Drone view of Bolgheri space in Tuscany with vineyards and olive bushes and the ocean within the background
getty
When most individuals consider Tremendous Tuscans, they normally consider the large, daring Bordeaux blends made within the western Tuscan area of Bolgheri. However there are a couple of distinctive arms behind the making of those wines which are simply as tremendous. Take Elena Pozzolini as an illustration, a local of Tuscany who strong-armed her means into the wine trade with out having generations of a winemaking household behind her. As a substitute she studied at college, gained expertise in areas resembling Argentina, California, and Australia earlier than incomes the highest spot as winemaker and CEO of Tenuta Sette Cieli.
Pozzolini remembers sipping wine at a rustic desk together with her grandfather whereas rising up and she or he knew she was destined to make wine. However as one of many solely girls in enology/viticulture at college within the early 2000s, few took her critically. However she wasn’t too involved with what different folks thought. She believes within the significance of by no means giving up and to by no means permit anybody to forestall others from reaching our desires or passions.
“The trail is at all times uphill, and lots of instances we fall, however each expertise (good or dangerous) assist us develop and develop into stronger and stronger. We should consider in what we do, and willpower, ardour, humility, and willpower will at all times repay,” says Pozzolini
As we are saying farewell to Ladies’s Historical past Month, we caught up with Pozzolini with a couple of questions on what it is prefer to be a chunk one in all Bolgheri’s veritable Tremendous Tuscans.
When did you be a part of Tenuta Sette Cieli and the place had been among the locations you labored previous to that?
I began working at Tenuta Sette Cieli in 2013. My winemaking expertise has spanned a number of continents, together with South America (Mendoza, Argentina), Australia (Mornington Peninsula), and North America (Santa Ynez Valley, California). I returned to Italy on the finish of 2009, and I began to work at Testamatta of Bibi Greatz (Tuscany). I used to be a winemaker and answerable for each the winery and cellar. I spent three harvests there till I met Ambrogio Cremona Ratti, the proprietor of Tenuta Sette Cieli, and joined the vineyard as CEO and Winemaker in 2013.
The place did you develop up and when do you first keep in mind changing into conscious of wine?
I grew up in a bit city outdoors Florence. Since I used to be a baby, I’ve been an enormous dreamer. I’ve at all times believed in my passions and tried to hold them ahead with all my energy. I turned conscious of wine after I had to decide on a college. I used to be when decided to develop into an agronomist, and I found there was a college to “make wine.” My curiosity helped me understand that there’s a world behind a glass of wine.
What made you determine to pursue wine as a profession?
The concept led me to pursue this profession and this career was the fascinating a part of producing wine, the transformation of a fruit right into a drink so complicated and diverse depending on the grapes, the local weather, the terroir. I by no means considered the difficulties that I’d encounter as a result of my ardour was stronger than every little thing. One other basic facet for me is the variability of this work. It’s not possible to get bored as a result of yearly is a special story.
Elena Pozzolini of Tenuta Sette Ciele displaying winery trellising in Bolgheri vineyards.
Jessica Dupuy
Do you are feeling that it was laborious for males within the trade to take you critically at first? Or has the trade been open to girls in wine for some time the place you might be?
After acquiring my diploma in Viticulture and Enology, I specialised in winery ailments. I began to collaborate with some wineries, however after I tried to show the older generations a brand new means of doing issues primarily based upon my learnings and experience, they didn’t settle for what I used to be instructing them. I used to be dissatisfied as a result of I didn’t count on this world to be filled with narrow-minded considering. Ultimately, I select to be grateful to the resistance I encountered as a result of it led me to search for totally different views. I began to journey world wide, and I discovered this new world to be far more openminded and for my part. Whereas prior to now it was nearly not possible to see girls answerable for wineries or with roles of accountability, issues have modified so much. There are nonetheless numerous prejudices and unsightly conditions, however the essential factor is just not to surrender and focus in your concepts.
What has been your favourite a part of your job?
What I like about my job is that I expertise the vineyard in all its facets, through the rising season, harvest, vinification, ageing and bottling of our wines. I do not work on only one a part of the “chain,” however in all its size till it closes the circle. Typically I work an excessive amount of, however I could not stay with out it. On this means I can have a way of every little thing.
What do you deliver to the wine trade (or that ladies basically deliver) that helps make it higher?
I feel that ladies have a special method; maybe you would say they’re extra attuned to the small print. However everybody has their very own fashion that permits them to make nice and distinctive wines. From my experiences world wide, I realized firsthand a special method to face the wine trade, characterised by open-mindedness , and experimentation. I at all times attempt to query myself; even after I suppose I’ve accomplished effectively, I acknowledge the place I may have accomplished higher, and this results in fixed enchancment.
What are a few of your objectives for taking the model ahead?
My objective is to guard and respect the atmosphere the place our vines develop, looking for the proper stability within the winery to get the right fruit. I hope folks can really feel this respect and a spotlight within the completed wine. There aren’t any tales to inform, there aren’t any recipes to comply with; the wines should in the end communicate for itself. I have to have the sensibility to provide to the vines what they want as I watch over them and to do what the wines want as I’m tasting them.
