Promoting and Protecting Oltrepo' Wines

BOCCONI ALUMNA GILDA FUGAZZA IS THE FIRST WOMAN TO BE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE CONSORZIO TUTELA VINI OLTREPO' PAVESE. A PRESTIGIOUS ROLE BUT WITH MANY RESPONSIBILITIES

A vintner, yes, but not only that. Gilda Fugazza, who graduated in Business Administration from Bocconi in 1992, was elected for the second consecutive year as president of the Oltrepò Pavese Wine Consortium, an institution that brings together about 160 winemakers, one of which, however, Cantina Sociale, represents in turn over 700 wine producers. In the approximately 100 hectares of the Mondonico wine firm, Gilda Fugazza cultivates the grape varieties that are typical of the area: Croatina (for the popular Bonarda red), Barbera, Pinot Nero, Riesling, Pinot Grigio... a major heritage of this land which struggles to obtain the recognition it deserves.

“Other areas, I’m thinking of Franciacorta for instance, moved on networking before us and this has contributed enormously to their positive image. Perhaps they were also favored by having a single flagship wine, while we produce several kinds of wine here. But the valorization of our wines”, explains Gilda Fugazza, “is an objective that must also be pursued through synergies with other entities and actors”. An agricultural but also a cultural heritage, which, as Gilda Fugazza underscores, “is unique and unrepeatable elsewhere. Thus it must be promoted but also protected and passed on intact to future generations". The Consortium, according to the president's vision, has a double role, however: "On the one hand, of course, it must protect members, on the other, it must function as a guarantee for the end consumer, the one who buys our wines. We must encourage visits to the company, show consumers the work we do, in practice have people see how wine is made".

Another area of operational competence of the Consortium is exports, i.e. markets to be consolidated and new ones to be conquered: "We are very active in this sense", says Gilda Fugazza, "we have also carried out specific projects in two countries, Switzerland and the United States, through brand ambassadors, although this is certainly not the best time and many activities have been moved online”. The wine most easily associated with Oltrepò Pavese is Bonarda, which in the past has often been produced with an eye more to quantity than to quality. How is the situation now? "Perhaps few know that Bonarda, despite the large numbers it posts, about 20 million bottles a year, is a wine that is extremely difficult to make, because the grapes must be harvested strictly by hand. There are many producers who work well and need to be valorized. We must, in a nutshell, know how to communicate quality. And, if necessary, we must learn from those who did it well ahead of us".
 
SHORT BIO
Gilda Fugazza, a Bocconi graduate in Business Administration (1992), is wine entrepreneur and president of the Oltrepò Pavese Wine Consortium: "A particularly fond memory of my years at Bocconi are the lectures by Claudio Demattè, who was capable of explaining very complicated financial concepts in a clear and simple way. From his teachings in particular, I learned a management methodology that helps me to deal with problems and solve them in a rational way. For me, a lover of numbers, three is always larger than two.."

by Davide Ripamonti
Translated by Alex Foti