You can try to work in the direction of economic sustainability and agricultural sustainability, but obviously you cannot make glass as thin as a sheet of paper; you have to find a balance, which is then inherent in the word sustainable.
Here we are. So President Albiera Antinori began your career in 1985. Today you represent the 26th generation of the Antinori family, one of the most important realities of Italian wine.
What were the key stages of this journey?
Let’s say it was a journey that started to realize that the work was starting and so it was a journey through all the various sectors of the company, maybe one of the most significant stages was my own, apart from the first harvest at Castello della Sala, was when I started dealing with Prunotto which is a small company that we had in Piedmont in 94 I think, maybe 95, where I finally had the opportunity to have a vision on what all the different sectors contributed to a small but high value added company and there in a few years I really got a unique and very formative experience. Then let’s say I came back to the company in Florence and from there I was always involved in marketing and communication, which for us are very important because they are the ones that help to create the added value of the products and the territories until then I became president of Marchesi Antinori 4-5 years ago.
We understood that the experience that allowed you to really go through all the crucial points of this sector, from manufacturing to sales, from communication to marketing, what are the strategic assets, the key factors that a company must have to excel in order to be competitive?
Then first of all fundamental in the world of wine is to have great terrroirs so places where the vine has a chance to express itself at its best so the agricultural part and the part let’s say viticulture and enology remain a pivotal point at least for our part of the quality wine sector then, after a person manages to make a great wine, there is a need to sell it and to be able to explain it.
So you have to travel understand know the market, to have ideas and see what others are doing and then of course you need the managerial ability of more internal business management, as well as personnel management, costs, to also have a long-range vision so that you can give a correct direction in a world that is ours, that has the two souls, both the agricultural one so with rhythms that are 365 days and that don’t change and instead the other one where there are market rhythms that go now much much faster. I remember when I started working the first computers had arrived, the ones with the black screen with little green letters, we were still working with telex.
Today if you don’t respond to an email within 10 minutes you have a problem, the world is changing very quickly, probably it also was changing before but now we realize it much faster, just look at what happened in the last three years. You have to be very responsive and very ready to deal with negative as well as you should be ready to know the market very well.
Here now the elected president of Federvini’s wine group. What specifically does the wine group do and what does this role represent for you?
Here is a topical issue: it is obviously the energy crisis that also leads to a rise in the final prices of the bottle as well. So you think this will affect our exports in terms of foreign markets?
Unfortunately it is natural that since there are increases especially in component materials, glass, cartons, corks but not only that, everything costs more such as for example diesel fuel for agricultural machinery and consequently of course there will be price increases on the wine product as well.
We hope that this issue of energy price hikes and inflation will subside before the end of the year or at least around the beginning of next year, however, we can’t know… certainly we have to equip ourselves, some will be able to reverse at least some of the price hikes, others will take more effort but obviously it’s bad for all sectors.
As a wine group will you certainly think to suggest alternative solutions to companies to contain these costs?
Unfortunately, there are not many alternative solutions, the only one is to give guidance on how we can save energy.
But I repeat that this is just not a wine problem, it is a problem of the economy in general so now we will find it out. I saw that on the newspapers this morning it was written that the price of natural gas had dropped to figures albeit 4 times more expensive than it was, not 40 times so that gives us some hope.
Someone talked about lightening the amount of glass of the bottle which our friends in China might not like because they still like very heavy bottles.
You can try to work in the direction of economic sustainability and agricultural sustainability, but obviously you cannot make glass as thin as a sheet of paper; you have to find a balance, which is then inherent in the word sustainable.
Here we talked about this with many people in the wine world. So for the wine group, what is the vision for these big topical issues like sustainability and energy saving?
As I said before sustainability is an often used and often abused word. The issue is to make the wine world economic in the long run, so these new practices that you try to put in place have to make economic sense. In fact, the ultimate goal is to create added value, added value for the territories, for the producers, for all the allied industries. So it’s an issue that embraces many faces clearly starting from the agricultural part but also let’s say the more enology part, even the commercial part, it’s a circle that must be closed in the most balanced and responsible way possible.
Here President, given your long experience in this industry what is one thing you would like to see happen, one goal, one thing you have in your heart that you would like sooner or later for the wine world?
There are many things, certainly Italian wine still has a long way to go in the recognition of its appellations that are a crucial point, of the denomination of origin, controlled, IGT that is, everything that represents the territories of history and the great quality that this country an offer. There is a lot of work still to be done and I hope that during the next years we can work well and clarify to the consumer what are the peculiar and unique differences of a country like Italy.
Thank you president for your time. We are leaving you because we know you are about to leave for a very very important event in the United States, an annual event of great interest to our industry?
We all leave tomorrow, there is the Wine Experience of the U.S. Wine Spectator magazine that after the 2020 that didn’t happen, a 2021 in a reduced formula, finally now there are all the producers of the greatest wines in the world and this will be a great opportunity to exchange ideas, see each other again, taste great wines, take some ideas. Surely it would be nice after three years!
Well thank you thank you very much president for your time!
Thank you. Good work and see you soon!
