Not any more it isn't.

Lately I've been struck by the extreme youth of winemakers (enologi) that I've met in Italy.  Energetic guys in their early-mid 30s and even their 20s, completely immersed in the life of the winery or wineries they work for.  Experimenting, taking on and discarding the results of those experiments, always seeking to improve the wines, express their territory better and, not coincidentally, make the wines more sellable.  (A shock to romantics everywhere: it's a business, stupid.)

Photo above: Gianluca Staglione, boy enologo at Pianbello

The final product may vary in its quality or, shall we say, market-pleasingness, but the dynamism of these kids' approach bodes well for the future. One reason I say this, to generalize a little longer, is to contrast the wines of an established personage like Riccardo Cotarella with those of the Young Ones like Bruno Tamagnone of Cascina Gilli or Gianluca Scaglione of Pianbello, two small wineries in Piemonte.

Bruno Tamagnone and boss in background.  Bruno is how old??

Last April I attended a dinner at the stunning Villa Avredi near Verona in honor of Cotarella.  We were served bottle after bottle of Cotarella's wines from all over Italy.  My dinner companion, Danielle Pollack, and I looked at each other after a while.  She had a look on her face that telegraphed exactly what she was going to say.  "Well.  What do you think?"  she asked.

"I think they all are good..."

"And they all taste exactly the same."  We turned around the bottles and found a Nero d'Avola and a Chianti or Brunello and something from Piemonte.  Who could have told otherwise?

Contrast a tasting of the wines made under the guidance of these young winemakers.

Chiara Martinotti of Cascina Gilli told me that these out-of-place palms were the rage a century ago.  "To bring some exoticism to the inland territories."

Even within the same winery there is a greater range of flavors and perfumes than in that pan-Italic array of Cotarella wines.  The Pianbello whites are their strong suit, and each of them is precise in its attack and distinguishable by its sheer typicity.  Pianbello's basic Moscato is intensely perfumed and delicately flavored, and their aged and barriqued Loazzolo Moscato is a gorgeous nectar.  Their Chardonnay is moderately wooded and pleasingly acidic -- an honest Chardonnay at a good price and no mistaking it for anything else.

Pianbello has the cleanest cantina in existence, I swear

At Cascina Gilli, under the direction of the estate's co-owner and Freisa champion Gianni Vergnano, Bruno Tamagnone assures that each of the four Freisas produced there has a clear and separate identity, at least as different from one another as Cotarella's Sicilian and Piedmontese wines.

These are just two examples of the young winemakers who are quietly transforming Italian wine.  Really, it isn't about the Grand Old Men and eminences grises, despite the hagiographic articles you see in the established wine press.  It's about the young guys (and young women) you meet all over Italy.  I've written about some others, like Luca Petrini whose work at Polvanera in Puglia has swiftly, astonishingly raised the quality of the wines there to commendable heights; and like the "rising star of the Mezzogiorno," Fortunato Sebastiano (I take credit for calling him that first...mark my words).

Italy is going through some hard times, economically and otherwise.  Winemakers are affected by stagflation and a strong euro as much as or more than anyone else.  Over the long term, however, these Young Ones are engaged in raising the level of Italian wine to new levels of quality, precision and gustatory variety.