What the Land Does With a Punishment
In 1968, a fifteen-year-old boy was caught up in a political demonstration at a military barracks in Turin. His grandfather worked in the secret services. A scandal was unthinkable. The punishment was swift: he was sent away to the family's small holding in Vergne, three kilometres from the centre of Barolo, to work the fields for the summer.
His name was Aldo. The land did not treat him as a punishment. It changed him.
He attended hidden lectures — one professor, five students — on biodynamics and Maria Thun and Steiner, while the university itself was officially sponsored by the chemical and tractor industry. In 1971 he received what was then called an ecological certification: the first organic certification in Italy. His grandfather, who had sent him to the countryside as a sentence, gave the winery his initials. G.D. — Giuseppe Domenico. The man who started everything by trying to stop it.
I thought about this on the drive back. The punishments that become foundations. The detour that turns out to have been the road.
G.D. Vajra was founded in Vergne di Barolo. The family has documented roots on the Bricco delle Viole hill since 1654.
