Work with the right dose of humility, but armed with ambition
Cantine Lombardini is now a leader and still unique in the Lambrusco production area thanks to the new bottling machine and use of pure nitrogen, injected into the bottle twice before the cork is applied. A process that ensures the wine no longer comes into contact with the air, thus preventing the oxidation process from taking place. This ensures optimal conditions for wine preservation and maintains the characteristics of the products, which can now be kept for long periods without oxidizing. The new bottling system has many other strong points: since it is very fast, it allows the production capacity to be increased while guaranteeing tip-top hygiene, since the system can be sanitized through automatic management of the sterilizing process (very important when wines are presented abroad). Thanks to this system, along with HACCP, Cantine Lombardini is also eligible for BRC (British Retail Council) and IFS (International Food Standard) certification.
In a recent interview for the monthly journal “Imbottigliamento” (June 2015), Chiara Lombardini declared: «I know that if you don’t take risks, you’ll never achieve anything more than you already have. To grow, you need to move forward, take a chance, make investments. We’ve just renovated the wine store and we intend to create a customer reception and wine tasting area in our production facility, where the old cinema was once situated. There are actually two values on which our business has been founded: working with the right degree of humility, sufficient to encourage us to always do better but with enough ambition to achieve new goals. In our opinion, these are vital ingredients if one is to grow. If one works in the right way, the results don’t take long to arrive. After the monobloc trials and tests, we certainly did obtain the results we desired: the analyses proved that oxidation in the wine was notably less and the wines themselves maintain the same organoleptic properties for a very long time».
Sales Manager Chiara Lombardini concluded the interview by speaking of the winery’s plans for the future: «In future, we’d like to enjoy the same success in other markets as we do in Italy. To do this, we will certainly increase our output and, thanks to our bottling line, produce longer-lasting products able to provide importers with optimal guarantees even when our wines are exported in large quantities. The more we produce the more we’ll recoup our costs, and this will help us to propose more competitive prices.
However, we’re certain that our Campanone, which has gradually become more well-known than our actual name, will also convey us abroad since its marketing potential is very high and has allowed us, over the past few years, to maintain and increase our sales in all channels in which we are present, from the Hotel and Catering Industry to major multiples.
At the present time, to be able to carry on the business created by our father, our grandfather and our family is the greatest satisfaction for my sisters and me, besides being (despite the fact that we all have children) protagonists in an industry that, until a short while ago, was a male preserve.
Our greatest reward is working alongside our father as we attain goals and gratification that are the crowning achievements of life-long commitment. All this encourages us to go to work each day armed with enthusiasm. In actual fact it’s the same enthusiasm with which we face our everyday life, when we’re not at work, because we feel part of a family project to which we give a major contribution and support.
We aim to raise our children in the same way, teach them the family values, the importance of tradition and the heritage that has been handed down to us».