From family roots to international success, Anna Spinato Company stands out for its flexibility, trend awareness and tailored service. Director Roberto Furlani shares how the brand combines local identity with bold export strategies, including organic and alcohol-free wines, growing markets in Africa and Asia, and strong partnerships built on trust, adaptability and long-term vision.
The interview with Roberto Furlani, Director of Anna Spinato Company, offers a moment to reflect on the transformation of a small family business into an international brand, rooted in tradition yet decisively projected towards the future. Founded in 1952, the company has managed to combine a strong connection to the Piave region and its history with a global vision and attention to emerging market trends.
The company has made flexibility and attentive listening its defining traits, building authentic and personal relationships with international partners by combining quality, innovation, and attention to local needs. The success of organic wines, the pioneering offer of non-alcoholic wines, and the courage to target emerging markets such as Africa and Asia are all signs of a vision that does not fear the future but embraces it with boldness. And in all this, the determination of the Spinato family, with its pioneering spirit and adaptability, continues to reach for new horizons. Anna Spinato Company, in short, is a reality that looks ahead while staying rooted in its territory, blending avant-garde with local identity to succeed on the global stage.
Your story began in 1952 and today you’re present in over 50 markets around the world. What would you say are the corevalues that enabled Anna Spinato Company to evolve from a family-run winery to an international brand?
The company was founded in 1952 by my grandfather Pietro. Until the late 1990s, we operated solely in the Italian market, standing out as one of the first bottlers in the Treviso area. The turning point came at the end of that decade when we decided to focus on international markets by participating to Vinitaly and other international trade fairs. This led us to expand our range to include international grape varieties alongside native ones, and to completely rethink our packaging.
A key role was played by my mother, Anna Spinato, who took over the company and chose to focus on foreign partnerships, gradually leaving the Horeca channel in Veneto and large-scale retail in other Italian regions. Today we produce around 500,000 bottles per year, with 97% destined for export.
How important is your historical and regional identity in today’s strategic approach? And how do you manage to convey this to your partners?
Our connection to the territory remains central to our identity. Our range includes several native grape varieties from the Piave area such as Raboso, Verduzzo, and Manzoni Bianco. Even Glera, which we strongly promote, is a native grape that expresses our region. This is an aspect we always strive to communicate to our international partners, as it represents authenticity and strong roots.
Export is clearly a fundamental asset for your company. Which countries are you currently focusing on, and what do you see as the next strategic areas for growth?
The choice of markets largely depends on the type of product. For our organic wines, Canada is the reference market; for Prosecco, Northern Europe and Scandinavia; and for still wines, we target Central Europe. In Africa, we export a mix of sparkling and still wines, while in Asia and Australia, we focus primarily on bubbles. Today, sparkling wines—both organic and conventional, DOC and DOCG—make up about 70% of our production.
The United States is not currently one of our main markets, but if the tariffs proposed by the Trump administration were to be enforced, many large companies would be forced to diversify and seek new outlets. We are already exploring promising emerging countries such as Nigeria and Morocco, and we are also looking with interest at the Balkans, Mexico, and Brazil, which we believe have strong potential in the near future.
What are your criteria for selecting foreign distribution partners, and what tools do you offer to help them become effective ambassadors of your wines?
We support our partners both in communication – thanks to the work of our marketing team – and directly in the field. Key figures from our company attend events and work alongside distributors’ sales teams to support product launches or re-launches. We offer both digital and physical support because we believe that maintaining a strong presence is essential for a family-run business like ours.
In a global context where competition is increasingly fierce, what makes your product truly stand out to international buyers?
Being a family business allows us to offer a direct, flexible, and timely relationship. Our partners really appreciate this, recognizing the added value of a more personal and dynamic relationship compared to what one typically experiences with larger organizations.
We can respond quickly to needs, make fast decisions, and actively support importers even when a product is underperforming. We work together to find effective solutions quickly: this ability to offer real-time, hands-on support is what identify us.
Your organic sparkling wines are one of your flagship products. How do you communicate this choice to foreign consumers, and which markets are showing the most interest in organic wines?
Our best results for organic wines are in Canada – especially in British Columbia and Quebec, where we are present in monopoly systems – and in Switzerland. We began working with organic production over ten years ago and continue to see steady annual growth of between 10% and 15%.
We also had the foresight to launch “Gocce di Luna”, our first organic alcohol-free wine, eight years ago and today we’re witnessing a real boom in this segment.
For the past three years, we’ve also been offering two alcohol-free and Halal-certified wines, “Zero” and “Zero Blush”, intended for Muslim countries as well. Both are Glera-based and designed for markets like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
We also see positive feedback from Japan; in Asia, in fact, alcohol tolerance is physiologically lower, so our alcohol-free wines address a genuine need.
In recent years, as you mentioned, you’ve also invested in alcohol-free products with the HerØ line. What is the philosophy behind this project, and how is it perceived in international markets?
We chose to offer alcohol-free sparkling wines to meet the needs related to health, religion, and a more mindful lifestyle. The idea was never to “convert” consumers to alcoholic wine, but rather to offer a quality product that allows everyone to take part in a toast or a convivial moment.
“Gocce di Luna,” “Zero,” and “Zero Blush” are part of the HerØ line: a name that pays tribute to both the pioneering nature of the project (“HerØ” as in “hero”) and the feminine side of the Anna Spinato company, highlighted in the word “Her.” The “Ø” symbolizes zero alcohol.
We’ll be participating to Vinitaly in the section dedicated to no/low alcohol wines with “Zero” and a cocktail recipe book for alcohol-free mixology. This approach is gaining a lot of attention, especially since alcohol-free mixology is a growing trend.
In your business model, the concept of “tailored service” is central. How important is this flexibility today in B2B relationships, and how do you enhance it with foreign buyers and distributors?
We offer a tailored service based on listening and customization. The goal is to create a win-win relationship: helping our clients do business and grow in their own markets.
We never shy away from requests for customization, not even when it comes to packaging or special formats designed for local needs. This flexibility is one of the most appreciated strengths of our approach.
If you had to describe your company ten years from now, what image would you like to convey to international wine professionals? What is your vision for the future of Italian wine in the world, and the role Anna Spinato wants to play in that landscape?
Our goal is to further strengthen our presence in established markets while ensuring constant support, both in-person and remotely, for our partners. At the same time, we want to continue anticipating trends and entering new emerging markets, where being first can truly make a difference. In an increasingly competitive market, first movers can build stronger, longer-lasting relationships.
We also want to keep building human connections, based on trust and friendship, which have always been our true added value.
But I want to respond more directly to your question, which I find very important since it presupposes a strategic clarity within a company. Our vision is to evolve from a business focused solely on selling products to one that thinks and operates to offer solutions and services: this is the role we want to play and the direction we will follow to shape our future.
Key points
- 97% of production is exported to over 50 global markets.
- Sparkling wines represent 70% of the total output.
- Strong focus on organic and alcohol-free wines.
- Personalised B2B supports loyal partnerships.
- Flexibility and innovation drive global positioning.
