People wonder what my job actually involves.

It’s not easy to answer in just a few words: sometimes I feel like the winery’s doctor, sometimes an architect – and on some occasions, the scriptwriter!
One thing is for sure, it is as wonderful as it is difficult to raise a winery’s profile.

No two wineries are the same and they all require a made-to-measure project. I believe it is pointless to use a standard project, because it can never be applied to two wineries.  Just as all wines differ, so each winery and producer has its own distinct and incomparable personality.
Below is a list of Frequently Asked Questions to provide some answers, or at least, some hints.

1. WHO ARE  YOUR POTENTIAL AND CURRENT CLIENTS?

-  Wineries who find themselves in one of the following situations:
Newly founded, and needing to establish their name
Present on the market for more or less time, but with an image that does not reflect the actual production situation
- Groups of wineries wishing to organise a communications project(s) together
- Bodies and Associations wishing to promote their area through their agricultural and enological products
- Currently, also, an online food and wine magazine.

2. WHY DON’T YOU JUST WORK WITH WELL-ESTABLISHED WINERIES, OR THOSE WITH A CONSOLIDATED IMAGE?

Twenty-five years of professional memory has its benefits: I really have seen almost everything! I enjoy working with wineries who are already well-established because it can be stimulating:  like an athlete for whom winning means going one centimetre further or dropping a hundredth of a second, for well-known wineries it can be very difficult to progress further, and it requires greater preparation.
But it is equally stimulating to work with wineries who are just starting out and need to substantially alter their image. It means working in a completely different area, with foundations often still to be identified, and it is interesting to become part of a business with clearly untapped potential and find the key to release it.

3. HOW DO YOU BEGIN A NEW WORKING RELATIONSHIP?

When I start a new working relationship the first thing I try to do, with help of the owner and the managers of the various productive areas, is to identify the winery’s strengths and weaknesses. Together we analyse the special features and positive aspects that the winery can offer, and my task is then to decide on the most effective methods to highlight and promote these.

4. WHAT ABOUT THE MARKETING SIDE?

In this area it becomes necessary to assess whether the direction followed by the winery is the right one for the present and above all whether it will work as a project over the next few years. Agriculture needs time, and no-one who takes their work seriously would decide to bring out a new wine or change the type of one already in production, in just six months! You need to understand years in advance what types of wine the market will demand, in order to have time to produce them.

5. WHAT SORT OF PROFESSIONALS DO YOU WORK WITH IN A WINERY?

In order to draw up a project covering several years and aiming to produce new types of wine and/or change others, you must consult experts able to tell you whether the winery is likely to achieve certain results, and whether the sales network can accommodate the products we have in mind. So apart from the owners of the winery, who make the decisions, you need to talk to the enologist, the agronomist and the marketing manager. The project can only be successful if it is shared in this way.

6. SO YOU ALWAYS WORK WITH A WINERY FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS?

I believe that working with a winery means lending my professional help until it is able to continue alone.

7. HOW MUCH TIME DOES A GOOD PROJECT REQUIRE?

The time necessary to set up a project and put it into practice varies and depends on many factors: the size of the winery, the professional skills of those working there, the production area, quality of wines, investment possibilities, and so on. The more factors in hand, the shorter the time I will stay at the winery. I hardly ever see the end results of the work – the winery reaps the benefits long after I have stopped working with them.
I love facing new situations, looking for original solutions to old and new problems, so I rarely try to keep a relationship going longer than necessary. Obviously each situation must be judged individually.
Then there is another important aspect to bear in mind: there are several stages in planning and bringing about marketing and communications strategies, all or part of which may all be carried out during our working relationship. Sometimes I have to create the project and put it into effect, at other times I am only involved in the planning stage, because the winery is able to do the rest on its own.

8. WHAT’S THE MOST ENJOYABLE ASPECT OF YOUR WORK?

As I said, often I am no longer working at the winery when the last stages of the project take on a solid shape and at last the result begins to arrive, but it is extremely gratifying to accompany a winery on the journey to discover its rich human, historical, landscape and productive resources, both in professional and human terms.