11.2 Barbara's return to Barolo

“For Luciano it was a great satisfaction, but in the meantime there were still other steps. In particular, I met the man who would become the father of my children, Alessia and Stefano, and I moved to Milan, where I stayed until 1996 and then returned to Barolo. For my father, that return of mine was an immense joy, even if he didn't show it.”

How did you see him through your eyes as someone who had traveled the world?

“I have always admired him and not only for the courage he showed in taking on an enterprise like the move from a garage to a new cellar with a significant investment. I understood that he was visionary, that he anticipated the times, that he had courage to spare and also a great desire to get his own back even towards those who had been close to him. He told me that in 1974 when he was managing a small vineyard of his own, his father had almost reprimanded him, telling him that he would have done better to buy himself a car. But my father was like that: the vineyard and Barolo above all else.”

With Barbara's return to the company, the structure was gradually strengthened. But what was the situation really like?

“The organization of the company, at that time, still suffered from the approximation derived from the small size in both production and market. Then, I was primarily responsible for administration and my office was entirely in the room where I slept: there was the main equipment, from the computer to the typewriter and the fax machine which also served as a telephone and photocopier in addition to a small printer. Meanwhile, the activity began to grow and strengthen and the first employee was hired, Rosella Guazzo. In particular, it was the Italian agents who gave me a lot of work. Export in fact was concentrated with a single interlocutor for the United States and in European countries the first relationships were only beginning to emerge. One of the first market interlocutors in the Old Continent was Christopher Moestue in Norway, still in a relationship with us today. Rather, it was the market towards the final consumer that was growing exponentially: the Three Glasses (Tre Bicchieri) in Gambero Rosso, the 100 points assigned by Parker and the interest that our and other companies in the area were generating in the trade magazines generated an influx of consumers to taste our wines, meet the producers and buy a few bottles. We were not used to an influx into the cellar of this type and, therefore, this also created some management and hospitality problems. We wanted to be cordial and hospitable, but we didn't yet have an organization capable of withstanding that impact. With the increase in production activities, Luciano gradually reduced his commitment to the market: he felt he had to concentrate in the vineyard as in the cellar and this also responded to his natural inclination.”