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LOCAL CULTURE

“Barolo Girls. The female revolution of the king of wines”, the book by Clara and Gigi Padovani

Published by Gribaudo, it is a reportage on the female revolution in the Langhe, a “repertoire of stories and dreams for the future”

The women of Langa were “one step behind” their fathers, husbands, brothers, and owners of wineries. Over the past twenty years, something has changed in the vineyards around Alba: more and more female entrepreneurs are now at the helm of Langa wineries. Many of them are the heirs of wine patriarchs, such as Bruna Giacosa, cousins Roberta and Lisa Ceretto, sisters Gaia and Rossana Gaja, Bartolo Mascarello’s daughter Maria Teresa, Elio Altare’s daughter Silvia, and many other young women who have founded their own companies, such as “Lalù” in Monforte, Elena Gillardi, the Argamante family of Poderi Ruggeri Corsini, and Giovanna Garesio. The book to be released on Tuesday, August 26, “Barolo Girls. The female revolution of the king of wines” (Gribaudo, 216 pages, €24), written by the Alba-based authors Clara and Gigi Padovani, is dedicated to all of them and many other colleagues.
“It took us two years to complete this work”, say the authors, in advance of the release, ro WineNews for WineNews, “in a journey full of emotion, which we hope we have managed to convey through the subjective stories of over sixty female winegrowers interviewed. In addition, each of them answers five “personal” questions, the same for all, and explains the difficulties, hopes and vision they have for Barolo”. The title of the book refers to that group of “young rebels” who, in 1993, were christened the Barolo Boys by a Californian wine shop, thanks to the initiative of importer Marc De Grazia (now a wine producer on the slopes of Mount Etna): they were small producers, farmers, and winemakers who conquered international markets with a new way of interpreting the “wine of kings” and brought about a cultural and technical revolution. The daughters of the “modernists” (such as Barbara Sandrone, the Scavino sisters, and Silvia Altare) and the traditionalists (such as the sisters Carlotta and Marta Rinaldi and Maria Teresa Mascarello) now claim that the divisions of the past no longer exist. All the protagonists of the book feel united by a “sisterhood” that is also evidenced by numerous women’s associations: the Sbarbatelle created by Ais Piemonte, the Donne Del Vino led in Piedmont by Ivana Brignolo Miroglio, the group that organizes initiatives for Afghan women, “R-Women”, and the “L’Anello Forte” Association of Monforte. The story told in these pages - based on an idea by Clara Vada Padovani, as the two authors of many successful books on Italian food culture are keen to point out - thus becomes a choral, participatory, shared experience in the many stories published. The book opens with a female interpretation of the history of Barolo, through seven protagonists: the Marchioness Giulia Colbert Falletti di Barolo, who created “modern” Barolo on her estates and sent 325 barrels of wine to the House of Savoy in the early 19th century; the Countess of Mirafiori Rosa Vercellana (known as “la bela Rosin”), to whom King Victor Emmanuel II, her lover, gave the Fontanafredda estate; the first female entrepreneur, “Tota Virginia” (Virginia Ferrero, 1865-1949), in Serralunga d’Alba; the first female vice president of the “Terre del Barolo” cooperative, Rosa Oberto; the “revolutionary” Chiara Boschis, the first “Barolo Girl” among the “Barolo Boys”; and cultural organizer Claudia Ferraresi, from the historic Rocche di Costamagna winery in La Morra. Clara and Gigi Padovani say: “This is not just another wine guide: it is a collection of stories, testimonies, feelings, dreams for the future, an unprecedented and empathetic portrait of this wine, often christened the “King of wines and wine of Kings”, which is now becoming the wine of the “Queens of Langa” in its own right”.

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