Female Supremacy Articles - Page 8

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She and Benito, meanwhile, invested in state-of-the-art equipment, with the goal of sanding down enough of grappa's rough edges so that its fruit could be tasted, its sweetness set free. They accomplished that in December 1973, with a special batch of grappa from a single type of grape, the picolit variety.

Then came the harder part: selling it. "The bourgeois wouldn't even keep grappa in their liquor closets," explained Antonella, the family's unofficial historian. "They were ashamed."

Giannola had a few ideas. She put Nonino grappa in clear, gently curved, distinctive bottles that looked like upscale chemistry-class flasks. She placed silver stoppers atop them and used red yarn to attach labels that she wrote by hand.

She stormed wine tastings and fine Italian restaurants, her treasure in tow. She mailed it to famous people, beseeching them to taste it. "For 10 years I did nothing but work on this grappa," she said. "I didn't even have time to watch television, I was so busy writing the blessed labels."

One day a car pulled up to the family's offices. A driver got out and placed an order, on behalf of his employer, for 48 bottles. That employer was Giovanni Agnelli, the head of Fiat. That moment was the validation of Giannola's vision.

She never really doubted herself. If a woman could manage something as unruly as a family, why not a business?