{"id":33726,"date":"2026-10-06T15:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vinoway.com\/p\/pier-paolo-chiasso-the-talent-riccardo-cotarella-knew-how-to-wait-for\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T16:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:12:06","slug":"pier-paolo-chiasso-the-talent-riccardo-cotarella-knew-how-to-wait-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vinoway.com\/en\/wine\/pier-paolo-chiasso-the-talent-riccardo-cotarella-knew-how-to-wait-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Pier Paolo Chiasso: The Talent Riccardo Cotarella Knew How to Wait For"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Telling Pier Paolo Chiasso<\/strong>\u2019s story by starting with the wines that bear his name today would probably be the easiest approach, but it wouldn\u2019t be the one I\u2019d choose, because to truly understand him, you have to go back in time, to when wine wasn\u2019t yet his profession and, above all, wasn\u2019t something he enjoyed drinking.<\/p>\n\n

He was a teetotaler by conviction, and when you think about the man he would become, it almost seems like a twist of fate.<\/p>\n\n

He had grown up in a small town near Orvieto, where making wine at home was a common practice in many families. His earliest memories, however, were not happy ones. He was left with a lasting impression of sour smells and unpleasant, unhygienic sensations that bothered him and eventually led him to believe that wine was simply like that. As a child, he also served as an altar boy, and not even the wine the parish priest let him taste managed to change his mind. <\/p>\n\n

Today, it almost makes me smile to think that one of the men I consider to be among the greatest noses and palates in Italian wine began his journey by trying to stay away from a glass of wine.<\/p>\n\n

Then Dominga Cotarella<\/strong> came into his life. They were still dating, and through her, Pier Paolo naturally began spending time at a home where wine was part of everyday life\u2014it came up in conversation, accompanied their work, and inevitably continued when they gathered around the table. Riccardo was Dominga\u2019s father, and the bond that grew between him and Pier Paolo would end up completely changing the young man\u2019s view of wine. <\/p>\n\n

Perhaps the best part is the way it happens.<\/p>\n\n

Riccardo Cotarella doesn\u2019t try to convince him or use the weight of his own experience against him. He doesn\u2019t expect him to learn quickly, and above all, he doesn\u2019t make him feel obligated to develop a passion for something just because it has entered his life. He introduces him to wines different from the ones he remembered\u2014wines that are clean, precise, with clear and recognizable aromas. Many bear Cotarella\u2019s signature, and through those glasses, he slowly discovers that there is a world completely different from the one he had known until then. <\/p>\n\n

First comes curiosity, then the desire to understand. The rest will come in time. Riccardo isn\u2019t in a hurry to figure out how far Pier Paolo might go. He cares for him even before knowing where that curiosity will lead him, and he accompanies him as he approaches wine without pressure, respecting his own pace and letting him discover something he had even rejected until recently. <\/p>\n\n

Perhaps he had already sensed something, or perhaps he had simply recognized qualities in that boy that deserved to be nurtured. And I like to think that this way of behaving didn’t just happen by chance either. <\/p>\n\n

Before becoming a teacher, Riccardo was himself a student, and he most likely learned from his own teacher how important it is to pass on knowledge without restricting the freedom of those who are learning. Some lessons go beyond mere technique or the process of making wine; they become part of one\u2019s way of being, and many years later, you realize that you have passed them on to someone else almost without realizing it. <\/p>\n\n

Pier Paolo certainly needed study and experience to develop the talents that were beginning to emerge, but above all, he needed someone who would allow him to discover them without telling him in advance where he was supposed to end up. I believe that a true teacher can also be recognized by this\u2014not only by what he is able to teach, but by the space he knows how to leave for those around him. <\/p>\n\n

And perhaps, looking back on it today, part of what he learned from the great winemaker Riccardo Cotarella has simply continued on its own path. Meanwhile, Pier Paolo realizes that this curiosity can become something more and decides to give it a solid foundation. He studies enology in Conegliano, earns his degree in 1998, and then continues his specialization; but alongside his formal education, he experiences something every day that he could hardly have found in books. <\/p>\n\n

We\u2019re talking about Riccardo and Renzo Cotarella<\/strong>, two men who have shared much more than just a profession throughout their lives. They\u2019ve lived under the same roof and have even shared bank accounts\u2014a detail that may come as a surprise but that speaks more eloquently than any definition about their understanding of family. <\/p>\n\n

He enters this world and is welcomed as a son. He listens, tastes, discusses, makes mistakes, and learns. Above all, he has the opportunity to interact every day with two people who have dedicated their lives to winemaking. It\u2019s an extraordinary but also challenging situation, because growing up alongside such influential figures can make it difficult to distinguish where what you\u2019ve received ends and where what truly belongs to you begins. He finds that line without a break. <\/p>\n\n

He learns without becoming a copy, and never feels the need to distance himself from his teacher in order to assert himself.<\/p>\n\n

Next to him is Dominga, and I believe her role deserves to be described with discretion. I\u2019ve had the chance to get to know her, and over the years I\u2019ve observed how she speaks of her husband. Of course, there\u2019s affection, but what has always struck me is the respect she has for him as a man and as a winemaker. Dominga knows wine\u2014she grew up surrounded by it\u2014and that\u2019s precisely why the way she recognizes Pier Paolo\u2019s value takes on a special meaning. <\/p>\n\n

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