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The Italian wine entrepreneur Vittorio Vallarino Gancia (pictured right) has died at the age of 90. Gancia was the great-grandson of Carlo Gancia, the inventor of the Italian Metodo Classico in the mid-19th century. He was born in Canelli in 1932 and ran the family business Fratelli Gancia until he was appointed its honorary president in 1996. In the 1990s, he was one of the first to promote the renaissance of Piedmontese sparkling wine with classic bottle fermentation. Together with some colleagues (Cinzano, Contratto, Fontanafredda and others), he founded the association "Tradizione Spumante", which later became the Consorzio Alta Langa. Vallarino Gancia also held a number of offices. In the past 50 years, he was president of the Asti Chamber of Commerce, the Asti Consortium, the Federvini and Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) associations. In the mid-1970s he was kidnapped by the far-left terrorists of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), but was freed the following day.
"His name is closely linked to the history of Canelli. He was a visionary, an entrepreneur who revolutionised the Italian wine industry. We are known all over the world thanks to the Gancia family. They produced the first Italian sparkling wine according to the classic method. Their winery is one of the four wineries that led to the recognition of our city as a Unesco World Heritage Site," said the mayor of Canelli, Paolo Lanzavecchia, paying tribute to the commitment of Vittorio Vallarino Gancia.
(ru / Source: Corriere della Sera; Photo: Gancia)