11.3 The company grows and so does the market

In the meantime, with the increase in production activity, the company had to evolve its commercial strategies: in Italy there was a transition from agents to a national distribution; abroad, there was a change from a single operator (Marc de Grazia Selection) to multiple distributors in individual states.
“Between the end of the nineties and the early two thousands my two children, Alessia and Stefano, were born, and so I had to slow down my business trips to foreign countries. Therefore Luciano returned to dedicate some time to the market. On the other hand, he liked to travel, visit new cities and meet our sellers and customers. In his own way Luciano was curious and like a good entrepreneur he wanted to know where and how his wines were sold. And then the arrival in the company in the nineties of a collaboration like that of Franco Vincitori on the one hand implied a leap in global quality and, on the other, was an important stimulus also for Luciano in his commercial operational return.”

At the end of the nineties, the opening of the new cellar implied other operational interferences also in administrative management.

“Undoubtedly. The company had to be completely organized also from an accounting and administrative point of view. The transition from the phase of the so-called vins de garage to the production of a cellar built with a significant investment was taking place. It was a phase that we could define as tumultuous, but also very fascinating. Everything had to be built from the foundations and everything appeared new. Both computerized management and the world of the internet were interfering more and more decisively.”
We came from a life of slow, habitual rhythms, communications were by post, commercial documents (including allocations for the most selected batches) were made with a typewriter. Gradually the “monster” of computerization arrived to speed up the pace, to accelerate activities. Computerization presented itself as a help, instead – looking at it with today's eyes – it translated into a complication, into exasperation of the rhythms as if everything had to happen in real time.
“Administration and market were my activities. After all, they were two operational phases linked to each other. Meanwhile, the work increased as did the notoriety of Barolo and then the media attention, the succession of scores from the wine guides, the attention of the press and consequently also of the market. Also in distribution there was a change of pace, with an increasingly wide demand, an increasingly universal market. Also corporate communication changed rhythm and style, with the gradual downsizing of paper tools and the systematic strengthening of electronic means with the company's website at the head of everything. Luciano, with his agricultural and pragmatic background, was astounded by this communicative revolution: he wanted to continue to privilege concreteness, while reality went more and more towards virtuality. In this operational phase the role of Franco Vincitori proved important, as he managed to convey to Luciano the awareness that quality is a global dimension that goes from the vineyard to the cellar, from the market to promotion and image. I and my family are fully convinced of it and we have made it our philosophy.”