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We brought the real revolution, period

With this new philosophy.

First there was hunger, in '75 I couldn't sell my grapes.

This is history, I'm not the one saying it.

I challenge anyone to contradict me, bring me whoever you like!

There is only one truth, always one!

There's only one history, not two, not one and a half.

One, period. That one.

Being conceited about your own generation is a mistake.

You have to have a historic perspective, and respect all generations.

Today not one of them works together,

that's the nemesis of history.

When you're weak, you pull together, and it's right to do so.

But now none of them work as a team.

But what are we talking about?

"What are we talking about?"

asks the founder of Slow Food, slightly angry.

Carlin Petrini is watching the first version of this movie,

that tells the story of the Barolo Boys,

wine producers from the Langhe, the traditional wine-making region,

north-western Italy, right on the border of France.

In the eighties and nineties the Barolo Boys really really spread

the word of Barolo in the world.

Some thought they were revolutionaries, changing the wine forever.

Others abdicated them to a passing trend that would be quickly forgotten.

This film will tell the story of the Barolo Boys,

a legend that is still shrouded in the fog,

the same fog that gives name to the grape that creates the great Barolo.

Come with us and take the journey, it will be full of surprises.

This all amphitheatre , completely facing south, is called Arborina.

It's split between six winemakers, and our property is this one, just below us,

and this is our source for the Langhe Arborina and the Barolo Arborina.

And this plot was planted in 1948 by my grandpa,

so the vines are over 60 years old.

My dad is considered one of the pioneers of the modern Barolo.

He grow up in an environment that had been the same for hundreds of years.

We've been farmers and grape-growers since the 1800's.

Let's go inside, I'll show you the cellar and tell you more...

And this is the old structure of the house, where my grandpa had his cellar.

My grandpa had the “botti”, like four of them,

and half of the cellar was used for the wine-making.

But than, right in the corner, he had chickens and cows.

And in that corner he had the engine to run the heating system,

that was run with gasoline.

Gasoline, chicken shit and winemaking,

that's maybe wine wasn't so successful!

How's it going, are you OK?

Bearing up. I'm here playing the clown.

It's a piece of history!

I don't want to do this stuff any more, I've done it too many times.

I'm so wordy, I always say the same things!

I lived through that period,

in those years it was just about survival,

you couldn't make a profit, there was no investment, there was nothing.

And until I was 19, in 1969, I was still plowing with an ox, using animals.

But not just me: everyone. There were no tractors.

I'm the fifth generation. A rot, let's say.

Most of the wine was sold unbottled at that time,

not Barolo, that was already bottled

But most of the other wines were sold in demijohns, which were sent off.

Only a few were set up to ferment wine,

they didn't have cellars with the right containers,

so most of the growers sold their grapes.

I remember I was working with a middleman, who called me

and said: "Altare, I've found a buyer for your grapes".

So I asked: "How much will you give me for them?"

Answer: "I'll take them off your hands,

and then we'll talk about the price next spring".

Can you imagine the frustration, for a young man of 25?

Check if it's straight, the tie.

It's a little crooked.

Fix it well!

Am I in order? I think I'm in order.

Back then Barolo was ignored, there were those

five or six businesses that bought all the grapes.

And then, well... nobody knew Barolo: You went 10 kilometers from La Morra

and nobody knew what kind of wine Barolo was.

It wasn't such a simple world, also because the local people

had never had a cooperative spirit.

The Langhetti [people of the Langhe] were, and perhaps still are,

rather isolated and individualist.

Every man for himself

The Langhetto is a closed but dynamic type.

The Langhetto sticks to his culture, that's the culture.

For 40 years, I don't know any more how many years,

I went hunting, I had three or four hounds,

I trained the pallone elastico team, the game

that's the origin of the Langhe, no?

And it gave me great satisfaction!

Already the fact that here we play pallone elastico is a sign

that the people of the Langhe have a difficult nature.

The fact that here they're gamblers is very important,

it means that they're challengers,

people who love risk, but who also love travelling, spending what they earn.

The wine my grandpa was making, and I tell you we still have bottles

still after 50 years it's still arsch and tannic and dry,

so I can imagine that wine how it was when he was born,

but my dad always tells me stories of customers who come to the tasting room,

take a sip and go... puah!

So my dad grow up with this idea: a wine is only good after 25 years,

that's because its papa wines were like this.

But then, being the “stupid boy” of the family,

he started reading books and he found out about Burgundy.

His papa was like: “Burgundy? I don't know what that is”,

nobody had been out of the La Morra borders.

So my dad was smart to take his '500, his car, in 1977, he drove to Burgundy..

He didn't know where to go.

He was going through the villages and he saw the sign of Renè Engel,

so he drove into the front-yard and there was a Porsche,

parked in the front-yard with the trunk open.

He knocked at the door and a man holding two suitcases

came out of the door, and he was Philippe Engel,

and my dad speaks French:

“You know, I'm from Barolo, can I taste some of your wines?”

And Philippe said “You see, I'm leaving for the weekend,

that's my car, I'm going to the Cote d'Azur to sail by boat.

I'm sorry, I don't have time.”

I didn't have money for a hotel and I was sleeping in my car, he was

driving a Porsche and had a sailboat in Cannes: a small difference!

We were selling Barolo for 1,000, 1,500 lire [$0.71, $1.07] a bottle.

So my thought was: Why isn't Barolo being sold?

Why aren't people drinking Barolo?

There was only one answer: It was badly interpreted,

in other words it didn't bring pleasure.

Winemakers tried to make it maderized.

"This is so good, it tastes like Marsala!"

Yes, but if I want to drink a good Marsala I'll buy Marsala, not Barolo.

We had our grandfathers' barrels, our great-great-grandfathers',

our uncles' barrels with enormous woodworms.

When a great wine was produced, it meant that

nature had had better sense than the winemaker!

I came, and I come, from Milan.

So I was a Milanese, a banker, who came into a Langhetto's winery

not to teach him how to make wine, but at least how to change something.

I brought the first two barriques to the Langhe, because at that time

the barrique was a scandal, really a scandal.

The barrel had to be big and old, to the point that in the wineries

where I brought these barriques, they were hidden with cardboard boxes.

All the great wines that were recognized back then, and still are,

at all latitudes were aged in this cursed or blessed container.

Why shouldn't we experiment too?

And one Sunday afternoon I went up to Elio Altare's

and that's when we started to do all the tests

We had 50-liter fusti made by Taranceau. Then the feuillette, 114 liters.

The sigarillo,150. The barrique, 225. And the tonneaux, 350 and 450 liters.

From here, we got the end result Which is the future?

Which one do you like best?

And in 1983 we began with the barriques.

I decided to destroy, to demolish what for my father

was a heritage accumulated over the years.

There were 10, 15 or 20 vats of chestnut, of old oak.

It was an affront, and in August he went to the notary to draw up his will.

He passed away two years later and he had disinherited me

because he died convinced that I was crazy.

Now we are in the eighties, and after the 70's are over,

the world is breathing a new air of optimism and hope.

People are full of lightness and well-being.

Consumerism is on the rise and old ideologies are crumbling.

Families are investing in the stock market

as America elects an actor to president.

Italy is experiencing a small but significant economic boom.

People are enjoying the victory of the World Cup

and a new Dolce Vita is being broadcasted to private TV stations.

The fall of the Berlin wall ends a decade of high hopes.

The wind of change is blowing everywhere, even in the Langhe,

where everything is ready for a radical change.

Our small producers are the right people at the right time:

they are young, ambitious, hungry and ready to take on the world.

They want to leave behind the tradition of agricoltural poverty

but they don't want to leave their beloved land.

Something incredible is about to happen:

after centuries of stagnation, nothing will ever be the same again.

You used to leave everything. And you made a lot of table wine.

Look here.

I didn't want to. I'm sorry to see these grapes on the ground.

But...

they're in charge!

Here you're going over where he's already been.

Yes, I'll take a few more out, because in some places he's still left too many.

Now if you go around the wineries they all consider it normal.

But I remember the neighboring vineyard owner called my father to tell him

that, well, I had gone mad and was doing something really terrible.

There was this absurdity, that thinning out should be hidden

from the others, because it seemed like an act almost of contempt.

The reasoning was very simple. We started to read

some of the first wine publications and the legendary wine was French.

Here we said: "How do they make such a sought-after wine,

with a price that's 10, 15 or 20 times higher than ours?!

I did it early in the morning, while my father was still asleep.

Usually he came to the vineyard later, so this time I didn't realize

that he'd arrived, plus I was intent on my task of thinning out the grapes.

At a certain point I heard cursing, a swearword, then he said:

"I've been pruning for 70 years, and you're teaching me how to prune!"

He threw the scissors at my feet. He never set foot in the vineyard again.

The two things, in other words changing to newer barrels

and producing fewer grapes in order to have riper fruit and a richer wine

began to be put together during the '85, '86 and '87 harvests.

Those were the first vintages done in this way.

MARCH 1986 HUNT FOR TOXIC WINE

DEAD AFTER 26 DAYS, POISONED BY WINE

And now we come to the story of the wine containing

toxic substances, which has caused three deaths in Milan.

TOXIC WINE KILLS AGAIN What had happened? There were winemakers

MORE BAD PUBLICITY FOR ITALIAN WINE who were not honest, who were dealers.

WHO IS PLOTTING AGAINS WINE? They had cut the wine with methanol,

A POISONED CLIMATE. which is toxic and harmful,

SHOCK AND RAGE and this created the problem.

After this scandal, the approach changed

and the focus switched to producing quality wines

The methanol scandal in 1986 was the launch pad for me.

Thanks to this scandal, we all rolled up our sleeves, we began working

as a team and, not knowing how to interpret the wine, we did experiments.

Then we compared the different experiments and the sample of wine

or the bottle that was judged the best was revealed.

So it was all tasted strictly blind, and the winemaker who had made the wine

explained to the others what he had done in the vineyard and in the winery.

And so things grew quickly.

These might be things you've already heard or that

someone has already told you, but it's the truth.

If a winemaker is working alone, without hearing the experiences

of other producers, he has 40 or 50 vintages in his lifetime.

But if you have 10 winemakers who work with the same intensity, the same

dedication and the same philosophy in the vineyard and in the winery

with different experiences, and you put them together,

you will start rising in quality very quickly.

We met as a group of friends almost every week, two or three times a week.

There was this tension of searching for greater quality, an insane quality.

We really wanted to make the best wine in the world!

How many times did we found ourselves here, around this table

tasting wines, maybe eating something.

I have a wonderful memory of those years, for this kind of comradeship.

People of Carlin Petrini's community, I urge you to

approach the offerings with humility and moderation!

This was the Langa miracle.

This is all volcanic, see?

A lava flow from 1947.

The first plant to become established and which

manages to break the basalt with its roots is broom.

Then other plants establish themselves in the holes made by the broom.

Look at this stuff! In another two or three centuries there'll be

a new terroir here, because this is an extraordinary thing about Etna.

This fertility for example does't exist south or east of the volcano

because there's more volcanic sand in the soil there.

Here there's volcanic ash mixed with volcanic stone.

Shall I open it?

A Barolo Boys soccer ball! I didn't know they made soccer balls too.

At a certain point this term came about, Barolo Boys

which referred to a group of winemakers.

"Boys" because they were in fact all young, and because they were

all male and I was the "one girl" who joined them later.

Have you ever heard this expression "Barolo Boys"?

Have you read about it? Do you know who they are?

Well, I've read something but I don't know who they are.

I think they also have a soccer team, no?

Let's go back a little.

This movement started as a movement of aggregation, 'cause I think

that all revolutions are started on empty bellies, when there is real need.

We were in total poverty.

Yes, it was experienced a bit as a revolutionary movement,

which maybe it wasn't, but a little bit yes.

It brought enormous change to the whole history of the Langhe.

You can't argue with it, you can't... it's there, it's history.

We can say that the actual Barolo Boys name was linked to a group of winemakers

who were marketed by Marco de Grazia, particularly on the American market.

When Marco de Grazia joined this group he was a young American... clueless!

Most of the winemakers saw this guy arrive, a bit of a weirdo, and it

took some courage to trust him and put all of our wineries in his hands!

I had graduated in literature with a specialization in Classical Greek.

I would never ever have imagined that it would become a serious job.

It's not like I said to myself:

Now I'm going to start looking for clients around the world

I didn't even know how to look for them! I was excited about the wine.

This thing exploded in our hands. Then...

The Barolo Boys conquer America: who would ever thought?

Well, it happened and I remember it well.

In the nineties, American consumers were no longer happy

with eating spaghetti meatballs and drinking Chianti classico,

they were looking for luxury and authentic experiences,

for a real italian food and great italian wine.

The Barolo Boys didn't even speack English, they had never left

their beloved Langhe before, but they were becoming stars:

the new style Barolo trend they created was hip, the bottles were expansive,

rare and sold at high prices.

In those years, in my restaurants, tastemakers, artists, Hollywood stars

and even finance world wanted to drink the "new Barolo".

For our protagonists it's a moment of pure magic,

the future seems so bright and their destiny is unstoppable.

It was the first time that this group of winemakers,

small-scale producers, farmers had gone to meet the clients,

restaurateurs, wine shop owners and importers in America.

There was enthusiasm, there was this great enthusiasm because you were

seeing a new world, you were presenting new things, and it was important.

You felt privileged, and in the end you were.

Being of American origin, he led this group

to discover America, in the real sense of the word.

Because the fact is, if you stay at home you could be

the best winemaker in the world and nobody will know.

In this they were revolutionary, because they brought courage, which is

the characteristic closest to my heart and

which recently has been lacking here in Italy.

I followed them from a distance because at the time I was doing a different job

but I liked the wine and I was interested in it, having been born here

and I very much liked hearing about their exploits:

they left with little means, together, and went around the world.

We rented two big minibuses, I was the driver, maybe because

I was the youngest, so I was driving. And it was like a school trip, ok?

When we got to California a client of ours made this T-shirts

saying Barolo Boys, and that's where the name came from.

A good team, right?

Everything was taken seriously, but there was also a studenty, fun side.

Perhaps also as a kind of defense, for the fact that we felt 10,000 kms

from home, because of this too we felt like a team, we were laughing and joking

And you could see and understand it from far away: you could see a close group,

like a group of old friends going around together, or going on holiday.

It was the same thing.

We were kind of the rebel boys. So they called us "the Barolo Boys".

This wine is an interesting wine because it comes

from a wine producer called Giorgio Rivetti.

He uses 100% new wood, french oak, so you do get a little bit of vanilla

and almost a chocolate character, that I really like in Nebbiolo.

Coffee character.

Wow!

The real revolution of the Barolo Boys, the insight they had

was to make wines that were cleaner and more modern.

The critics naturally went crazy for these wines, and the reason was simple:

Previously there were very few interesting Barolos.

They came along with significant innovations

and both the dominant American critics Wine Spectator and Robert Parker

and the emerging Italian critics, like Slow Food and Gambero Rosso's

Vini d'Italia guide, found an important point of reference in these wines.

The merit of this guide was the descriptive aspect.

The same publication also offered critical judgments.

If you got the Tre Bicchieri award in the 1990s, you doubled the price

of your wine, you could plant an hectare of vines and recoup the investment.

It changed the economics of a winery,

It was... I don't know, like receiving an Oscar for an actor,

It was the same emotion for a winemaker to receive the Tre Bicchieri.

Chiara Boschis was the first winery, everyone says it, but this is the truth,

to make Barolo Cannubi with 100% new barriques.

I did that, in the Chiara Boschis winery.

It was the only '94 Barolo to receive the Tre Bicchieri.

These wines arrived that were fruit bombs, scented, and obviously

people liked them, because they were good, they were better!

I think that their principal merit, the reason behind their success

was creating a new taste thanks to the barrique.

A more powerful flavor, more refined, fuller, rounder, let's say

that was, and is, very popular with the Americans. With the "judges".

The wine was made in a certain way so that Parker had to give it 100 points.

"Shit, you have to make a wine like this to get the Tre Bicchieri!"

So during the harvest, when I turned on the pressing machine, I knew the results

I wanted because I had already tasted all the 100-point wines.

Sure, if I had bought 10 barriques I would have conquered the market faster.

Come on, there's no doubt!

When a magazine like Wine Spectator gives 100 points to the

Barolo and Barbaresco 2000 vintage, it's an important sign.

It still hasn't given 100 points to the Bordeauxs,

but it gave 100 points to Barolo and Barbaresco.

And most of the wines considered belonged to these modernists.

The success of those years was an explosive phenomenon.

In 10 years more money came into the Langhe than in the whole century.

That was a really cool moment!

It was fashion, it was also a bit of glamour,

finally a bit of glamour for the farmers.

How great was that!

They had success around the world during those years... Hurrah for them!

Bartolo Mascarello from Barolo and Elio Altare from La Morra.

In this vintage video we see the two main charachters of our battle

in the history of Barolo:

Elio Altare , leader of the "modernists" of Barolo, and Bartolo Mascarello,

a partisan, a friend of writers and philosophers and an iconic symbol

of traditional Barolo winemaking.

They are friends and they have mutual respect for each other,

but do not let this friendship deceive you.

At the end of the nineties in the Langhe this two opposing visions collide

and the world of Barolo will never be the same.

Innovators versus traditionalists,

rebellious sons and patriarchs who don't want to abdicate.

When the young guys like Elio Altare came along, we said:

Justy as well, there are young people who are staying to work the land.

What we were sorry about is that to learn how to make

the wine of our hills, Elio Altare went to France.

Were there no alternatives?

The tabloids, the media are all buzzing about this epic battle

between new style and traditional Barolo.

After a period of many victories and triumphs, for the first time

the Barolo Boys are under attack and being accused

of distorting and ruining the identity of their land,

of compromising the identity of Barolo that gives birth to their movement.

When I saw the first modern wines, which however weren't Elio Altare's,

they had a different color and scent My God, I said to myself.

Poetry is fine but it doesn't fill your belly.

In 20 years someone will ask my daughters: "Are barriques a trend?"

And they'll answer:"No, 'cause my father was already using them."

It will become tradition. So tradition is a successful innovation.

It's not true!

It's just not true.

At a certain point the issue arose because winemakers who didn't mince

words started to say that the old-style wines were disgusting and stank.

It's true that there were defective wines.

At a certain point a kind of war really broke out which

made everyone conform to the same line, so now you can't say anything any more.

But now I would like to say at that time our wines were much better.

The aggression was towards us, it's not that

we attacked the traditionalists, not at all.

It might be that someone put on airs given the success

but that's just human nature.

What had happened? This new movement was, as it were, don't misunderstand me

"eating away" at the previous knowledge about Barolo production.

But... all generations have this incredible vanity,

they become conceited, thinking that they've reinvented the wheel

when instead you have to go back to the origin of things.

Being conceited about your own generation is a mistake.

You have to have a historic perspective, and respect all generations.

You have to go slowly to change the world and make Barolo,

because you risk not making it as good as they made it a long time ago.

They copied me and wine producer Angelo Gaja, OK?

We were the ones that set off, that was the real push.

A Langhetto tends to say: "It's always thanks to me!"

At the start they might be a bit hesitant, but then when you get to

the point you hear: "It's thanks to me","No, it's thanks to me!"

In terms of credit I would start from way back.

Without the talented greats, these Boys would have been just screwing around!

Enough, it's stuff from 20 years ago!

We're really Italians, we go on and on... always saying the same things.

So: The 1990s were a kind of... bubble. There was a huge need for wine

made in a certain way, over there in the U.S.

It was just a question of following the market.

Marc de Grazia followed the market. Let's get this in our head: the market!

It's not that there was a market shouting: "We want Barolo!"

No, absolutely not.

I remember, when I was in London, early 2000

Mr. Marc de Grazia came to visit me, he showed me his wines

and I can remember there was one common thing:

they were all totally smoked in oak.

Where are these wines going? What do they represent?

They're just impressive, blockbusters.

For me Nebbiolo is a grape that has this beautiful capacity to age,

elegantly, and to evolve.

Isn't that part of the joy of Barolo?

I already told Chiara:

"The Barolo your dad used to make was better."

In the past, when there was a big barrel that gave that

barrique flavor, they would break it up immediately.

You didn't sell that wine, you had to take it to the distillery!

Now they're using those barriques!

This isn't ours

At times I think that if Bartolo was still around

he would in some ways enjoy the payback

after the squabbling, sometimes serious,

between the traditionalists and the modernists,

because in my opinion I think I can see that

the wines of the traditionalists, made with longer macerations,

big barrels, longer aging in wood are now getting their revenge.

The oldest Barolos that I've drunk, from the 1940s,

are today absolutely sound and excellent

so it seems a bit rash to claim that the history of Barolo

was written by the modernists.

I think that in the area some wines have been made that

are very far from the real identity of Nebbiolo grapes.

What is identity? Is it something that remains stuck, when?

10 years ago? 20? 50? 100?

It's people who decide to set the rules

and guidelines that say: "This thing is typical".

But they're just interpretations.

I think that Barolo should remain a difficult wine, austere, severe,

with its at times aggressive tannins and an immediate lack of pleasantness.

Great wines are always good, not just after 20 years.

You get married and you enjoy the marriage, you don't wait 20 or 30 years!

The same with wine: It should be good immediately and after 20 years, or 50?

You know, the concept of good...

Chinotto (Italian bitter-orange soda) is very different from Coca Cola,

but I think it's better.

It might be that when you put Coca Cola in your mouth it's tastier.

Now, I don't want to say that the modernists' Barolo is Coca Cola

and the traditionalists' is Chinotto!

Unfortunately those ones, let's call them traditionalists,

without praise and without blame,

they didn't understand that you could have a wine that

was fruity and ready immediately that could also age.

The argument was: If the wine is so ready now,

that means it's already finished, that it can't age.

Everyone said: "Ah, these modern wines won't hold up, after five years

they'll collapse, they'll no longer taste of anything".

Well, no, it's not true. It's not true!

They stay forever young!

I don't want a wine that stays forever young and is propped up

by whataver is being made with.

I want a wine to reflect a natural evolution from that grape, that wine,

that vineyard and that village.

That is the beauty, it's in the evolution.

Why should I want to drink a wine that is the same when is born

and the same when it dies?

In my opinion, modern Barolo doesn't exist!

I've talked about it with my family. We talk about it.

If you want to radically change style, I'm for it, why not?

But Elio Altare has to disappear from the label.

I don't want to betray my knowledge.

I don't want to betray my creed, because after all it is a creed,

I used barrique and I continue to use barrique, period.

The crucial element is the evolution of taste. I no longer identify with

the parameters that have defined the opinions

and scores of our guides for a decade.

What does it mean? That my taste has evolved too. It's the nature of things.

Wine journalism has changed tack and has turned

towards tastes that are a little more traditional.

So many winemakers are to some extent renouncing

what they've done in order to follow this situation.

But I'll tell you honestly: These winemakers were never the real players.

I've always been classified as a Modernist,

as one of them who made the revolution,

but I never took some radical positions, 'cause maybe in 20-30 years

we will discover these positions were wrong,

then who will tell people: "Sorry, your bottles are undrinkable".

"Who will tell them: "Sorry, we made a mistake"?

We went on to the end of '97 using only barriques,

then from '98 we expanded the winery and we again

bought barrels of 12,15,20 and 25 hectoliters.

Roberto Voerzio has a big barrel since 2008 vintage,

Vietti has got them, Chiara Boschis has got them, they're all getting them!

So where this movement has gone? Nowhere!

It was just a boom!

The group broke up.

Individual natures prevailed and so everyone tried to make their own path.

Jealousies have emerged when these stories erupted:

the guides, the prizes, the 100 points, the 200 points.

This is it. I could say even a little bit... (italian gesture for money)

The fact that I have decided to create a winery here

is also a normal consequence of that.

Let's say it's natural, no?

Here again I'm helping the whole area, the territory

and such a thing is happening, so now I know how it will end,

I can already see the seeds of glory, and at the same time, in the

same glory you can already see the signs of future disintegration.

It's awesome!

And this gives you an awareness of the human being, of what human nature is.

Today not one of them works together. That's the nemesis of history.

Just as the big traditionalists overshadowed them,

now they are overshadowing the young ones!

Perhaps they haven't realized it yet, but that's how it is!

... six, seven, eight... four and four, eight, OK!

It's not easy to deal with such important fathers.

Yes, I can decide to sell the wine in Ireland, where previously we didn't

sell it, but for many things there's no possibility to choose, zero.

However flexible Elio was 40 years ago, now life is coming

full circle and he is turning into what his father was.

"No, you don't do that", "No, I always did it like this"

"We've always done well like this!"

Sometimes I stop myself from arguing because I know there's no chance

for discussion, the decision has been made and there's no other possibility.

I'm a romantic and so I look at those years with great affection,

and with a pinch of nostalgia, because they were wonderful years.

Not just because we were all younger, but because we had this power

to change things, which is the best feeling you can have in life.

Stay young forever. Advice from a friend.

She was Miss World... now she's still Miss World!

Because "A little woman is still always a good woman"

This is good. It's right at the limit, you see it's already starting to bleed?

That means the grape is perfectly ripe

It's worth asking: What revolution has ever been successful?

I think the influence was enormous. Enormous!

Are we guilty of having changed many things and of having gone too far?

Yes, we went too far! We're guilty of having gone too far

in our revolution, we went to extraordinary extremes

and for that we deserve the punishment of all the tradition of Barolo.

There, I admit it!

I always got pissed off, for years and years, because I asked myself:

Why did Dante put Ulysses in hell?

And at a certain point I understood: Ulysses dragged along

a whole series of people, because he made them dream.

"Come with me to the end of the world".

And perhaps there was this world, immobile, and all of a sudden

we saw something imaginative in change.

It was a beautiful journey, and if the crew later separated

and some stayed in one place, and others in another,

that's what happens to those who sail the seas.

We've arrived to the end of our story.

We have lived and revealed 40 years of change

in a once obscure corner of Italy called Langhe,

while the world around was transforming.

The international recognition received by the Barolo Boys

has brought a great benefit to the Langhe, the land that gave them birth.

It has brought prosperity, it has brought better wines,

and many more wine-makers are now making wine in this area.

Every once in a while someone asks me: “Is there a winner in this story?”

It’s a good question.

Certainly the will not to submit to a pre-determined history is a victory.

But the journey of the Barolo Boys is not finished yet.

Maybe it changed direction,

perhaps it changed variety or location,

but the fight goes on even today.

People think: "Who knows how Elio Altare lives?"

If instead they saw in what difficult conditions I work, I'd lose credibility.

They would start to say: "Who makes him do it?"

But I have fun, who cares!

I pick my grapes, relaxed...

I keep being a farmer because I like it.

It's in my blood, there's nothing to be done.

Also because it's the only thing I know how to do.

And plus I really like the challenge, the game!

This is also a dream.

Around 15 years ago, when I came to Riomaggiore for the

first time, it was like how it was with us 40, 50 years ago.

It was the same, completely emptied of young people, they chose other jobs.

So the idea is to revive a few small wineries

that can survive only thanks to this work.

Time will judge what I'm doing. I absolutely cannot boast

of having identified a new path, or who knows what.

I'm just trying to interpret a wine by following

the advice of the older generation, and therefore tradition,

but applying new techniques, using new wood, when possible.

I have a lot of faith in a final result.

And this is the big challenge.

We'll see if we manage to succeed in this too.

And if we don't, oh well: I'll have had fun, simply.

That's enough now. I've already talked too much!

Can you help me?

Let's take this one under too