“Pittaro’s testament”: company in Friuli Venezia Giulia bequeathed to employees

Ninety hectares of vineyards, between Friuli Grave and Friuli Colli Orientali, almost all on the hills of Ramandolo, and the winery, the heart of the company, in Codroipo, Friuli Venezia Giulia. This is what entrepreneur and enologist Pietro Pittaro, who died in March 2024 at the age of 80, and was former president of Assoenologi from 1987 to 1995 (and also of the Union Internationale des Oenologues), when he led the battle for formal recognition of the title of enologist, left to a dozen of his closest collaborators. So much was found written in his will, which gave substance to a statement that, local news reports, including the “Corriere del Veneto”, reported, he often repeated in Friulian dialect to his employees, saying “I leave everything to you”, referring to Vigneti Pittaro, a company he founded in the 1970s.
“He was very close to the employees, celebrating birthdays, Christmas, and all anniversaries with them. He loved to have lunch with them”, Irene Lenarduzzi, a lawyer for Vigneti Pittaro, explained to the “Corriere del Veneto”, “and he wanted to leave the company to those who managed it internally. Mr. Pittaro leaves behind a wife, a daughter and two grandchildren. The daughter had been out of the management of the company for years and therefore would not have been able to participate in the continuation of the business. She was not ousted, but Mr. Pittaro had guaranteed her part of the legitimacy while she was alive”. To be understood now, how the matter will evolve. But in any case, that of Pittaro is a peculiar affair in an Italian wine world that reckons with an issue that is not simple, such as that of generational transition.