09/16/2026
Nino on life lessons from the vineyard, “Chianti’s popularity was just a short year away. My relatives, however, were not in the bottling business. But, like a lot of farmers, they tended to vineyards, so they sent me to stay with the ones who were grape farmers. I hated the physical labor of the vineyards more and more; equipped with a pair of scissors I would cut the grapes, throw them into a container that I was carrying on my shoulder, then walk to the carriage to unload into a large oak barrel, which cows then pulled to the farm. It was endless cutting, loading, unloading. I had no strength in my hands because they were small, and most of the time the scissors did not cut well, so I used my teeth. Then, at sundown those of us too small to cart the barrels were assigned to the large oak casks to stomp and press grapes with our feet. It would be many years before I would smile at this sight. Why? It was like the episode in “I Love Lucy” where she presses the grapes, except then it was not funny; it was hard work.
In the countryside we would have lunch under the shade of a tree and listen to the crickets sing. It was hot and I was nostalgic for home. I was angry with my parents for sending me away from them. But in retrospect it made me a man; it taught me to value money-the liras then and the dollar now—to cherish work and the importance of food at work and home, and, most important, the respect honest working people deserve. -From Nino Pernetti’s Caffe Abbracci Cookbook,📕 His Life Story and Travels around the World.🌎
