Monografia
Il sogno del Prosecco – The Prosecco dream
Autore: Ettore Gobbato
Editore: Giunti Editore
Lingue di traduzione: Italiano - inglese
Traduttori: Jeremy Carden
La storia del Prosecco attraverso la passione di una grande famiglia che ha saputo trasformare questo vino, consumato in origine solo in una zona del Veneto, in un vino internazionale, apprezzato in tutto il mondo. È la realizzazione del sogno di Giuliano Bortolomiol, che ha dato vita all’azienda oggi guidata dalle quattro figlie. Le testimonianze storiche disseminate tra le pagine raccontano un forte desiderio di rinascita e ricostruzione dopo la guerra, una testarda resistenza all’omologazione, la volontà di creare un’identità italiana. Una storia che è prima di tutto un intreccio di valori: l’amore per la famiglia, una forte sensibilità, la solidarietà degli amici. Frammenti di umanità che trasformano la biografia di un imprenditore in un romanzo da leggere tutto d’un fiato.
The area
by Jeremy Carden
Valdobbiadene lies in an auspicious position. Its name is associated with the river Piave, which looms large in the history of the local people. Multiple sources agree in saying that the current placename is an evolution of the Latin Duplavenses, Duplavilenses, Duplavis. The mountain acts as a shield from the cold northerly wind, creating an ideal backdrop for the orderly, well-tended vine-clad hills. The climate is favourable, with mild winters and summers that are not excessively stifling. At least that has been the case until now, though global warming no longer offers certainty to anyone.
An air of opulence greets anyone wandering around Valdobbiadene nowadays. Farm buildings have made way for magnificent houses with scented gardens. The town square and surrounding streets are lined with shops, banks and bars with hi-tech furnishings. The humble osterie of the past are now fine-dining restaurants with high-quality service. In the countryside, farmers have turned their barns into luxurious, elegantly furnished agriturismo accommodation popular with tourists, especially Germans. All this is the ultimate outcome of a history known to all – Prosecco’s rise to global prominence. Valdobbiadene is no longer a tiny, anonymous dot on the map of the province of Treviso. Instead, its name is emblazoned on millions of bottles uncorked around the world each year. Bubbles as an aperitif enjoyed with friends, to celebrate a special occasion or, in its finer versions, to accompany a meal.
But it has not always been like that. In the period from the early twentieth century to immediately after the Second World War, the province of Treviso was decimated by emigration and by two world wars. Poverty reigned supreme, and illnesses with it. A handful of landowning “lords” and lots of poor peasant farmers, in an economy not yet free from feudal rules. Spanish flu struck down women and children, and pellagra, a disease associated with a maize-based diet, was commonplace in poor farmhouses where large farming families struggled to ward off hunger. For the workers it was even worse. The fabric of coats, trousers, skirts and jackets was turned innumerable times, clothes were handed down from father to son, from older to younger sibling, and darned and patched umpteen times.
