Who I am
My name is Marilena Barbera and I am a winegrower.
I live and make my wines in Menfi, Sicily.
As a little girl, I dreamt of a diplomatic career, but after my college degree in international law in Florence and a master degree in tax and financial planning in Verona, my motivations to come back to my roots grew so strong that I decided to plan my future life in Sicily.
Thus, I enthusiastically embraced my family’s business at Cantine Barbera, grateful for the extraordinary legacy of my family's 100 years long story: I started working as sales and marketing manager, with a main focus on foreign markets, keeping relations with key customers, importers and distributors in 14 countries around the world; in a few years, I fell in love with winemaking, and this fatal attraction changed my life completely.
Today I make my wines in Menfi, and never gave up travelling, as I do believe that wine is the best ambassador of culture and history for my home land.
I love writing in my spare time.
I write about food, travels, wine. About life.
I write here and elsewhere.
I contributed to two editions of Guida al Vino Critico (A Guide to Critical Wine), which talks about natural small producers from all over Italy, and where I wrote about Sicilian producers that I admire and respect.
I write a lot on the web, too: either on the winery blog here, and on different italian websites.
There is Facebook, of course: Cantine Barbera's official page and my personal wall.
You will find the links to my stories here below: my articles posted on different wine blogs and a selection of Facebook posts that have received interesting comments about different aspects of the Wide Wine World. Of course, they are mainly in Italian.
I hope you will enjoy the reading, and you are very welcome to comment!
