There's a story that runs beneath the surface of Italian wine, and few truly know it. It's the story of Paolo Desana&nbsp;— Piedmontese senator, military internee, tireless protagonist of agricultural policy — who in 1963 secured the approval of the law on Controlled Designation of Origin, forever transforming the way Italy protects and tells the world about its wines. SORSI — The Legacy of Paolo Desana&nbsp;is the pilot issue of a new editorial series, a small publication conceived to gather anecdotes, stories and fragments of knowledge about wine that risk remaining in the shadows. But this is not only a story about wine. Before becoming the leading advocate of the DOC, Desana was one of the 600,000 Italian Military Internees who, after 8 September 1943, chose to say no to the Social Republic, paying for that choice with years of imprisonment in German camps. A "resistance without weapons", silent and long forgotten, which forged in him an extraordinary moral fibre. It was precisely at the end of that imprisonment that a sip of Chianti opened up, by his own account, a second life. From that return came his political commitment: public hearings, bureaucratic battles, the creation of more than two hundred DOCs and the foundations of Italian wine tourism. The volume — built around a long interview with his son Andrea Desana — also tells of the present: tariffs, climate change, the potential of the Martinotti method. And it closes with an intimate look at the private man, at his wife Lena and at the legacy passed on not through words, but through example. SORSI is born to be read, recounted and shared — just like a good wine.

1. The departure station: Casale Monferrato, with its castle... and its DOC!

THE PERMANENT CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION ON THE DOC

ANDREA DESANA: SON AND PROUD HEIR

2. Paolo Desana: the value of choice and resistance embodied in the story of a life

PAOLO DESANA AND THE CHOICE OF MILITARY INTERNMENT

THE BELATED TRIBUTE TO A RESISTANCE WITHOUT WEAPONS

3. From courage to vision: the moral legacy of Paolo Desana

THE GLASS OF CHIANTI

4. Wine and resilience: a perfect pairing

5. Paolo Desana, Andrea and the protection of Italian products

A WORK BUILT ON PASSION, RESEARCH AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

A CONTEMPORARY ISSUE

ITALIAN SOUNDING

6. Wine stories, through history and art

THE FOUR MUSKETEERS OF THE DOC

1895 AND THE VALUE OF ANNIVERSARIES

THE BAROLO WALL AND THE MONFERRATO WALL

7. Let's talk more about the DOC…

NOT ALL ROSES AND FLOWERS… BUT WINE AND POLITICS!

THE QUESTION OF TERRITORY AND THE CONTROVERSY WITH VERONELLI

8. Current affairs and beyond…

THE TARIFF QUESTION

CONSEQUENCES AND OPPORTUNITIES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE

9. The private style of Paolo Desana

LENA

PAOLO DESANA, AN IMPORTANT FATHER

9 - Paolo Desana’s private style The one writing realises that, in the time spent together to collect this testimony, we have in no way addressed more personal issues. The sense of confidentiality imposes it on us, but we feel authorised by what Andrea Desana himself has already told in his book, which we take the opportunity to cite: Remedios Editions Available on Federlearn.it Available in multimedia digital version on SPEAKINGOFWINE.IT PAOLO DESANA – The story of two lives between lager and DOC wines by Andrea Desana LENA We have not mentioned so far Lena Desana, Paolo’s wife and Andrea’s mother, who went through with him… To her, a now ill Paolo turned, as we report by faithfully citing Andrea’s words from his own book: all the phases of his life ” “[…] after the brain operation in August of that year at the Besta, he still managed to live for a few more months with a certain serenity, fortunately without major pain or at least he didn’t show it; in more than one occasion, with the fragility typical of the illness that had cornered the somewhat serious and deep down shy character, in that period he turned to my mother Lena saying: ‘without you I would have been nobody’. I believe that, despite the situation, it was the most beautiful gift he could give to Lena, who had dedicated herself to him all her life with passion, sharing, esteem, and respect.

There's a story that runs beneath the surface of Italian wine, and few truly know it. It's the story of Paolo Desana — Piedmontese senator, military