Tre Donne, Daniela, Rosanna, & Antonella Lequio

	Piemonte, Italia. (Neive) 30 hectares.
	Tre Donne. (tray DOHN-ay)
	Daniela, Rosanna, & Antonella. (don-YEAH-lah) (rohz-AHN-ah) (ahn-toh-NAY-lah)
	Giuliano Noè. (jool-YAH-no noh-AY)
	Hand-harvested. No irrigation.
	16,000 cases.
	Tre Donne has been part of the Small Vineyards family since 2002.

As much as Alessandro Lequio loved his daughters, in staying with Italian traditions, there was no way he was going to hand over the family vineyard to women. (According to his wife, Donna Bruna, Alessandro actually cried for half-an-hour when their third and final child, Daniela, was born!) Four generations of fathers had handed the estate down to their sons, and even though he hadn’t had a boy, Alessandro would be damned if the family business was going to be run by the fairer sex. “Marry a good winemaker,” he would tell them. Just as stubborn as their father, the sisters all staunchly refuted this notion, and assured him that he would be handing the estate over to them one day… In the end (and presumably tired of arguing), everyone agreed to a “do-or-die” wager, and literally bet the ranch; deciding he could trick them into failure, Alessandro agreed to give the gals everything if they could pass three years of his rigorous tests, culminating in a single vintage of wine which he, himself would judge. To everyone’s surprise, the Sisters never gave up, and moreover, they actually won more awards in their first year of production than Alessandro had in his entire career!  True to his word, their papa changed his tune and turned the estate over to his daughters. He was so deeply impressed, he even allowed them to change the name to “Tre Donne”–which means “Three Women.”