Interview with Luigi Mennaggia, CEO of VinoinVigna
October 11, 2021
Interview with Luigi Mennaggia, CEO of VinoinVigna, a project dedicated to wine lovers and small Italian producers.
Are you a wine lover? Would you like to produce it? Then you are in the right place. Today we are talking about Vino in Vigna, an innovative start-up that allows all wine lovers to live closely the experience of production, thanks to the experience of small Italian wineries.
How does VinoinVigna work?
Participating in VinoinVigna’s project is very easy. The first steps to follow, once entered the website are:
- Choose your favorite winery from those available.
- Book a visit to the winery to taste the wine (or alternatively you can order it directly online and receive it at home to try it).
Once selected and tested the winery will begin your journey as a wine grower. In fact, you can subscribe to one of the events proposed by the winery chosen and live a truly unique experience!
During the wine cellar experience you will be accompanied by expert winemakers who will follow you during all the phases of production of your wine. You can also choose the quantity to be produced and collect it ,at the end of the experience, bottled with your personal graphic for the wine label. The learning paths consist of 8/10 appointments throughout the year. Throughout the period you will be constantly updated on the production stages of your wine, not missing absolutely nothing of the birth of your little “treasure”.
Obviously Vinoinvigna is not only for wine lovers who want to get closer to this ancient art, but also to small Italian wineries. Wineries can join the project and enjoy special advantages with the best strategic players in the sector. In fact, Vinoinvigna’s mission is twofold: on one hand to create awareness and on the other to bring people closer to the wonderful world of wine production but also create a community of companies linked by a single common denominator: product quality, passion and humility.
If you want to know more about it, read the interview with the CEO of Vinoinvigna, Luigi Menaggia. At the end of the article you will also find all the references to start living the experience.
Hello Luigi, nice to meet you and thank you for your time. Tell us about this project : VinoinVigna
The pleasure is mine, thank you for the opportunity. Vinoinvigna offers the opportunity to take part in wine production as protagonists for a year. The customers, supported by the winemakers of the winery, take care of the row that will give birth to the grape from which will come their wine. At the end of the experience in the vineyard and in the winery you get to the bottle. Thanks to our graphics, we support customers in choosing a completely customizable label.Thanks to Vinoinvigna you can appreciate the exciting side of being a winemaker and the passion, leaving aside the critical aspects of running a winery; it is a project that satisfies all the actors of this beautiful film called Wine.
How and when was the idea of Vinoinvigna born?
Serving wine as a Sommelier in the restaurant I ran with my sister I realized that people lacked a tangible reference to the wine world, as if missing a piece of the puzzle in wine communication. At the same time I supported the operations of my family winery in the Novaresi’s Hills in Piedmont. Joining the dots was immediate. To understand what lies behind the production of a bottle of wine and consciousness of it, it is not enough to study and taste, those are the fundamentals. You have to enter into the practical dynamics,taste vineyard and cellar life. Obviously on tiptoe, supported by experts.
I started writing the idea and articulating it asking for feedback. In January 2019 the test started with the first client concerned, from that point I have not and we have not stopped.
How long did it take to shape the project?
The experience was tested for the 2019 vintage in the family winery of which I am a member, in the summer months of the same year we did the first marketing campaign to validate the interest in Milan. Since 2020 we have standardized the experience and opened to other wineries: from Emilia-Romagna to Friuli, passing through Lombardy, Tuscany until getting to Puglia. Today we are present in 10 regions with 20 partner wineries. Each winery is tested and visited by at least one member of the team to verify the quality of the references and to know directly the people who will manage the experience. The fascinating and stimulating aspect focuses on creating a standard for wineries that can be easily adopted for customer management, but at the same time designed to the needs of enthusiasts who participate in the experience.
How is the market responding? Obviously on both the winery and aspiring winemakers side.
The target wineries, with our vision, are very open and transparent in allowing customers to participate in the production phases. Obviously we are talking about wineries with a young and innovative management. Despite the regional differences we can open different channels both online and offline. We aim to have wineries in all regions by the end of 2022. Our offer is based on passion as a common thread, not only on wine but also on outdoor experiences involving territory and culture. Supporting a winemaker for a year is not only useful to achieve wine awareness, but also to develop the cultural heritage of the territory. The customers, once received this message,totally agree with our offer and adhere to it. In a certain sense we are trying to democratize the world of wine and make it accessible to everyone, seeking a sustainable and valuable economic solution. To conclude the answer, under the customer’s participation side we are satisfied, but it is never enough.
How important is training in the rediscovery of manual works that still represent Italian excellence?
Formation is the pivotal point. The only way to realize what is hidden behind a product is to enter the productive dynamics, we try to involve more and more people and compile offerts in the world of wine. There is a strong return to the past in terms of pleasure and discovery, ultimately a “slow” style. We are here to satisfy that need in the world of wine. It is not intended as a job but as a mental and cultural formation to treasure. Training and information, this is what we want to convey to our customers.
How did you launch your project?
First of all we validated the market in the first winery, intercepting the response and implementing a model reproducible in other areas. All born with a small landing, a DEM campaign and the first accessions. Subsequently, the team of Vinoinvigna has expanded, thanks to the introduction of key resources for the development and expansion thereof. Considering that the skills were in-house we expanded our field using a test & learn model and applying it to different communication strategies and business models. In August 2021 we launched our beta offer on the foreign market www.growmywine.com , a brand of Vinoinvigna, to export the model and also to involve the international clientele in the production of Italian wine witnessing the crucial production moments. At the end of the experience the bottles are delivered with the private label chosen by the customer.
Curiosities: have you also produced wine using the Vino in Vigna programmes?
Fortunately as a member of a winery I know all the productive dynamics and this know-how gave me the basis to plan Vinoinvigna. The other members of the team participated in at least one of the operations of the vintages in the cellars of our network. You can not transmit and communicate a project if you do not know the fundamentals, in fact, team members were chosen also according to personal characteristics that match perfectly with the offer of Vinoinvigna. We are conscious drinkers who are able to enhance what is hidden behind a bottle or a glass of wine, promoting who produced it and giving the correct value to the product.
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