PIERO MASTROBERARDINO IS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE ISTITUTO GRANDI MARCHI: 19 LEADING ITALIAN WINERIES (7% OF TOTAL BOTTLED WINE EXPORTS). HE SUCCEEDS PIERO ANTINORI WHO LED THE GROUP FOR 10 YEARS AND IS NOW HONORARY PRESIDENT)

Piero Mastroberardino is the new president of Istituto Grandi Marchi, the Italian institute of leading wine brands with 19 Italian wine icon members (headed for over 10 years by Piero Antinori. The change in leadership was decided today during the assembly that unanimously renewed the Board of Directors, expressed the new leadership of the Institute and appointed Piero Antinori honorary president (www.istitutograndimarchi.it).
The Istituto Grandi Marchi is one of the first associations to show that Italian wine sector can make a team”, said Piero Antinori, “to act together on international markets. In the past 11 years we have worked united for the benefit of the entire wine system, which is still too fragmented in global promotion. The Leading Brands are not only the flag bearers but in many cases, the precursors of positioning Italian wine on the most strategic markets”.
The new president Piero Mastroberardino said, "the Istituto Grandi Marchi is a case history in excellence: 19 top brands competing with each other, and at the same time developing a unique synergy of family success stories. It has paved the way and set the pattern for other initiatives that have been set up recently. The Institute will continue to work on specific programs using internal, as well as European resources, to promote Italian wine in the world”.
The 19 wineries of Istituto Grandi Marchi (Alois Lageder, Argiolas, Biondi Santi Greppo, Ca' del Bosco, Michele Chiarlo, Carpenè Malvolti, Donnafugata, Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari Tenute, Gaja, Jermann, Lungarotti, Masi, Marchesi Antinori, Mastroberardino, Pio Cesare, Rivera, Tasca d'Almerita, Tenuta San Guido, Umani Ronchi) contribute 7% of the total value of bottled wine exports. Since it was founded in 2004 to 2014, the Institute has invested 60 million euros in the promotion of quality Italian wine (about one third with the support of EU promotion).

Focus - Who is Piero Mastroberardino
Piero Mastroberardino was born in 1966. He divides his time between academics (he is professor in managerial disciplines at the University of Foggia) and his wine company, which is the oldest in the Campania region, with a history spanning ten generations, where it produces fine wines in the land of Irpinia. The new president of the Grandi Marchi has an eclectic personality and is also accredited in the art world, as a painter and designer , and in literature (his latest novel "Giro di Vite" was published this year).