Laura Mauriello: GagiaBlu is my ‘down-to-earth’ dream
The owner of the young winery in the Maremma area of Tuscany explains her corporate vision and her interpretation of the current trends in the wine sector to Wine Meridian.
I meet Laura Mauriello on her estate in Roselle, just a few miles from Grosseto, in a part of Maremma where the Etruscan past is strongly felt (Roselle was one of the twelve Etruscan city-states; today it’s one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in Italy, as it allows visitors to see how the Roman civilization became superimposed on the Etruscan). The construction work on the new winery is almost finished, and the beautiful hospitality and tasting room, with views over one of the most beautiful landscapes in Maremma, is also almost ready for action.
Laura, it looks like you’re just about ready to launch GagiaBlu.
We’re definitely getting there, although it’s important for people to understand that this launch is a step – a very important one – in a project we’ve been working on here in Maremma for more than a decade. My family and I first had the idea for GagiaBlu in 2008, when we decided to find a location in Italy where we could express our shared love for the land. But we wanted to do it in the most professional way possible, so we started by trying to understand what this particular terroir was made of in order to produce wines that would fully express its unique characteristics and be recognizable as ‘Maremmas’.
In our plan, the winery would be started up only after we’d ‘built’ a vineyard that would prove itself worthy of our production philosophy and when we felt we were ready to become veritable wine entrepreneurs. To put it in a nutshell, GagiaBlu certainly began as a dream my family and I shared, but right from the beginning it evolved into a concrete, highly pragmatic plan.
It often happens that you come upon vineyards and wineries owned by people whose careers began in other sectors, and they’re not always up on the unique features of the wine sector and its market dynamics.
That’s precisely why we’re entering the sector on tiptoes, so to speak; very modestly and having spent years studying all we could in order to understand wine dynamics better, from both the production and sales points of view. We’re surrounded by professionals with proven experience, both on the wine-growing front and the marketing and sales side. Getting the winery up and running was a really important step in our journey, but we’ve been careful not to get ahead of ourselves with it. Let’s not forget that the winery is not just a vital production site for us, but also a key location for our wine tourism strategy.
The focus on wine tourism can already be seen in the hospitality structure you’re putting the finishing touches to at the moment and, more in general, in the beauty of your location – one of the strong points of the GagiaBlu project.
No doubt about it. Right from the beginning, we imagined our winery as a place that would be open to guests. We’re convinced that hospitality will be an important economic asset for us, as well as an exceptional communication tool. We want to build direct relationships with our guests and customers. We don’t want any screens or filters coming between us; transparency is an integral part of our entrepreneurial philosophy. And to this end, we believe that wine tourism constitutes an excellent way to show in the most authentic way possible who we are, what we do, and also what we believe in.
Can you tell us why you chose Maremma?
To put it as briefly as possible, in my opinion, Maremma is one of the most genuinely ‘natural’ areas in our country. It was a bottom line for us to find a place that had as little ‘contamination’ as possible, because another keystone of our production philosophy is definitely sustainability in all its different forms. Then, of course there’s the fact that, in terms of its landscape, Maremma is one of the most beautiful and widely recognized rural areas of Italy on an international level. I also believe that from a winemaking point of view, it has incredible potential for producing quality wines.
While we’re on the subject, can you outline your winemaking philosophy to us?
Right from the outset, our aim has been to grow the best-suited grape varieties for this production habitat. Grape varieties able to produce wines that reflect the characteristics of their terroir and at the same time respond to current market trends. I feel that Maremma, and this corner of it in particular, has the perfect features to allow it to produce wines that give it voice but also feel decidedly contemporary. For example, the Sangiovese we produce is a wine that expresses itself and its terroir in a ‘modern’ key, as it blends elegance, personality and also an excellent level of drinkability. The same goes for our Vermentino, which I consider one of the Italian whites most in line with the current consumption dynamics on a global level. We also decided to add an international variety like Merlot to the mix and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s found the perfect home in Maremma and will give us some really great results over the years.
To finish, can you give us a probable date for the official opening of GagiaBlu?
I can’t give you a precise date just yet, but I can say with confidence that it’ll be between May and June of next year. At that time of year, we’ll be able to leverage another key factor distinguishing this wonderful land of Maremma: the sea.