We have survived a year of Covid: the lockdowns, the changes, the fear, and the growth. In March of 2020, just as life was changing, we spoke with four women winemakers about their thoughts going forward for the year of 2020. Now, a year later, with Helen Gallo Bryan moderating, we sat back down with these same four women to see how they have adapted and their feelings about the future going forward. While we tasted four of their wines (available in the Women Owned Wine Collection Set), Helen Gallo talked to Raffaella Merlin of Bugno Martino, Francesca Mecchia and Hilde Petrussa of Vigna Petrussa, Patti and Jacqueline Mitchell of Ojai Pacific View, and Antonella Manuli of La Maliosa about their lives, businesses, and wines.

How has your life changed since we last spoke, in the previous VeroTalk last March?

What has changed? Well, Raffaella said it best, “Everything. Everything has changed.” She went on to elaborate, “We live in Lombardy, near Milan, and we are always in the center of the crisis. We miss the everyday small things we didn’t even consider until one year ago. A smile, a night with friends, hugs. Also, today my children do not go to school, so it is a problem also for them. Last year, when this all started, at the moment we laughed with colleagues and customers and we never imagined what was happening.”

Francesca added her memories, “One year ago, I was with my mom, Hilde, and Sheila in New York, not believing what was to happen. I know this is difficult for Sheila, but my mom and I got one of the last planes from New York to London (and on to Milan), and Sheila was stuck for another several months in the US, unable to get home.”

Turning to Patti, she shared, as a cancer survivor how “the uncertainty and distrust of friends has been difficult. You are nervous when someone is coming to taste wine, to visit. I meet everyone outside, I do not invite anyone inside anymore. I was kind of high risk and it was so difficult to not know who could be a danger. The masks, the distance… it all created so much fear and uncertainty.” Her daughter Jacqueline, a chef living in Italy, added “For me it has been so difficult to be separated. It has been over a year since I have been able to go home to see my family, taste the wine. It’s more than just being closed up at home, but it is missing parts of everything all over.

Antonella chimed in “Going into the pandemic, we never thought it would last this long. April, May, the summer, we thought it was over. But it wasn’t over. Now we are back in lockdown and it is not over.” She also shared her sense of loss of the “real experience of wine. We are losing the experience of walking in the vineyard, smelling the grass and herbs. Feel the temperature of the air; these are all things we miss, we never realized how important they were.”

How Has Your Business and Work in the Winery and Vineyards Changed?

Covid affected the wine business drastically, which, as Helen stated ‘ is really a business built on connections and relationships. So what do you do when that is limited?” Francesca shared that “there is a strange atmosphere surrounding us, you ask yourself, ‘Have I behaved in a way that protected the other person I just saw?’ or ‘Am I safe from this other person?’ We have also had problem with our workers coming through borders.” She went on to share how coping with Covid left different challenges, “we had to redesign our tasting room, and we had to try new things and new methods. But from the technological point of view it has been very interesting, with new virtual events.” She also shared how, for them it has “been quite exciting” and “we have managed to get connections we probably would have never had. We won several awards in Japan and expand to find new people to meet. These new things would not have been possible a year ago without, for example, travelling to Japan or other far away places. We can reach many more people now.”

Carrying the excitement of new opportunities, Antonella spoke about her new tourism project she started last year during the pandemic: “We have worked with ‘StarBox’, which is a glamping structure in the middle of the vineyard. You can open the roof and sleep under the stars and feel the vineyard. I cannot wait to continue this project and building this tourist complex here in Tuscany.”

What about the future? How Do You View This Upcoming Year?

As Helen turned her eye to the future, the tone shifted. An excited Patti shared “I am hopeful, but I don’t think we will ever be the same, but I think the vaccines will help us get closer. I miss traveling more than anything, and I look forward to really getting that back. I remember saying last year how much I wanted to come to Italy and visit all of you women! But I am really excited about my second business, creating a company that makes gummy wine candies. They are made with real wine, and are truly a candy with a fine finish! I wanted to chew a gummy, but taste the candies. Eventually we hope to hold blind tastings and flights of gummy tastings!” Helen was amazed, “so in response you guys have pivoted as well.” Jacqueline clarified, “Yes, the wine candy, my idea originally, was to have it alcohol free so that it can really be enjoyed at a distance in all settings.”

In contrast Patti and Jacqueline, Antonella was more cautiously optimistic “Eventually things will go back to normal, humanity has seen many pandemics, but it will not be short term. We will get there though.” She voiced later that she is greatly afraid for how women have been affected by this pandemic, “Women are facing a crisis. So many women have lost their jobs in this last year, I read somewhere like 98% in the crisis.” In fact, Antonella was not far off, as Conapi Magazine in Italy has reported that of the 440,000 jobs lost in Italy due to the Covid pandemic, an estimated 98% of those who lost jobs were women. A great burden has fallen upon them, in the home, with childcare, and sometimes we forget the sacrifice. We will leave you with the words of Vero founder, Sheila Donohue, “These are extraordinary times we are living in, but one of our strengths as women, is to be able to express ourselves with one another, and it was wonderful to do that this evening.”

We really had such an enjoyable time chatting with everyone in this VeroTalk, and agree with Helen when she said she could easily spend another hour chatting! For now, we shall content ourselves with reliving it through the recording and by tasting the Women Owned Wineries Tasting Collection (shipping included… as well as for any other goodies added to your cart with a tasting set)!