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DALLA TERRA
A NEW WAY OF DOING OLD BUSINESS
Italy boasts the greatest diversity of grape varietals and wines in the
world. Italian wines are widely acknowledged as the best values in the world.
Italian winemakers have made enormous strides in improving the quality of their
great natural resources. In fact, it's been said that the Italian wine industry
has made more significant progress in the past 20 years than it had in the
previous twenty centuries. All of which made Italy a pretty attractive sandbox
for a young winemaker such as myself when I was offered a position at the Ca'
del Bosco estate, where I worked from 1985 to 1989. It was an invaluable
experience. I learned about the great diversity of Italian wines, and how
forward-thinking winemakers were moving into modernity--marrying age-old
traditions of dedication to the land with cutting-edge technology. I learned
about the natural relationship of food to wine, and field to table.
My experience in la bella Italia taught me that nothing
replaces the kind of quality that comes from the close attentiveness to the
importance of terroir, and what happens in the vineyards as well as the
cellar. Now, as a direct importer of Italian wines in the U.S. through my
company, Dalla Terra, (which means from the earth), I practice that same
principle of attention to quality in choosing producers, combined with the
concept of "direct value." "Winery direct means direct value" is Dalla Terra's
mantra. The wines of the respected producers in my portfolio, representing a
wide spectrum of Italy's top regions--Piedmont, Tuscany, Alto Adige, Trentino,
Friuli, Veneto, Apulia, Sicily and Abruzzi--match or exceed the quality of
their competitors, yet my lower direct import pricing makes their wines
unbeatable values.
The way we sell wine is changing the nature of the wine importing and distribution
business. Dalla Terra has opened the gates to a more efficient, more economical
and more consumer-friendly way of shipping, distributing and marketing wine.
Our direct import system leapfrogs the national importer level in the
traditional three-tier system, allowing the distributor to buy directly from
the producer. We eliminate frills, high mark-ups and cost-consuming steps in
favor of better value and bringing quality wine to wine drinkers' tables at
affordable prices. When we add a wine to our inventory, we are able to offer
it--often using the same distributor--at significantly better prices than
previously offered.
Finally, it is the personal relationships with these winemakers and their
visions that ultimately drive my work in this field, and makes each new wine
discovery such an exciting one. I invite you to discover these wines with me,
and to share in these great values.
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