14.1 After primary and middle school, the Oenological School
“After primary school I went to the Oenological School, in Alba. The curious thing is that on
my middle school diploma, my teachers had added a note in which they
advised me to attend a school with a technical and scientific orientation for my future studies.
I had two alternatives: the Scientific High School or the Oenological School, and Luciano's
influence steered me towards the second solution. The middle school teachers had seen
it correctly. In fact, that was my propensity: I had no problems with technical-scientific subjects,
while I struggled more with humanities.”
What were the years at the Oenological School like, also in view of collaborating with Luciano's company
which was gradually developing?
“I started the Oenological School – Luca explains – in September 1981 and graduated at the beginning
of summer 1987. But the school was not detached from the productive reality: while I was attending,
I also did a sort of continuous internship at Luciano's winery. And this allowed me to
combine theory with practice. Thanks to the work I did at the company and
especially thanks to the contacts and acquaintances that were generated, I saw a side of
the work that was not common. Thus, when I reached the last two years of school,
I had very deep foundations in both the theoretical part and the practical side of the work.
So, often it was I who put the professors in difficulty, such as when the Oenological School's
winery got a Vaslin rotary fermenter and I had already had the chance to see it in action the
year before at Marchesi di Barolo, and therefore I knew its strengths and weaknesses.”
And how was Luciano at work, in technical choices, in the approach to technology?
“From this point of view too, Luciano was an extraordinary person: he had a crazy
thirst for knowledge. It wasn't enough for him to know how a job should be done, he also
wanted to understand why it had to be done that way. In this way he managed to overcome a limited
school preparation. This was therefore where my usefulness lay. By attending the Oenological
School, I ended up filling this gap in Luciano's preparation and he was very proud of it.”
From what I know, you also collaborated with your brother Bruno. Is that true?
“Indeed, that's right. We were so united that I also collaborated with him in dimensioning
technical drawings with the leroy set (normograph). At the Oenological School we took a technical
drawing course and even in that field I had no problems, because I had the instructor at home.”
