Suzanne Hoffman's Blog, page 5
May 7, 2016
Honoring Piemonte’s Mothers
As I was flipping through photographs from my book, Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte, I recalled how those beautiful mother-daughter relationships in Piemonte’s wine country motivated me during my labor of love. So I thought I’d share some photos from my files of wonderful mothers of Piemonte.
Cà del Baio (Barbaresco)
Giulio Grasso’s mother, Fiorentina, and his late father, Ernesto, known affectionately as “Super Nonno.”
Luciana Grasso, destined to become mother of Paola, Valentina, and Federica, and nonna of Lidia and Anna, on her wedding day.
Paola Grasso, mother of Lidia and Anna Deltetto, with her proud papa Giulio looking on. Photo Credit – Karen Haeffner
Deltetto (Roero)
Graziella Deltetto, mama of Carlo, Cristina, and Claudia, and nonna of Lidia (on her lap) and Anna.
Carlo Deltetto with his maternal nonna, Bibiana Brezzo.
Oddero (Barolo)
The Oddero sisters: Mariavittoria (left) mother of Isabella Boffa Oddero and Giacomo Boffa,, and Mariacristina, mother of Pietro Viglino Oddero. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Maria Badellino Oddero, mother of Giacomo Oddero.
Carla Scanavino Oddero, mother of Mariavittoria and Mariacristina, and nonna of Isabella and Pietro. .
Cantina Bartolo Mascarello (Barolo)
Franca Maccarello, mother of Maria Teresa. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Cascina delle Rose (Barbaresco)
Giovanna Rizzolio and her sons Riccardo and Davide Sobrino. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Cigliuti (Barbaresco)
Dina Cigliuti, mother of Claudia and Silvia. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Claudia Cigliuti, mother of of Giulia and Leone. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Silvia Cigliuti, mother of Germano. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Marchesi di Barolo – Family Abbona (Barolo)
Anna Abbona with daughter Valentina. Photo Credit – Cinzia Trenchi
Marenco Vini (Monferrato)
Teresa Benzi and Giuseppe Marenco on their wedding day. The couple would have three daughters – Michela, Doretta, and Patrizia.
Michela Marenco, mother of Andrea and Eduardo Costa. Photo Credit – Eugenio Vacchetto
Patrizia Marenco, mother of Pietro Giraudi. Photo Credit – Eugenio Vacchetto
Cascina Castlet (Monferrato)
Mariuccia Borio with her late mother, Ermenegilda Gonella. Photo Credit – Franco Bello
G. D. Vajra (Barolo)
Milena Vaira, mother of Giuseppe, Francesca, and Isidoro, and Giuseppe’s wife, Sophie, mother of Lucia, Aldo, and another gift from God on the way. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Marsaglia (Roero)
Marina Marsaglia, mother of Monica and Enrico. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Giuseppe Rinaldi (Barolo)
Annalisa Rinaldi with daughters Carlotta and Marta and husband Giuseppe. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Matteo Correggia (Roero)
Ornella Correggia and daughter Brigitta. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Severina Correggio, mother of Matteo Correggia and nonna of Giovanni and Brigitta. Photo Credit – Carlo Avataneo
Paolo Scavino (Barolo)
Anna Scavino with daughters Elisa and Enrica, and husband Enrico.
Giuseppina Scavino, mother of Enrico and Angela.
Enrica Scavino, mother of Giacomo Grimaldi. Photo Credit – Pierangelo Vacchetto
Punset (Barbaresco)
Marina Marcarino, mother of Pietro Celona. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Monchiero Carbone (Roero)
Clotilde “Tilde” Raimondo, matriarch of the Monchiero family.
Lucrezia Monchiero, mother of Lucia and Luigi. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Lucia Monchiero, mother of Francesco and Teresa, nonna of Lucia and Luigi, and her husband Marco. Photo Credit – Pierangelo Vacchetto
Gaja (Barbaresco)
Clotilde Rey, nonna of Angelo Gaja.
Lucia Gaja (left) and her children Gaia, Rossana, and Giovanni, and husband Angelo. Photo Credit – Andrea Wyner
Livia Fontana (Barolo)
Livia Fontana, mother of Michele and Lorenzo, and nonna of Ettore. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Falletti
Blessed vintner, Giulia Colbert Falletti, the last Marchesa of Barolo and godmother of modern Barolo.
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May 2, 2016
Blessed Vintner of Barolo
In one month, Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte will launch at Azienda Agricola Cà del Baio in Treiso (Barbaresco). The Grasso family is one of 22 who comprise the family chapters of the book. Before I introduce my readers to my wine families, they will meet one of the most important wine family women of all upon whose shoulders today’s women stand: Giulia Colbert Falletti, Marchesa di Barolo.
With 16 days left in my KICKSTARTER project, I thought today would be a great time for a sneak peek at this blessed vintner who is just a miracle or two away from sainthood.
The Last Marchesa of Barolo
GIULIA COLBERT FALLETTI
Blessed Vintner
With the reluctant permission of her husband and father, Giulia began to visit the prison frequently. The abuse she endured transformed into trust as Giulia befriended many women prisoners and led them to Christianity. Giulia traveled to England and across Europe to study the prison reforms that were under way. But it was not enough for Giulia to improve the hygiene and living conditions of the incarcerated women. She saw a dire need to provide the women with skills they needed to be able to contribute to society upon their release.
Young Giulia Colbert Falletti, Marchesa di Barolo
Giulia believed the cycle of poverty and sin these women endured had to be broken. She established a school for girls and women of all means to learn to sew and keep house. Giulia and Tancredi converted part of the ground floor of their grand Turin home into a kindergarten where working poor parents could leave their children in a safe environment to learn while they worked. Both within Turin and outside its gates, Giulia spread the love and money she could not lavish on her own children to those in need. By day, the ground floor of the Palazzo Barolo was a refuge and a place of hope for the needy, but when night fell, minds met above in Giulia’s salon.
Carlo Tancredi Falletti, Marchese di Barolo
In 1825, King Carlo Felice named Tancredi, who was then a state counselor, mayor of Turin. Tancredi’s piety and compassion for the poor and dispossessed that he shared with Giulia influenced his four-year tenure as mayor, during which time he pursued groundbreaking changes in Piemonte’s capital city. During the frigid winter of 1825 – 1826, Tancredi distributed bread and firewood to the poor. He established a bank for small savings and a free school for arts and artisanal crafts, paved roads, beautified the city with gardens and fountains, and pursued other projects to improve public hygiene and the well-being of Turin’s citizens.
Giulia Colbert Falletti, the last Marchesa of Barolo, in her later years.
Tancredi, like Giulia, was not content to provide the means for their charitable works. They were hands-on philanthropists. During the cholera outbreak of 1835, Tancredi fell seriously ill while caring for patients housed on the ground floor of the Palazzo Barolo. Three years later, upon the advice of her husband’s doctors, Giulia took Tancredi to the Veneto, where they believed the alpine air would aid his recovery. Tancredi fell seriously ill in Verona, so Giulia began the long trip home to Turin to arrange treatment for her husband. Alas, Tancredi never saw his beloved Turin again. On September 4, 1838, in Chiara, near Brescia in Lombardy, the last Marchese of the noble Falletti family of Barolo died in his wife’s arms.
Author’s note: I have Chiara Boschis of E. Pira e Figli to thank for the “introduction” to Giulia Falletti and Pierangelo Vacchetto for sharing his vast knowledge of Barolo’s history and the village’s beloved last Marchesa. Their contributions to my book – and my life – are precious to me.
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April 28, 2016
Kickstarter for Labor of Love
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 20 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.
Sneak Peek
So how’s about a sneak peek at my Labor of Love:
Chapter Seven
ODDERO
Barolo
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:
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April 23, 2016
My Piemontese Labor of Love Journey
Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte
Suzanne Hoffman
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?
Who are my wine families?
I chose 22 diverse wine families for my book, plus the most famous wine family woman of all, the blessed 19th-century vintner, .
Young Giulia Colbert Falletti, Marchesa di Barolo
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 Love will 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 Vacchetto
Mariavittoria (left) and Mariacristina, the Oddero sisters of Poderi e Cantine Oddero in La Morra in the Barolo denomination. Photo credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Brigitta 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.
Click on: Kickstart Labor of Love.
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
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April 20, 2016
Kickstart My Labor of Love!
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.
CLICK HERE TO KICKSTART TODAY MY NEW BOOK:
LABOR OF LOVE: WINE FAMILY WOMEN OF PIEMONTE
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
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February 26, 2016
Labor of Love – Monferrato Wine Families
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.
Marchesi Alfieri
San Martino Alfieri
Orangerie at Marchesi Alfieri in San Martino Alfier.
Marenco Vini
Strevi
The steepest and one of the most precious of the Marenco vineyards – Scrapona in Valle Bagnario
Cascina Castlet
Costigliole d’Asti
Mariuccia Borio (left) with four of her cousins at Cascina Castlet.
So tell me, where next should I go on my labor of love odyssey? Sicily? Friuli? Tuscany? Valais, Switzerland?
Stay tuned for the opportunity to help crowdfund on Indiegogo my odyssey to prepare for the next book project in the Labor of Love series.
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February 22, 2016
LABOR OF LOVE – Barbaresco Families
Twelve hour days, seven days a week over the last two months slowed me down a bit in keeping my loyal readers apprised of the final stages of writing and producing my first book. It’s time to announce the Labor of Love Barbaresco families that were so gracious to open up their lives to me. Barbaresco – specifically at Cà del Baio in Treiso – is where “Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte” will launch on June 2, 2016.
On February 19, the photographs, primarily from Pierangelo Vacchetto and his daughter, Elisabetta, and son, Eugenio, traveled through cyberspace to Verona, Italy where VeronaLibri will begin the process of preparing the photos for print. Now comes the final, nerve-wracking days of the last proofreading, fact-checking, and lots of prayers before designer Cindi Yaklich of Epicenter Creative in Boulder, Colorado, hits the button to send the completely designed 9.25″ x 11.5″ (23.5 cm x 29 cm), 320 page book to Verona.
In addition to the six families below, I would like to thank Marchese Alberto di Grésy and cellar master Jeffrey Chilcott of Marchesi di Grésy in Barbaresco, Renato Vacca and his father, Adriano, of Cantina del Pino in Barbaresco, Aldo Vacca of Produttori del Barbaresco, and Andrea Sottimano of Barbaresco for their kindness, invaluable guidance and resources.
So, without further delay, here are the six Barbaresco families in Labor of Love:
Cà del Baio (Giulio and Luciana Grasso family)
Treiso
Giulio and Luciana Grasso bottling their precious Barbaresco Valgrande with two of their three daughters Federica and Valentina. Photo credit: Elisabetta Vacchetto
Albino Rocca
Barbaresco
Albino Rocca with his granddaughters (L-R) Paola, Monica, and Daniela. Photo credit: Vacchetto
Punset (Marina Marcarino)
Neive
Marina Marcarino of Punset with Giuggliola (the star of Marina’s cat family) at sunset in Neive in January 2016. Photo credit: Vacchetto
Cascina delle Rose (Giovanna Rizzolio)
Barbaresco
Giovanna Rizzolio and husband, Italo Sobrino (rear), with their sons Davide and Riccardo. Photo credit: Vacchetto
Gaja
Barbaresco
(L-R) Lucia, Gaia, Angelo, Rossana, and Giovanni Gaja on via Torino in Barbaresco. Photo credit: Andrea Wyner
Cigliuti
Neive
Renato and Dina Cigliuti with daughters, Claudia and Silvia, and Claudia’s daughter, Giulia (left). Photo credit: Vacchetto
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January 17, 2016
Labor of Love – Roero Families
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.
Deltetto
Canale
Deltetto Extra Brut Spumante Metodo Classico Rosé from Nebbiolo and Pinot Nero.
Cantina Marsaglia
Castellinaldo d’Alba
Emilio and Marina Marsaglia with their partners (and children) Monica and Enrico. Photo Credit – Vacchetto
Monchiero Carbone
Canale
Monchiero matriarch and founder of the winery, Clotilde Valente Raimondo.
Matteo Correggia
Canale
Photo Credit: Alisha Quinn Bosco
Don’t forget to subscribe to Wine Families for all the updates and sneak peeks between now and launch day on June 2, 2016 in Barbaresco!
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January 8, 2016
LABOR OF LOVE – Barolo Wine Families
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:
E. Pira e Figli by Chiara Boschis
Barolo
Chiara Boschis with Colorado importer Steve Lewis of Giuliana Imports and Zino Ristorante partners Chef Nick Haley and Giuseppe Bosco.
Paolo Scavino
Castiglione Falletto
Marchesi di Barolo
Barolo
Proprietors of Marchesi di Barolo, Ernesto and Anna Abbona with daughter Valentina.
Poderi e Cantine Oddero
La Morra
The Oddero sisters – Maria Cristina (right) and her sister Maria Vittoria with daughter Isabella – and their beloved patriarch, Giacomo. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Ettore Fontana di Livia Fontana
Castiglione Falletto
Livia Fontana with her sons Michele and Lorenzo Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Giuseppe Rinaldi
Barolo
Sisters Marta and Carlotta Rinaldi
Photo Credit – Pierangelo Vaccheto
Bartolo Mascarello – Maria Teresa Mascarello
Barolo
Maria Teresa Mascarello
Photo Credit – Eugenio Vacchetto
Elio Altare
La Morra
Lucia Altare with her daughters Elena (left) and Silvia. Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
G. D. Vajra
Vergne
Nature’s light through man’s art creating a heavenly workplace at G. D. Vajra — Photo Credit – Elisabetta Vacchetto
Castello della Volta — Photo Credit – Pierangelo Vacchetto
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January 5, 2016
Labor of Love in Piemonte
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’anello forte” (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!
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