Wine marketing

Collaboration for export

Twenty-five years ago I met Larry Romano in San Francisco, an authority amongst wine importers in California. We developed a mutual esteem and eventually he asked me to indicate a list of Italian wine estates to improve his own list; this is where my experience started to develop, which now allows me to bring together Italian producers and American importers.
I still collaborate not only with Larry Romano, but also with other three importers in various parts of the States because I am of the opinion that it is better for medium-small enterprises to have different importers and distributors that cover well some of the states, rather than one big importer that distributes and sells all throughout the USA but which has thousands of brands in the catalogue and therefore is too busy to focus on individual products.

Products

• The first spumante belonging to the Collection is "Il Carlino", which dates back to the time when I was working on the Colli Bolognesi (Literally "Bologna Hills"). I was of the opinion that the range of wines of the company should have been completed with a spumante; Massimo Orlandi, the owner of the distribution company Idros, put at my disposition a brand of a Spumante which he had presented some years before but had then abandoned.
  On the label was a reproduction of a Carlino in silver, an old coin minted by the Bentivoglio family in 1523. It is also linked to the name of the newspaper printed in Bologna called "Il resto del Carlino" (literally translated "The change from the Carlino")*". I immediately found all this information very interesting and offered to relaunch the brand. Massimo Orlando generously gave up the brand to me.
  I made some small changes and now the Carlino label is in gold.
  
  *in 18th century Bologna the currency was the Carlino. Inside tobacco shops with a Carlino one could buy cigars, and with the change the client could have a sheet of paper with local news printed on both sides. This sheet of paper bearing news became, to everyone, "Il Resto del Carlino"(literally translated "The change from the Carlino") and has never changed its name since then.
  
  
• The Prosecco Brut Zecchino came along later, especially because of the difficulty to introduce a Pinot Grigio spumante in a world dominated by Prosecco, the latter having become, not only in Italy but also abroad, synonymous to Italian spumante produced by the Charmat method.
  I have often happened to hear dialogues similar to this one:
  Client: One prosecco please
  Oenologist.: I have this one made from pinot grapes (or other grapes), would that be fine anyway?
  Cliente:That's fine, it's still Prosecco anyway.
  
  
• The last to evolve was the Carlino Spumante Rosato. It took me a long time to find the right wine base for the Rosato (Rosé) I had in mind until finally, with the help of Paolo Sacchetto, I managed. As from June 2009 we will be ready for the presentation and distribution of this spumante.
  
  
• I could write a whole story about Choco&Wine - there have been many trials and counter trials together with Franco Rizzati to finally achieve what I had in mind.
  The idea came to mind in Napa Valley after having tasted a fudge made of chocolate, wine and blueberries (plus sugar, corn syrup, cream, and salt) but it was really too sweet.
  An idea started to develop in my mind of a possible combination between dark chocolate and a full bodied red wine. The rest of the story and what happened after is found within the product description.
  
  
• The portabottiglia (wine rack) idea was developed as a result of my necessity to have something practical and elegant, but not too expensive, where to place wine bottles in a way that I could also read the labels easily. Now I have a wall full of the best bottles of wine and I have also found out that I can fix the wine rack to the ceiling too, therefore exploiting more available space.
  
  
• ????????? QUIEN SABE? And who knows what future products there may be?!