The 10 superwomen in the Italian wine world according to Drinks Business

The 10 superwomen in the Italian wine world according to Drinks Business

Chiara Lungarotti, Silvia Franco, Francesca Planeta, Daria Garofoli, Gaia Gaja, Josè Rallo, Elena Martusciello, Sabrina Tedeschi, Cristina Mariani, Marilisa Allegrini. 

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The article is in “Drinks Business” which is a British web magazine on wine, beer and spirits, among the most up to date and authoritative. One of its strong points is the lists that it produces regarding all sorts of subjects and always with interesting and innovative ideas. The author of this report is Tom Bruce Gardyne a Scottish journalist and super Whisky expert but he is also extremely interested in wine. Recently he wrote a beautiful article about the Etna wines.

 

The  Top 10 women in Italian wine list begins with a comment typical to British humour <<The days of  Italian wine being a man’s world with women in the background doing the paperwork are now fading as many daughters take over the reins>>. Tom Bruce-Gardyne meets 10 women making a difference. 

So these are the super women: first in the list and quite rightly so, my friend Chiara Lungarotti. In 1999, when her father passed away, she became CEO of the Lungarotti wineries in Torgiano.  Tom Bruce Gardyne describes her talking about her competence and her great love for her homeland.  <<I strongly believe our wines have to be an expression of the territory they’re from, and our territory is Umbria>> says Chiara and for this reason she has not expanded her activity to Sicily or Puglia as many other wineries have, but instead has created a new winery in Montefalco. My daughter Violante spent her University work experience time at the Secretariat of the Movimento del Turismo del vino while  Chiara Lungarotti was the National President and she still talk of her with great respect as a leader who is determined and authoritative.

Second in line is Silvia Franco. Tom Bruce Gardyne tells of how she left the Prosecco winery founded by her grandfather in 1919, to study interior design inMilanto then work in this sector. An experience which has been of great help when she returned the family estate where she worked alongside her father in a role which resembles more and more that of general manager.

Further down the list we find Francesca Planeta daughter of the fantastic Diego whom she admires greatly. She studied in theUK, and then worked in Milano and finally the return toSicilyto work together with father, brother Alessio and cousin Santi in the family winery. I confirm Tom Bruce Gardyne’s positive opinion for this sunny and assertive

woman; she is very clever and, like the other Sicilian in the list, Josè Rallo, who is a volcano of ability, generosity, and creativity …. Goes without saying that Josè is an avid reader of foreign poets, she is also a singer (amateur) with a voice that makes you dream.

Fourth in the list Daria Garofoli <<Vini Garofoli is the oldest producer in theMarche, making Verdicchio and supplyingUKsupermarket giant Tesco >> says Gardyne who describes Daria affectionately as <<a full- time mum, English teacher and wife to chairman Gianfranco Garofoli>>

Surprisingly Gaia Gaja is only fifth, Angelo’s fantastic daughter, who in the article is given 10 more years than his actual age (he was born in 1940). She is esteemed in the whole wine world; she was recently among the Italian relators of the Master’s of Wine Symposium.

Among the 10 super women chosen by Tom Bruce Gardyne we also find Josè Rallo, Elena Martuscello the excellent President of the Donne del Vino italiane, Sabrina Tedeschi, Cristina Mariani May and Marilisa Allegrini. All exceptional women who do justice to the Italian wine making world.