Two wine merchants from Southern Florida’s Lazarus Wines & Spirits join us and seem to break the spell. Cheerful but in businesslike rush that precluded a sit down, they each held their wine glasses on the bottom as one is supposed to, swirled them, took a quick taste, smiled at Lamborghini Estate’s owner Mr. Silvio, quickly exchanged business cards, and made their farewells. Their cameo appearance was a reminder that this is what the cellars and tasting room are really about—business. It’s big business in fact—with millions of euros being invested in cellar equipment alone.
If you are not a wine merchant sourcing supplies—and especially if you have logged time as an avid reader of biographies or loved Wally Lamb’s depiction of Italy in I Know This Much is True–-a visit to Lamborghini Estate opens an Italy time capsule seen through the lens of Lamborghini’s life story.
The Story of How Lamborghini Estate Began
We pick up his story after World War II and after his stint as a mechanic stationed in Rhodes. He was trying to convince his conservative farmer father that his idea of collecting scrap metal to build engines was a lucrative idea. Once Lamborghini secured the funding he needed, it took only half a year for the loan to be repaid.
You see one of the early Lamborghini tractor models in the cellar showroom, a deep contrast to the top-of-the-line Lamborghini luxury car that famously opens like a bat mobile. It shouts “We’ve come a long way, baby!”, feeling like the equivalent of an attic treasure. If you happen to be staying at nearby agriturismo Poggio del Pero, it’s even more fun to see a later model of a Lamborghini tractor being used on their farm today.
The showroom has even more treasures—historic bottles, race car uniforms, and more memorabilia of Lamborghini’s business and life.
If you are lucky, you too will have Lamborghini’s Margherita Alberati as your guide. She not only speaks English without flaw, but has the knack of a natural storyteller armed with a lot of longevity with the company and the inside scoop.
Though Alberati doesn’t use the words “mid-life crisis”, we learn how the estate or at least its location was almost an accident. Lamborghini, in his 60’s and rich and famous, was on a road trip to get a special water with health tonic effects and stopped nearby to where the Tenuta Lamborghini is today to see an old friend. Something clicked and he not only decided to sell his automotive business, but to start what would be a third chapter of his life, getting back to his roots and his family’s commitment to the soil. Alberati recounts how that sale of his automotive business and loans were famously made by Lamborghini with just handshake deals.
The micro-climate created by nearby Lake Trasimeno was a factor too. In short order he was all in—soon meeting his third wife and starting his third family. Lamborghini originally wanted to help create a wine cooperative in the area, but his CEO-type instincts demanded he be the boss. His mark on the Umbrian landscape went beyond the vineyards—sponsoring a famous Formula One team, creating a golf course on the land (the only one near Lake Trasimeno), and a restaurant in the center of the vineyard—all adding a magnet for tourists to come to Umbria, including during the grape harvest and days of the first crush.
The mingling of the family story and the wine continues when Lamborghini unexpectedly dies in 1973, leaving his then 18 year-old daughter Patrizia, the only child from his third marriage and his life in Umbria, the vineyard owner. With obvious admiration, Alberati recounts how in 1997 when she was only 22, Patrizia made strategic decisions that carried the Lamborghini estate forward for years—hiring the best winemaker and switching varietals of grapes. Patrizia is also credited with finding the current owner of Tenuta Lamborghini from within the company circle, Mr. Silvio, a former importer to China, who had made a fleeting but smiling presence in the tasting room accompanying the Florida wine merchants.
American wine enthusiasts might recall 1997 is also about the time when Wine Spectator magazine went online, and became more of a force in the USA, contributing to the explosion of wine consumption here. It probably didn’t hurt that Lamborghini was heavily featured in a special Italian wine edition of this magazine in 1997. As you sip and sample the vineyard’s current offerings, you get to admire this historic magazine cover. Except, perhaps you too will not be able to take your eyes off the intriguing painting of Lamborghini sitting with his self—one the shrewd business man, the other the avuncular presence that many who work at Lamborghini are said to fondly remember.
As immersed as you will be in the Lamborghini lore, the wine tasting of a half-dozen varieties reminds you that it’s really all about the wine. Or is it? This writer found the peep hole into Italian history via Lamborghini’s life story just as delicious as the wine.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
For more information on Lamborghini wines, restaurant and golf course, visit The Tenuta Lamborghini website.
