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A man who had worked himself up to COO of a large wine and spirits distribution company decided to take a leap to co-owing a small Italian wine importer known for its unconventional ways.
The event is open to all.
The event is part of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South-Central’s Taste of Italy Virtual Trade Fair, which takes place here in Houston and throughout Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana with virtual tastings and meetings, March 15-19.
Brian revolutionized the way Italian wine was imported and sold in the U.S. when he started his company Dalla Terra in 1989. Literally decades before anyone else envisioned an importing model that would save consumers money by working outside of the traditional three-tier system (importer-distributor-retailer/restaurateur), he began setting up regional distribution networks that allowed wineries to sell their wines directly to local vendors. Today, Dalla Terra brokers the sales of some of Italy’s most iconic wineries, including Vietti (Barolo), Casanova di Neri (Brunello di Montalcino), Adami (Prosecco), Selvapiana (Chianti), and so many more.
For 50 years, Maurizio Zanella has gone for extremist causes.
The first time he flunked out of high school was at a posh Milan parochial school in 1969, when, Zanella remembers, “I joined the Communist revolution.”
After that, Zanella’s father, a successful European logistics entrepreneur, placed him in public school. “There,
everybody was a Communist, so I became a fascist,” Zanella says, a broad, infectious smile stretching across his face. “I was playing war. I wasn’t a real Communist or fascist. It was just an excuse to not go to school.”
As Zanella flunked his second year, street violence between factions escalated. After a friend of Zanella’s died from injuries in one clash, Zanella’s father sent him off to Manchester, England, for months of physical labor on the docks. On his return, he was sent to live in the Lombardy countryside, on the modest family farm known as Ca’ del Bosco.