journey that will no doubt last for the rest of my life.
Another week has gone by and the release date for Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte has inched ever closer.
This week I’d like to introduce you to the four fascinating Roero wine families who shared with me their family histories and their stories of love, tragedy and triumph. There are still many more stories to discover in the land of Arneis, Nebbiolo, Rocche and the masche(wicked witches of the forests) that lies north of the Tanaro River from the Langhe.
Roero, my friends, is not poor relative of the Langhe. It is a rich, vibrant region waiting to beguile the most diehard Langhe-phile! All you have to do is cross the bridge and explore.
What a great week it has been for my upcoming book, “Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte.”
I’m not surprised to see so much interest in the stories of the families behind the bottles of wines from the Langhe, Monferrato and Roero regions of Piemonte. My book includes stories from 22 wine families – some very famous, some not, but all wonderful examples of the passion and courage it has taken over the centuries to turn this special part of Italy into one of the most notable wine regions in the world. I loved hearing stories their stories – and still do – and found it such a privileged to be trusted with telling them.
I recognize Piemonte is one of the largest regions of Italy and these are but three of the wine zones, but this is merely the beginning of my discovery and the telling of these stories. In addition to these three zones, Alto Piemonte and Gavi are brimming with stories. And that’s just Piemonte’s wine country. Wherever there is a wine family, there are stories.
My hope with “Labor of Love” is that my curiosity and prodding will inspire other families to begin their own exploration and preserve these precious stories that hold in them the traditions that have kept this region alive for generations.
The Families
I embarked on my labor of love odyssey intending to interview, research and write about 10 families in Roero and Langhe, the two places I knew best in Piemonte. That was March 2013. By the time I returned to Italy in June, the list had grown. In June 2015, when I finished the last of well-over 100 hours of interviews, I had the stories of 22 wine families of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato – plus a little something from Alto Piemonte – to share with the world.
Thousands of emails and countless hours since March 2013, when the clock struck midnight on December 31, 2015, my writing was finished. Now it’s time to introduce those I have carried with me day and night in my heart for nearly three years.
The Barolo Wine Families
The women of Barolo and their families who will come alive in ways Piemontephiles never expected are:
The Oddero sisters – Maria Cristina (right) and her sister Maria Vittoria with daughter Isabella – and their beloved patriarch, Giacomo. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Coming soon! Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte Suzanne Hoffman Foreword by Maurizio Rosso Release date: June 2, 2016 Treiso (Barbaresco), Italy Conceived in Italy
Publisher: Under Discovered LLC, Vail, CO Editor: Elatia Harris Designer: Cindi Yaklich, Epicenter Creative
Copy Editor: Jody Berman, Berman Editorial
Photographers:
Pierangelo Vacchetto
Elisabetta Vacchetto
Eugenio Vacchetto Printer: VeronaLibri, Verona, Italy
Suzanne’s Journey on a Road Not Taken
In November 1999, my Piemontese odyssey in Italy’s Northwest began. Over 20 trips and 14 years later, on March 19, 2013, I arrived for a different reason. Now my purpose wasn’t to drink and eat as though Bacchus himself was my guide. This time it was to travel a road not taken. I was writing a book. This was the first of many trips to interview wine families I had known for years and many I met because of this project.
Writing was not a foreign experience for me – not as an attorney, nor as a journalist – but this was my first book. It was one I was driven to write as the desire to commit to paper the images and words of Piemonte’s wine family women – and their men – burned in my soul.
Inspiration
Life planted the seeds for this venture shortly after the summer of 2005 when I lost my mother, my companion along with Otis, my Miniature Schnauzer who traveled with us on that first trip to Piemonte in 1999.
Otis the Wine Dog
These were difficult days for me. I yearned for a closer bond with the wine families we had come to know, particularly the women who nurtured those lives. My grandmother, Frances Castrogiovanni Manale, had been my family’s strong connection and, although she had been gone for over 30 years, I felt her presence when I listened to stories the wine families shared with me.
My nonna, Frances Castrogiovanni Manale
The wine families are linked to one another through their traditions, their land and the labor of love they share. The generational links are the women, particularly the grandmothers. In the words of Nuto Revelli, revered Italian author, they are “l’anelloforte” (the strong ring). They keep traditions and stories alive. They nurture the future of the family.
To me, the wine families represented constancy, familial love and a strong connection to place. To hear their stories about their grandmothers – many of whom lived centuries ago – was once again to be in my own grandmother’s kitchen in New Orleans. To smell her Sicilian cooking. To feel her soft, peaches and cream skin as she hugged me. I needed that, and more. Perhaps deepening my connections with them through my own labor of love could help me heal my wounds of loss. Grandmothers, even if they are someone else’s, always make us feel better.
Now, after nearly three years of countless emails and over 100 hours of interviews over wine tastings, delicious meals and walks through vineyards and cellars, my book containing the personal stories 22 wine families of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato regions of Piemonte shared, we with are moving to the next phase – production.
Fellow Travelers
In celebration of completing months of intense work writing and editing with my editor Elatia Harris, I would like to share today the beautiful cover design created for my book soon to be printed in Italy.
Pierangelo Vacchetto and his daughter Elisabetta Vacchetto of Alba, Italy, took the two photographs on the cover. They are two of the three Vacchettos who are capturing the images of the wine families for “Labor of Love.” Eugenio, Pierangeli’s son, is the third. Cindi Yaklich of Epicenter Creative in Boulder merged their two photographs to create this beautiful cover design. You’ll have to guess who the subject is!
Elatia Harris is finishing the editing. Cindi is now working on the interior book design while Jody Berman of Berman Editorial is copyediting and proofreading. It’s all coming together.
Check back next week for the answer to the question, “Which Italian printer will transform Labor of Love into a treasured keepsake?”
Trivia question: Where in Piemonte is this and whose hands are those? Answer next week!
My Piemonte labor of love is progressing beautifully.
In seven months – God willing – I will introduce you to the women with whom I’ve spent so much of the last 30 months. Many of them are delightful ghosts who have been with me day and night as I labored to learn more about them, their families and the times in which they lived.
You will meet strong, brilliant women like Luigia Oddero, her daughter-in-law Maria and granddaughter-in-law Carla, all of whom played crucial roles in the success of their family’s winery in Santa Maria La Morra. I doubt, however, you would find their names in wine publications, something that saddens Luigia’s great-great-granddaughter Isabella Boffa Oddero. She knows how significant those women were to the patrimony of the Giacomo Oddero family.
Luigia Oddero, nonna of Giacomo Oddero of Poderi e Cantina Oddero in S. Maria La Morra.
After you read “Labor of Love,” I know you’ll be inspired to visit Monchiero Carbone in Canale in Roero. As you sit in the tasting room sipping their luscious wines, you’ll notice on the wall the black and white photo of Clotilde Valente Raimondo, known as Tilde, the woman who created the legacy of the wine you will enjoy there possible. The black, kind eyes of the petite woman will enchant you. You’ll want to ask about her daughter Francesca (Cesca). If you meet Cesca’s great-granddaughter Lucia Monchiero, you’ll be meeting the future of the winery.
Clotilde Valente Raimondo, grandmother of Marco Monchiero of Monchiero-Carbone.
In Barbaresco, you’ll discover a woman you may of heard of before – Clotilde Rey – because her name and that of her great-granddaughter Gaia were merged to create the brand name of the legendary winery’s Langhe Chardonnay – Gaia & Rey. But did you know about her crucial roll in her father-in-law Giovanni Gaja’s legacy? Clotilde died long before I set foot in Piemonte, but I can’t help but believe that to meet Gaia Gaja is to meet Clotilde Rey such is her great-granddaughter’s brilliance and drive.
On the ridge in Tre Stelle in Barbaresco you’ll find Giovanna Rizzolio of Cascina delle Rose. There’s a strong, formidable woman in her family whose story is known to so few, but whose life touched so many, particularly during the dark, brutal days of the German Occupation between September 1943 and May 1945. You can find the name of Beatrice Rizzolio inscribed on the wall of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Beatrice Rizzolio, Righteous Among the Nations and nonna of Giovanna Rizzolio of Cascina delle Rose.Wall with inscription of Beatrice Rizzolio at the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
These are but a few of the women from the 23 different families that you’ll meet if you follow me on my labor of love. Sadly, these grandmothers across the generations are no longer here for me to interview, but their families have brought them alive for me and by extension for you. What a delight and an honor it has been to get to know them and have the opportunity to be their storyteller.
On this day in history, 72 years ago, Italy signed an armistice with the Allied Forces. The date is known as “The Catastrophe.” Sadly, it did not mean the end to hostilities for the Italian people. Quite the contrary. It brought the war home to Italy and marked the beginning of a brutal occupation by the Nazis and their fascist allies as Italy descended into civil war.
Jewish Deportation
Piemonte was not immune to the terror. Across the country, brave civilians, clergy, government officials and even police and soldiers defied orders to turn over Jews for deportation to the death camps where the Final Solution awaited them.
In a somber moment, a descendent of Holocaust victims, Dan Hoffman, at the Memorial to the Deportees in Borgo San Dalmazzo.Plaque at the Memorial to the Deportees in Borgo San Dalmazzo with the story of the deportation. (Note: there is an error on the plaque. Jews were sent to “Drancy” on their way to Auschwitz, not “Dancy.”)
It has been quite an eye-opener for me to learn more about this dark period of history in Piemonte. This past summer, I even went to Borgo San Dalmazzo to the Memorial of the Deportees and up into the alpine valleys where refugee Jews from St. Martin-Vésubie thought they were coming into a safe zone. There were not.
San Giacomo, one of the alpine hamlets where Jewish refugees from the Holocaust following the retreating Italian Army arrived.A bucolic hikers path from San Giacomo to the Colle di Fenestra today, but what should have been a path to freedom for 1,000 Jews from St. Martin-Vésubie 72 years ago.
My research allowed me to put into context the acts of heroism of ordinary citizens like Giovanna Rizzolio‘s grandmother Beatrice Rizzolio (whose name is listed as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem), Claudia and Silvia Cigliuti‘s grandparents Cornelia and Leone Cigliuti, Giacomo Oddero‘s mother Maria and many others. Wine families across the region were often caught between one or several partisan factions and the German army with their fascist allies.
Beatrice Rizzolio, Righteous Among the Nations and nonna of Giovanna Rizzolio of Cascina delle Rose.
“Labor of Love”
There are many amazing stories I’ve uncovered, although many, no doubt, are lost to the ages. I look forward to sharing these stories and introducing my readers to a side of Piemonte, particularly the Langhe and Roero, they do not know in my upcoming book, “Labor of Love: The Wine Family Women of Piemonte.”
I live in Vail Valley, Colorado. It’s a very special gastronomic community filled with creative chefs and talented sommeliers. We are blessed to count Master Sommelier Sean Razee, Vail Resorts‘ Mountain Dining Beverage Director, among the oenological dwellers of our valley. That means whenever I am in need of oenological wisdom, Sean is my “go-to” professional. Needless to say, his tireless support of local charities in planning and executing their fundraising dinners is a delight to witness.
While writing a chapter in my book “A Labor of Love: Wine Women of Piemonte,” I got I stuck on a question regarding the differences between California Cabernet Blends and Barolo. My ability to explain the differences leads me, an attorney, to paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous line, “I know it when I see and taste it.” So who better to turn to than Sean for a more detailed explanation? No one in my universe is better at mastering differences between these two wines.
What I got was a 455 word education. And this is one education I definitely wanted to share. Sean graciously agreed to allow me to guest post his response to my question. I hope you enjoy the primer. I certainly did!
Suzanne:
“How would you describe the difference between a California Cabernet Blend and Barolo?”
Sean Razee:
Immense differences exist between California Cabernet Blend and Barolo. These differences are apparent in the color, flavor profile and structure of the wines. Some differences are due to climate differences between California’s Napa Valley and the northwest Italian region of Piemonte(specifically the Langhe). Differences in vinification also make the wines distinct from one another.
California Cabernet Blend
I would describe a California Cabernet Blend (in youth) as a deep ruby color with black fruits (currant, plum, cherry).
There should be a whiff of green herbs (tobacco, mint) with dark chocolate and coffee. The oak on the wine is prominent, displaying new French oak barrels (smoke, toast, vanilla, baking spices). Earthiness is not prominent.
The structure of the wine is medium-plus to high tannin (silky) medium to medium-plus acidity, with medium-plus to high alcohol.
Cabernet is a thick-skinned grape of high color pigmentation. The vinification methods used in production extract large amounts of tannin from the skins. A fruity and a silky, smooth palate dominates the wine. The tannin in a California Cabernet Blend tends to be “fully ripe” which gives the wine’s tannin a silky feeling on the palate.
Barolo
For Barolo (made from 100% Nebbiolo), the color is more garnet to light ruby with red fruits as opposed to black fruits (cherry, raspberry, pomegranate). The fruits are sometimes both ripe and dried (with some age). There can sometimes be notes of spice, anise, tar, leather, and balsamic. Notes of volatile acidity are common giving the wines a lifted, perfumey aroma. Some producers are using some new French barrels, adding the corresponding flavor profile of those barrels. However, the traditional production methods do not lend oak to the flavor profile.
Unlike a California Cabernet Blend, a Barolo might be bone dry, with high tannin, high acidity and medium-plus to high alcohol.
Nebbiolo is a thin-skinned grape with light color that contradicts the wine’s weight and aggressive tannin. It is highly aromatic and driven by non-fruit characters. Unlike the tannin in a California Cabernet Blend that possesses silkiness virtually upon release, the tannin in Barolo may need years to soften. This is historically why Barolo was required by law to age for many years before release. With today’s viticultural and vinification techniques though, this has changed a bit and Barolo is becoming much more approachable in its youth.
This last part of my Nebbiolo description (underlined) leads to why many people who like new world, California Cabernets do not like Barolo. For a person that wants a “smooth” wine, with high color, high extraction, high fruit content, high alcohol, silky tannins and some sweetness to the wine, Barolo is almost the antithesis of this model. Barolo is light colored, highly aromatic, is non-fruit driven, and has an aggressive tannin and acid profile.
Barolo from famed producer Chiara Boschis of E. Pira e Figli. Photo Credit: Alisha Quinn BoscoSchweiger Vineyards’ “Dedication,” an example of one of Napa Valley’s distinctive California Cabernet Blends. Photo credit: Schweiger Vineyards
Ciao!
