Meet An Industry Professional: Alessia Lana, Antinori Marketing
A definite highlight of our Florence preparation was meeting with Antinori marketing officer Alessia Lana and getting the behind the scenes details of the Santa Cristina wine brand makes that will be featured at our James Beard events. Special Event Management team member Rachel Murphy reports on our encounter with this wine marketing professional.
Santa Cristina, a property of the Marchesi Antinori wine group, is amply represented in our NYC menus. Alessia Lana from the Antinori marketing team was kind enough to stop by to talk to the TuttoToscana group provide more information about Santa Cristina and what the company stands for. They are located nearby Siena and Perugia where there is a town called Cortona where the Santa Christina wines are grown. They give great care to the wine making process and continue to look for innovative was to deal with indigenous and international varieties. The combination of these two allow the family owned winery to produce different products of the same style and the important link between vineyard, terroir, and man’s work.
She began by explaining that Santa Cristina is a part of the “Apicius Friends” since 2010; this program provides a relationship between the wineries and Apicius to help communicate the culture of food and wine directly. Executive Chef Andrea has created many videos for Santa Cristina’s Online Cookbook (in collaboration with Apicius) demonstrating a dish that can be presented with the wine.
In 1946 a new project came along to create a blend of wines which would allow the freedom to create an everyday easy wine, which ended up becoming the Chianti Classico. Since then, their wines have grown in popularity since then. By 2006 the family of wines had grown to the Chianti Classico, Rosse, white, Pinot Grigio, and red. Besides their wine, they have been more aware of the social aspect, so they have introduced a Facebook page along with an updated interactive website.
The 27 generations Antinori family has been producing wine and given its vast experienc and curiosity, they are never completely satisfied about the kind of wine they are producing. The family is constantly traveling and bringing in ideas in order to help produce a better their wine. They are also constantly updating their labeling so that it is keeping up with their market, which are mostly young adults right now. For example it was the customers from the United States that requested a Chianti Classico to be made, widening their audience to more than the European markets while expanding their collection of wine as well. They are currently working on opening a new and very environmental friendly office space for their employees to work at; along with one of their vineyards is mostly sustainable.
The meeting was finished up with reviewing menu pronunciations. Students were called up at random testing to see how well they were able to list the menu including wine pairings followed by how would you answer a variety of question that a guest may possible ask you? It was a much smoother with pronunciation all the Italian and knowing details of each dish and wine.
Look for more posts about our final week of preparations in Florence and about the demonstration for the students at Queens College. There are still tickets avalible for the interactive demonstration at De Gustibus event in New York City on October 24, 2012 by checking the De Gustibus website.
We will be sending updates, news flashes, and behind the scenes sneak peaks over the coming weeks. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!