“Mr La Perla” expands in Montalcino: Peter Kern, after Il Palazzone and Albatreti, buys Lo Scalone

Growing slowly, between business and a passion for wine, in one of Italy’s most prestigious areas, Montalcino, land of Brunello, building a small kingdom of absolute value, enhanced by the fact that it is a single entity, gradually incorporating neighboring companies and land: this is the path taken by Peter Kern, vice chairman and CEO of Expedia Group, a world leader in online travel (whose websites also include CarRentals.com, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Trivago, and Vrbo), who a few days ago rose to prominence for acquiring, and effectively “saving,” the luxury lingerie brand “La Perla”, acquiring both the brand from the British company La Perla Global Management UK, in judicial liquidation in Italy and in liquidation in the United Kingdom, and the production site, owned by the Bologna-based company La Perla Manufacturing, in extraordinary administration, with an investment of €25 million, effectively saving 210 current jobs and promising 40 new hires. This passion for Italian-made products is not new, given that Peter Kern and his wife Kirsten (who directly manages the estates in Montalcino) had already invested in Montalcino in 2023, acquiring, within a few months, first Il Palazzone, a jewel of an estate with 7 hectares of vineyards (at Due Porte, one of the highest points of the hill, and in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, a stone’s throw from the thousand-year-old Abbey of Sant’Antimo), and then the vineyards and farm of neighboring Albatreti (a company with 5 hectares of vineyards, of which 1.7 are Brunello di Montalcino, 1 is Rosso, and the rest is Sant’Antimo). And now, WineNews reveals, another investment is coming, with neighboring once again, Lo Scalone, a company with a total of 8.5 hectares of land, of which about half a hectare is planted with Brunello and 1.5 with Rosso di Montalcino, and the rest with olive groves, arable land, and woods, which further consolidates the small wine kingdom, enhanced by the fact that it is a single entity, owned by Peter and Kirsten Kern. After collecting fine wines for over 30 years, as stated on the Il Palazzone website, they continue to invest in “their dream of producing wine in Montalcino”, sharing this passion and their “deep desire to contribute to and support the long heritage of Brunello”. Once again, the deal was handled by Giulio Linguanti’s Studio Linguanti, which specializes in international commercial law and mergers and acquisitions.