Portraits of Tenuta Carretta, Giovanni Minetti

After interviewing Ivana Brignolo Miroglio representing the property, our column dedicated to portraits continues with Giovanni Minetti, CEO of Tenuta Carretta.

Giovanni Minetti can truly boast a past life in the sector, with important institutional positions. Until the choice, in 2014, to become part of the Tenuta Carretta family, of which he is CEO.

Giovanni, yours is a very long career in the wine sector. Could you briefly tell us the main stages?

I started at the age of 24 as an agricultural technician at the Alta Langa mountain community, in Bossolasco, then – after a year and a half – I won the competition reserved for agronomists and entered the service as a technical officer at the Department of Agriculture of the Region Piedmont, first in Cuneo and then in Alba. From 1982 to 1996 I played the role of director of the Regional Enoteca del Barolo then, in 1996, after leaving the public sector, I was called to fill the position of general manager of Fontanafredda. In 1999 I was president of the Association of Historic Piedmontese Houses, from 2001 to 2007 I was president (then vice president in the following three years) of the Consortium of Barolo, Barbaresco and the wines of Alba, Langhe and Roero. And, as president, I am particularly proud to have carried out the project of the Additional Geographical Mentions for Barbaresco and Barolo, an extraordinary tool for territorial marketing and promotion of the two symbolic wines of our territory. Over the years I have also been a member of the Board of Directors of various protection Consortia (Asti, Gavi, Alta Langa and, currently, of the young Consorzio del Roero).

How did you become CEO of Tenuta Carretta and what was the first mandate of the Miroglio family?

In 2014 I had just left Fontanafredda and was engaged in an internationalization project with Vignaioli Piemontesi when I was contacted by Franco Miroglio who proposed that I collaborate with him to aim at improving both the quality of the products and the positioning on the main world markets of the range of wines from the three companies of the Terre Miroglio Group (Tenuta Carretta, Malgrà and Edoardo Miroglio from Elenovo, in Bulgarian Thrace). It was a question of continuing to enhance the distinctive features that each company brought with it: viticulture, oenological, or related to hospitality. For me it was a proposal of great charm and responsibility, and at the same time a beautiful challenge and this is the reason why I immediately accepted with great enthusiasm.

Giovanni Minetti, Ceo di Tenuta Carretta

What are the main objectives achieved by Tenuta Carretta in recent years?

The growth in turnover would be too banal an answer, because it is actually a consequence, it is the effect of choices made for the enhancement of the underlying, and the objectives are only stages of a path of continuous improvement, in an ever-changing situation and dynamic. The challenge is therefore renewed, and is to succeed every year in producing wines of higher quality through sustainable viticulture and to see the right value of the efforts made recognized by the market. From this point of view, the Miroglio family’s desire to do well continues to represent a decisive boost for me and for our entire work group: thanks to the investments made it was possible to provide for the internal reorganization of skills, a better definition of the different vocation of the owned vineyards, to the necessary improvements in the technical area for winemaking and aging, to an effective communication action aimed at developing and strengthening the brand on the various markets.

Tenuta Carretta is a dynamic reality, in constant transformation. How do you imagine it in the near future?

Thanks to its centuries-old history (555 years just this year) and the quality of its products, Tenuta Carretta is now part of the small circle of historic Italian companies and producers of high quality wines: a place that is never shouted, but discreet. I think it is important not to consider it a “status”, but rather – borrowing the expression from the world of mountaineering – a kind of “base camp” at high altitude, from which to start again each time for the opening of a new route to the summit. The world of Tenuta Carretta has been defined as a “constellation of elegance”, and I think it is a very apt definition, in which I find myself and which justifies all the initiatives that will be undertaken this year and in the coming years. From this point of view, the participation of Tenuta Carretta in The Grand Wine Tour circuit, which unites Italian producers who recognize themselves in the quality of their wines and hospitality, is more than a “manifesto”: it demonstrates the company’s desire to be visible and appreciated in discretion and in things done well, producing quality wines for a better quality of life.

We also ask you the impossible: what is your heart etiquette and why?

I am linked to each wine of Tenuta Carretta for a thousand reasons, because I have tried to discover the hidden secret of each one, but my heart label is Barolo Cannubi. Because it is a great wine, enveloping and captivating, of great harmony and elegance. Because Barolo is my wine, the architect of my professional growth (and not only), and because Cannubi is a vineyard that evokes meetings and important moments of my work experience in Barolo. When I started my collaboration with Tenuta Carretta, in September 2014, and I arrived for the first time at the natural terrace in front of the restaurant (the Locanda in Cannubi, editor’s note) I was literally moved to see the underlying expanse of the Cannubi vineyards and, opposite, that of Brunate, Cerequio, Sarmassa, Liste … vineyards that I had walked many times but that I had never seen from that perspective: vineyards that were now there, in front of me, all together that seemed to be able to almost touch them : a very strong emotion.