Suzanne Hoffman

I am a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, a “recovered” attorney, and passionate storyteller about the lives of Italian wine families. Although I now call the Colorado Rockies home, I grew up in Thibodaux, in the heart of Louisiana bayou country where I spent my childhood riding horses and dreaming of distant shores.

I realized those dreams and, for over two decades, lived and worked in Switzerland. From our home in Valais, my husband, Dani, and I with our miniature Schnauzer Otis explored the wine-growing regions of Italy and France. I discovered Piemonte in 1999 and soon immersed myself in the enchanting region’s rich culture and history. In 2016, I published my first book, Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte, an award-winning creation that is a unique, groundbreaking collection of the life stories of Giulia Colbert Falletti, the last Marchesa of Barolo, and generations of twenty-two families of Piemonte’s Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato wine-producing areas. Against a rich historical backdrop, I studied the seismic cultural and business changes in the Piemontese wine industry that allowed women to step from the shadows and assume significant roles in their families’ wine estates.

Angel of Alta Langa: A Novel of Love and War is my second book and debut novel. When not at home in the Rockies, I can be found exploring the Alps and the vineyards and wineries of Piemonte and Sicily where I find inspiration for my writing—and for my life. I love horses, nature, and beauty in all its forms, and I am an avid participant in alpine sports and summer outdoor activities I enjoy sharing with my husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountain High Country.


“With her sensibility and passion, Suzanne has slowly come ever closer to our culture and has absorbed its intimate values.”
—Maurizio Rosso, author, historian, and proprietor of Cantina Gigi Rosso (Barolo)

"Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte is one of the most important existing documents related to our area of Langa.”
—Alberto di Grésy, Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy (Barbaresco)