There are around 100,000 companies run by young people under 35, demonstrating that the sector is of great interest to the new generations1, with almost 30% of wineries with annexed vineyards run by women and 12% of industrial wineries2. There is also a strong female presence in commerce: female entrepreneurs in the world of wine lead 24% of companies linked to retail sales and 12.5% of those in the wholesale sector.
Of course, we have come a long way from the Barolo Boys – a term coined by the US press and also the title of a film directed by Paolo Casalis and Tiziano Gaia that has won numerous festivals – to today. It was the mid-1980s when Chiara Boschis (Cantina Chiara Boschis – Pira & Figli, Barolo, 50,000 bottles produced per year for six of wines, Barolo Cannubi-Mosconi and Via Nuova – two crus and a blend – Langhe, Nebbiolo, Barbera Superiore and Dolcetto d’Alba), then a pioneer in the sector, together with other visionaries such as, among others, Elio Altare, Giorgio Rivetti, Roberto Voerzio and Marc de Grazia, revolutionised the concept of Barolo. It was a generation that wanted to change the way Barolo was conceived, interpreted and communicated, transforming it, in the 1990s, into the star of the wine on international markets, first and foremost the American market, and going beyond its place of origin, the Langhe, which, from here on in, became famous throughout the world: “Women are now the protagonists in the wineries, whereas historically they were given a dowry – which was not the vineyard – and had the task of helping the family. It doesn’t happen anymore: I personally lived through the period of feminism and I introduced my feminist passion into my work as well, coming to the conclusion that women are the backbone of society,’ Chiara Boschis remarks, adding: ‘I recognise that the Barolo Boys were able to initiate a radical change, thanks to the moral and psychological tools of our generation. We rethought the way in which Barolo was produced – also attracting harsh criticism – starting with thinning out the vineyards and creating more efficient cellars, with an innovative drive that required a great deal of investment, right up to giving greater importance to terroir. And the wineries have moved in this direction“.
The historic Chiara Boschis – Pira & Figli winery in the historic centre of Barolo
The new generations is grateful, and reaps the rewards. This is the case of Federica Boffa Pio, a family affair (Cantina Pio Cesare, Alba, 450,000 bottles a year), 24 years old, with a classical education followed by a degree in Business Administration, and today at the helm of the winery together with her cousin Cesare. They are the fifth generation. “For me, it was a natural evolution of the way I grew up, breathing in the atmosphere of our historic winery, walking among the rows of our vines and travelling the world with my parents,” says Federica. “Today, we aim for widespread and selected distribution, we don’t want to appear too much, our philosophy is to be seen and not to be seen”. This is why Pio Cesare does not have its own e-commerce channel, even though during the lockdown it relied on a portfolio of platforms: “We have done tastings via zoom but we believe in a direct relationship with our customers, in physical presence. And speaking of women: my generation sees a lot of them involved here in the Langhe, and I think the reason is the care that this job requires together with patience, two virtues that have always distinguished us,” Federica concludes.
Federica Boffa Pio, with her father Pio Boffa (centre) and cousin Cesare Benvenuto (right)
But the history and future of Barolo are, of course, also the history and future of Barbaresco, and there are many excellent wineries that are working hard to carry on the Barbaresco legacy built up by their parents and grandparents. This is the case of Claudia and Silvia Cigliuti (F.lli Cigliuti, Neive, 35,000 bottles of Barbaresco and Barbera). The family business, revolutionised by their father at the end of the 1960s, driven by the desire to innovate, produce quality wine and export it abroad (today’s label is the same as that of 1967, the period in which the decision was taken to start thinning out the vines and to bottle a quality wine in order to stand out from the merchants of the time), is now run by the sisters, even against the expectations of their father who, having two daughters, could never have imagined that they would follow in the same footsteps: “But we could never have done anything else. We were born in the middle of the vineyards and, when it came to deciding what to do with our lives, we realised that we could never have conceived it without the vineyard. We love it and follow it personally, spending most of our time there: my sister is an oenologist and I take care of the commercial side. But we are complementary, we make decisions together,” says Claudia Cigliuti.
Sisters Claudia and Silvia Cigliuti with their parents
And the women in the Langhe have always shown that they know how to get respect thanks to their great talent and expertise, such as Luisa Rocca (Bruno Rocca, 70/75. 000 bottles, most of the labels, 7 out of 10, are made from 100% Nebbiolo such as Langhe Nebbiolo – Barbaresco – Barbaresco Currà – Barbaresco Rabajà – Barbaresco Riserva Currà – Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà and Barbaresco Maria Adelaide, and then Barbera d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba and, to a lesser extent, Chardonnay, 35% of production is for the Italian market, while foreign markets include Japan, Australia, the USA and Europe), 37 years old, has often found herself alone, the only woman, but has never felt excluded. Strong of her father’s passion for wine – so strong that he left his job at Ferrero – she was immediately involved in the company, finding herself at the age of 20 in New York for work reasons: “A real baptism of fire: as a minor, in the USA you can drink from the age of 21, I found myself managing our American market. But I have always been able to count on the image of excellence that we have, especially abroad, and this has opened many doors for me,” recalls Luisa who, today, takes care of the commercial side while her brother is oenologist: “The woman has a deep and articulated vision of the sector and this is a plus, also in the light of the fact that today the wine industry is composed of different factors that must interact with each other,” concludes Luisa.
Luisa Rocca between her brother Francesco and father Bruno
[1] Source: L’Italia del vino. Analysis of a booming market, Rome Business School
