Langhe… magic lands, where the story of the soil melts with that of its people, those who, during the centuries lived in and made it more and more rich, beautiful and inviting … unique, to cut a long story short. Guido Piovene, Italian journalist and author of several essays and travel articles, describes and tells what was Langa in the past, especially in the 1950s. The hills, their colourful landscapes, seen through the eyes of this acute observer, appear to us as a reality that only then was starting to come out from an “exile”, an isolation that characterised it in the last centuries. There are “Hills on which wonderful vineyards flourish, spotted with castles, and with a feudal appearance. They come greeting you with gentleness, but this sweet feeling only lasts for a minute. If you observe them carefully, you will see, as in transparency, their white, eroded, sliding soil. The more its tough, violent, although concealed by a veil of superficial softness, side emerges, the more their attraction grows”. These were the beautiful words of Guido Piovene in his “Travel in Italy” (Viaggio in Italia, Milano, Mondadori, 1957) which perfectly sketches highlights and peculiarities of the Langa hills. Amazing vineyards, not only beautiful to admire for their harmonious geometries, but even more important today for an agricultural economy which is becoming more and more rooted and effective. The ancient villages nestled on the top of the bricchi (a term used to define hills which already seem like mountains), each one with its ruin, be it a tower, a castle, or walls, remind us even today of the feudal past belonging to these lands. Guido Piovene didn’t stop at appearances, going in-depth to catch the truest aspect that hides behind the apparent gentleness of the sweet profiles of the hills, as well as the hard and difficult life of the farmers. The soil of Langa has always been difficult and demanding to work: the malora, a term used by Beppe Fenoglio to describe a painful condition, reminds us that the farmers who used to live in Langhe in the 1950s, had a lot of difficulties while working the land. Life was often tough and difficult, scheduled by the work in the fields, mainly in a constant isolation, without certainties or assurances. But in the 1950s, it is possible to notice the first signs of an important change of route, with the economic boom which was about to explode and affect Alba and its surroundings. This new and unexpected richness brought a gradual improvement to life conditions, including the farmer’s world. Between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s the farmer’s life and the work in the vineyards started to be conceived with a new perspective: not just toil and personal satisfaction, but also as a new and interesting production activity, capable of bringing in a substantial profit. And so malora turned into wealth. There was a real return to the countryside and vineyard, often by those who, in the previous years, had left to move to the cities and seek their fortune in the factories in and around Alba. The wine, already previously produced and marketed by the Ancient Romans, was brought back to the top by Charles Albert in the Royal Manor of Pollenzo aided by the experiments made in the Manor of Grinzane by the Earl Camillo Benso of Cavour, soon became an important reference point in the Economy of Langa and Roero. So, we thank wine and hard work by the men who, with endless patience and huge meticulousness, were able to mould the sides and the deep slopes of these hills, transforming them into fields suitable for viticulture. The fine wines of Langa and Roero, carefully stored in ancient cellars, often carved into the bowels of the earth to better preserve aromas, perfumes and structure, are, every day, exported all around the world. These wines tell the magic of the hills where they were produced and that we love to refer to as: Langhe.