Dolia Talks | Wine, spirits and beverages marketing and sales

This show is sponsored by Dolia

Francesco Airenti is the Marketing Manager at Mack & Schühle Italia, with more than 20 years leading marketing at Campari, Santa Margherita and Allegrini behind him. Few people in wine have sat on both the classic-brand side and the challenger side of the business the way he has.

He walks through how a wine marketing budget should actually be split, why most packaging restyles are a waste of money without a clear positioning behind them, and the evolution-not-revolution rule he applies to rebranding heritage brands. We also cover GRAPUR, his award-winning low-alcohol wine line, and GENEVITIS, the cooperative-partnership model reshaping how Italian wine regions go to market.

AGENDA:

1:42 The value of design in the wine industry & supply chain consistency4:16 Design vs. terroir: is design becoming more important for differentiation?6:12 What wine can learn from spirits and other industries (Campari, luxury, fashion)15:03 The role of a marketing manager in wine — trade marketing, sales support, and fragmented markets19:20 Sales & marketing relationship: communication challenges and alignment21:34 When should a winery hire a marketing manager?24:27 Where marketing budget gets wasted 27:08 When to rebrand or redesign packaging 29:21 Healthy budget allocation31:35 KPIs & measuring marketing ROI32:50 GRAPUR project — low-alcohol wine, sustainable packaging, and design awards41:57 Opportunity for traditional producers in low-alcohol & zero-alcohol wines44:42 GENEVITIS project — cooperative partnerships across Italian regions & market consolidation53:15 Francesco's quickfire round

This show is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands.

Amanda Thomson founded Noughty in 2019, years before non-alcoholic wine became a category investors chase. She trained in fine wine and champagne in Paris, ran her own sparkling and champagne label, and only then built a non-alcoholic wine brand out of a genuine gap in the market.

She and Giovanni talk through how Noughty built its UK distribution model before the country's biggest distributor came calling, how she decides between fine wine distributors, trend-led importers, and food service partners depending on the market, and why she still says no to distribution deals she doesn't believe in.

Essential listening for anyone building or distributing a beverage brand in a category still working out its own rules.

AGENDA:

1:09 Origins: "good wine before good non-alc wine"

2:16 Launching Noughty in 2019 & the market opportunity

3:17 Developing the product & finding winemaking partners

6:00 What makes a good non-alcoholic wine

7:19 Launching just before COVID & the pandemic pivot

9:51 Zebra striping / flexi-drinking trend

13:57 Noughty's customer profile

15:13 B2C vs. B2B: the omni-channel launch strategy

21:52 Importers, distributors & portfolio fit

24:31 How Amanda selects (and rejects) distributors

26:55 UK vs. US market differences

31:04 Paid brand partnerships

33:21 Social media's role in building the brand

34:17 Community & the "wine club"/DTC approach

41:45 Lessons fine wine taught Naughty

43:06 Amanda's quick-fire round

This show is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more here.

Juan Carlos Maroto Jara has built brand strategy for three very different beverage businesses: Gin Mare from a blank sheet, Matusalem through a 150-year-old family business turnaround, and Match, the premium mixer brand he co-founded at Curius, designed from day one for e-commerce and specialty coffee rather than the back bar.

In this episode, he walks through how each brand's positioning got built, from Gin Mare's refusal to claim a single Mediterranean country, to the global governance reset that saved Matusalem, to why Match is stripping "tonic water" out of its own name starting in the US, with Europe following in 2027.

Essential listening for anyone working in beverage brand positioning or international market entry.

AGENDA:

1:39 – Common thread across Gin Mare, Matusalem & Match

5:40 – Building the Gin Mare brand & "Mediterranean gin" concept

12:29 – Was the "no single country" branding strategy right, and would it work today?

16:12 – Translating brand story into buyer/trade pitches20:03 – Matusalem: reviving a 150-year-old brand

27:32 – Why launch something new: the origin of Match

31:12 – "Fashion-like" brand approach & the Waitrose/Corte Inglés stories

37:13 – When does a mixer stop being a mixer and become a drink?

41:08 – The role of trade shows

42:53 – What traditional wine/spirits brands can learn from Match

44:58 – Quick-fire round

This episode is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more here.

Rodolphe Frerejean Taittinger has built three beverage brands that have almost nothing in common except him. Frerejean Frères is a grower champagne house from Avize, French Bloom is the alcohol-free wine brand LVMH decided to back in 2024, and Coutanseaux is a cognac house tracing back to 1767.

In this conversation, he walks through how a scarcity-driven grower champagne house picks distributors differently than a category-leading challenger brand does, how French Bloom found its actual buyer after badly misjudging the market at launch, and why he thinks cognac's comeback depends on smaller formats and sharper positioning rather than bigger price tags.

Essential listening for anyone building a beverage brand across more than one category, or trying to figure out where the real demand for alcohol-free sits.

AGENDA:

3:07 – Champagne market: positioning, terroir, and Frerejean Fréres' philosophy7:43 – Distribution strategy and choosing specialized distributors10:13 – Entering the US and Japanese markets12:20 – Partnerships: airlines, Michelin restaurants, and creative marketing16:13 – Opportunity for smaller Champagne houses in hospitality/tourism20:08 – Transition to French Bloom: the origin story 24:34 – Understanding the non-alcoholic wine market and flexi-drinkers29:24 – Industry skepticism toward non-alcoholic products32:29 – What traditional winemakers can learn from beverage startups36:50 – LVMH investment and the Formula 1 partnership39:39 – Market performance across 68 countries and surprising wins41:56 – Introduction to Coutanseaux cognac and its family history46:21 – Making cognac more accessible and rethinking pricing47:29 – Appealing to younger cognac consumers48:46 – Quick-fire round

This podcast is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more at https://getdolia.com

Ruggero Raymo co-founded Portofino gin in 2019 after a career in sports sponsorship at AC Milan, FIFA, and Eurosport, with no prior experience in beverage or spirits. Seven years later, Portofino is a globally distributed premium gin brand, and Ruggero has become one of the sharper commercial minds in the category on how to build demand from outside the traditional trade playbook.

Ruggero walks through how Portofino used cross-industry partnerships with fashion, design, art, and sports brands to create consumer pull before ever pitching a distributor, the pyramid strategy behind sequencing on-trade, off-trade, and eventually supermarkets, and how two competitor acquisitions reshaped the Mediterranean gin category in Portofino's favor.

Essential listening for anyone building or distributing a beverage brand in a category everyone insists is already too crowded.

AGENDA

00:05 From sports sponsorships to launching a gin brand
02:40 Three lessons for launching a brand with zero experience
04:30 State of the gin and spirits market today
07:09 Is the gin category oversaturated?
09:09 Where the real growth is: premium and ultra-premium
10:08 How the market outlook has changed since 2019
13:13 The no/low alcohol trend, plus a teaser on Portofino's next launch
16:00 The early days: hand-delivering gin and first sales channels
18:58 The cross-industry partnership strategy behind Portofino
24:43 Balancing wide distribution with a premium position
27:22 Current sales channel split and market-by-market differences
28:55 How Portofino picks its next market: the data behind expansion
31:31 How two competitor acquisitions opened doors for Portofino
34:26 The US opportunity and the state-by-state playbook
36:20 Alcohol tourism and hospitality strategy
38:02 Quick fire round

This podcast is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more here.

Paola Pavan spent years running multi-million-dollar promotional campaigns for the Italian Trade Agency before going independent to help individual brands solve the part the institutions never could: actually selling in the US market. Today she runs OPC International, guiding European wine and spirits brands through the country's notoriously fragmented three-tier distribution system.

In this episode, we cover how that system really works, why most brands compete inside their own distributor's portfolio before they ever compete in the open market, what it takes to create demand for a new product in a category with limited shelf space, and why some of the best-selling "Italian" wines in America are owned and run by American companies.

Essential listening for anyone working on US market entry for a beverage brand.

AGENDA:

03:33 US alcohol consumption trends vs Europe
04:24 Market size and the three-tier distribution system
06:23 Inside a distributor's portfolio: the Mionetto example
08:19 Strategy and execution: why quality alone isn't enough
09:01 Italy vs France vs the US: the competitive landscape
11:38 The "Italian" wines actually owned by American companies
12:15 Should a small producer even try? Access to capital in the US
14:55 The minimum viable presence playbook
16:13 Why brands still need to manage key accounts directly
18:25 Budget reality: Italian revenue vs US marketing spend
21:00 Creating demand without a distributor's help
24:39 Alternative entry paths and lucky breaks
27:26 The role and limits of consortia and trade agencies
31:20 Can social media build demand before distribution?
35:12 The export process, start to finish
39:25 Timeline and cost to enter the US market
40:11 Ready-to-drink: an underused opportunity for wineries
41:39 Why market entry strategy differs by country
42:44 Quickfire round

This podcast is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more at https://getdolia.com

Leonardo Mocetti is the Commercial and Marketing Director for Italy and Export at Castello di Meleto, one of Chianti Classico's most recognised estates.

He joins Giovanni to talk about what he learned moving from building Franciacorta's commercial case from scratch to navigating the very different challenge of making Chianti Classico's fame actually convert into sales.

The conversation covers the real gap between brand awareness and brand clarity, why "is this a good wine?" stopped being the question buyers ask, and how the timeline mismatch between producers and distributors is quietly breaking down relationships across every major market. Leonardo also gets into wine tourism: when it becomes a genuine commercial channel and when it stays a beautiful but strategically hollow exercise.

They close on trade fairs: what Vinitaly and Wine Paris are actually useful for, what most producers get wrong about showing up, and why a fair should work as a market intelligence tool rather than a showroom.

Essential listening for anyone working in wine export, brand building, or distribution.

AGENDA

1:10 — From Franciacorta to Chianti Classico

6:17 — Individual Producer vs. Appellation: Who Drives Differentiation?

9:02 — Italy vs. Export Markets

11:37 — Key Export Markets

16:06 — US Tariffs & Market Uncertainty

20:38 — Producer–Distributor Relationships

26:20 — Tips for Young Export Managers

30:00 — Wine Tourism & Hospitality as a Commercial Channel

35:19 — Attracting Younger Consumers

37:52 — Trade Fairs: Still Worth It?

43:50 — Quickfire Round

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Follow Dolia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getdolia/

Follow Leonardo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardo-mocetti-91666b36/

Valentina Zanella, Hospitality Coordinator at Cà Maiol, joins Giovanni to break down what the wine industry is getting wrong about communication, why hospitality is one of the most underused commercial channels for wineries, and what Gen Z is forcing the entire industry to rethink.

Topics covered: making wine communication more approachable, how to build a frictionless hospitality experience, a 3-step framework for small wineries getting started, and why Gen Z's rejection of wine jargon is actually a good thing for the category.

AGENDA:

1:33 - Valentina's Background & What a Retail Mindset Brings to Wine

3:10 - Wine Communication vs. Retail & Lifestyle Brands

5:31 -  Is Wine Intimidating?

7:17 -  Gen Z & the New Wine Consumer

8:00 -   Designing a Hospitality Experience

10:49 - Marketing & Discovery Channels for Events

12:10 - Keeping Relationships with Tourist Visitors

13:57 - Measuring ROI of Hospitality

15:32 - Why Wineries Should Open Restaurants

17:34 - The Value of Third-Party Booking Platforms

20:40 - Which Experience Formats Work Best

22:11 - Should Your Winery Have a Wine Bar?

24:34 - Hospitality Strategies for Non-Wine Beverage Brands

26:09 - Advice for a Small/Young Producer Starting with Hospitality

28:40 - Why Winery Websites Are (Still) Terrible

30:03 - Market Outlook — Exports Down, Hospitality Up

31:34 - Younger Consumers, Health & Wellness

33:04 - Quickfire Round

Dolia Talks is a podcast by Dolia, the platform where beverage brands grow. Discover more at https://getdolia.com

Nicholas Dellai is the co-founder of VETZ, a premium natural-ingredient aperitivo that started in Stockholm and now reaches approximately 10 markets.

He joins Giovanni to tell the full story: the aperitivo event platform they built in Sweden before the product even existed, the trial-and-error recipe development that landed on a botanical profile sitting between Campari and Aperol, and the deliberate choice to anchor the brand in Italy — with Milan as its international launchpad.

Nicholas goes deep on the VETZ & Friends bartender program and what genuine on-trade activation looks like in practice, how the brand has structured its distributor relationships, the expansion into RTDs and 20-litre kegs for high-volume venues, and the non-alcoholic VETZ spritz now rolling out across new markets.

He also shares a clear-eyed view on category competition — why more brands building the premium aperitivo space is a good thing — and where he sees VETZ in 10 years, including the US market and the long-term acquisition play.

A practical episode for anyone in beverage brand building, distribution, or market entry strategy.

AGENDA

2:33 Origin story — from Aperitivo Stockholm events to creating VETZ

6:06 Recipe & product development

8:17 Bottle design, brand name & aesthetics

10:48 Why alcoholic? Non-alcoholic plans

12:12 Entering Italy — positioning in a crowded market

16:08 Wine vs. spritz occasions & consumer behavior

20:40 Working with bars — cocktail suggestions & creative partnerships

23:03 VETZ & Friends program — bartenders as brand ambassadors

31:52 Distribution strategy — Italy vs. other markets

33:44 New B2B portal launch

38:12 Product line expansion — RTD, kegs & alcohol-free

41:56 Competition & market outlook

44:24 Quickfire round

Wine buyer and educator Samantha Madden on what it actually takes for a European wine brand to enter and survive in the US market.

Samantha has worked on the US wine scene as a sommelier, in wholesale distribution, and as a wine educator building her own platform. In this conversation she covers the full picture: why social media has to come before distribution, how sommelier relationships drive more sales than any distributor rep, what the no/low alcohol category looks like from the US consumer side, and three practical steps for an Italian producer entering the US for the first time.

Topics covered: US wine market entry, wine brand social media strategy, sommelier relationships and distribution, no/low alcohol trends in the US, label strategy by price point, Gen Z wine consumer behaviour, wine export tips for Italian producers.

AGENDA

0:00 Rap videos and wine communication3:19 What younger consumers actually want from wine brands7:17 The sommelier's commercial influence in the sales chain13:11 From restaurant floor to distributor: how wine lists get built16:14 US market conditions and the tariff impact on imports18:08 Breaking into the US market: the social media entry point22:33 The no/low alcohol opportunity and the RTD advantage26:41 Three practical tips for exporting to the US32:15 Underrated wine regions and the 10-year market outlook35:11 Why the wine industry's gatekeeping culture hurts its own growth