MADDALENA MAZZESCHI: “TAPPI, HEELS, AND MIRACLES . The spiritual side of wine communication.” (Giraldi Editore.)
What do heels have to do with corks? And miracles? Maddalena Mazzeschi reveals all in her new book, out on September 30. It is a mix of true anecdotes and situations bordering on the surreal, collected by the author in over forty years of working in the world of wine. It is not a manual, but a hilarious collection of episodes that will make even those who cannot tell a Merlot from a Sangiovese smile. A book that can also be a small antidote to sadness.
But who is Maddalena Mazzeschi? Born in 1964, she was born and lives in Perugia. For ten years she was the owner of the Escol S.r.l. agency and organized various events that were fundamental and ahead of their time in terms of how the entire sector currently communicates about wine. She knows the most important Italian and foreign journalists, as well as the most important opinion leaders and influencers in the wine communication sector.
Very few professionals in Italy (and perhaps in the world, with the exception of France) can boast 40 years of experience in wine communication. Even fewer if they are women. Maddalena Mazzeschi began this journey in 1984 as a newly qualified agricultural expert, starting work in Montepulciano at the Consortium of the first Controlled Designation of Origin to be released on the market with the addition of the “Guaranteed” classification, i.e., the highest classification for Italian wine. Until 1990, she contributed to its knowledge and promotion.
Thanks to the considerable experience she had acquired, in 1991, she opened her own communications, marketing, and public relations agency specializing in this sector. It all seems normal, but it is useful to put it into context: we are talking about more than forty years ago, when she was just twenty years old and, in 90% of cases, the only woman in a world led by men who were on average 20-30 years older than her and had never worked, let alone on an equal footing, with a member of the opposite sex. Furthermore, talking about communication in the world of wine was completely futuristic; no one knew what it was and even less what could be done.
Maddalena found herself having to have or acquire some fundamental characteristics to pass the test: a strong character, good professionalism or at least the desire to acquire it, and a great sense of self-irony to laugh at her own mistakes and, often, those of others.
This collection of anecdotes is the result of the self-deprecating humor that began to develop in high school, where, as she herself says, “I had three characteristics that were unacceptable to my male classmates: I was a woman, ugly, and a nerd.” The collection starts with a few episodes related to her five years of high school, where she already found herself having to overcome her three handicaps and use them as a springboard to become the first woman elected by the students to the School Council (it seems that the nineteenth-century founder turned in his grave at what happened!). It continues with anecdotes about her time working with the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and then as a freelancer. In addition, there are some memories of her private life where, continuing with her more or less futuristic experiences, she chooses to be a consecrated laywoman in the Catholic Church, and from here some hilarious episodes because the situation often gives rise to misunderstandings as she does not present herself as everyone would expect and does a job that does not seem to fit in with her choice.
“The collection stems from a desire to play down the impact of the wine sector, which often gives itself too much importance, risking alienating consumers who are almost frightened by the thousand rules to follow before being able to enjoy a good sip: temperatures, pairings, glasses, decanting, etc.,” says the author. The intent is to say: it is important to know about wine in order to appreciate it better, but that it should remain a pleasure and fun. At the same time, there is a desire to introduce the beauty and richness of this world to those who are inundated with articles, surveys, medical research, and so on, which almost demonize a product that has millennia of history, culture, hard work, and human ingenuity behind it. “
The anecdotes are strictly true, but obviously you shouldn’t expect to find the names of those they refer to, because – again in the author’s words – ” Saying so would not be good PR, at least if, like me, you still have quite a few years of work ahead of you.” Instead, the cover not only shows the high heels she wore in her early years of work, which made her the butt of her colleagues’ jokes, but also distinguished her. Red shoes are now a universal symbol of protest, memory, and the fight for women’s rights, who, even in the wine industry, have experienced, and sometimes still experience, situations of inequality.
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