Angelini Wines & Estates and Arnaldo Caprai: “Not just an acquisition, but a true partnership”

Confidence in the future of Italian wine, despite the decidedly challenging times, and in its most prestigious and premium-luxury brands, as well as a desire for a new model of collaboration among companies, bringing together the vision of those who created and developed them to remain at the helm, not merely for the sake of “legacy,” and the resources, in economic terms, but also and above all in terms of expertise, “know-how,” and synergies, to grow together. This is how Alberto Lusini, CEO of Angelini Wines & Estates, and Marco Caprai, CEO and President of Arnaldo Caprai, explain to WineNews the significance of the new partnership (announced here), which saw the Angelini family’s wine group acquire a majority stake in the Umbrian company, purchasing the shares held by a branch of the Caprai family not involved in the wine business and by the Orlean fund (with Marco Caprai himself, who founded and led the winery, increasing his stake from 25.5% to 35% and continuing to lead it).
“This isn’t a typical acquisition in the wine industry, where one company simply buys another through a change of ownership. What we’ve done with Caprai”, Alberto Lusini tells WineNews, “is intended to be a modern partnership initiative, in which Angelini recognizes the value of the work Marco Caprai has done over the years for Montefalco, for Umbria, and for Italian wine”. With Marco Caprai, who remains president and CEO of Arnaldo Caprai. It is true that we have acquired a majority stake in the company during a delicate phase linked to the generational transition following the recent passing of Arnaldo Caprai, but our goal is not merely to provide Caprai with financial leverage for new investments in the vineyards, the winery, and the markets, but to implement a series of synergies further downstream, in the sales network, in management expertise, and so on. And it is a way to foster consolidation in the wine world, which should not be viewed as a straightforward acquisition, but as a new form of partnership. Caprai is a symbol of Italian excellence, bringing a brand of absolute prestige to our already significant portfolio, and we are delighted with this transaction”.
The same goes for Marco Caprai himself, who thus remains at the helm and as the owner of the winery he built, reviving a nearly extinct grape variety like Sagrantino and igniting the spark that went on to make Montefalco a benchmark region for Umbria and Italian wine. “For us, this is a great opportunity. As written on our 25-year-old Sagrantino di Montefalco, “there is always something beyond”, a phrase by the writer Luigi Pirandello. And so we are entering a new dimension, a collaborative model that allows entrepreneurs to lead their own businesses, with partners who support and assist them, enabling them to fully realize the value they bring to the company, which can sometimes be harder to express in a family business. Sometimes, to grow”, adds Marco Caprai, “you have to change”. “Business growth is a major challenge for the future, because innovation requires significant investment, just as significant investment is needed to build a high-caliber workforce, and these investments can only be made by working together in groups that, in addition to great capabilities and resources, also share a common vision for achieving them, a vision I have found at Angelini Wines & Estates”.
A vision that Albero Lusini himself confirms, looking even further ahead: “Angelini has been investing in wine since 1950; we have more ‘tradition’ behind us than many other companies. But today, in a strategy agreed upon and shared with Sergio Marullo, CEO of Angelini Industries (the parent company of the Angelini family’s businesses, which, in sectors related to pharmaceuticals, healthcare, industrial technology, and consumer goods, generates revenues of 1.6 billion euros, ed.), we are convinced that we should continue to invest in the wine sector, despite the current challenging times, because we believe in it. And we are working on three fronts: rebalancing the Angelini Wines & Estates portfolio, as demonstrated by the investment in Montefalco with Caprai, a premium brand that fits well into our constellation of excellence across various Italian regions, such as Bertani in Valpolicella, the land of Amarone; Val di Suga, in the Brunello di Montalcino region; and Puiatti, in Friuli Venezia Giulia. But we are also working on high-level investments in the hospitality sector, specifically hotels and restaurants, starting with Veneto and Tuscany, where there will be news to come. And we are also focusing on vertical integration of the business, with a particular emphasis on distribution through the Horeca channel, which is our primary focus. In 2025, despite a decline in revenue, we increased our EBITDA by 50%”, Lusini told WineNews, “a result that allows us to invest, as we did in Caprai, and to develop partnerships despite the difficult times the sector is facing. It is not out of the question that we will do so again in other situations, because we believe in wine, just as it is possible that we may, perhaps, sell off some non-strategic assets or land. Our goal is to create a new model of consolidation, combining the strong managerial expertise we possess with extraordinary value-added transactions like the one we carried out together with Marco Caprai”.
As Marco Caprai himself confirmed to WineNews, this move “is an important sign of confidence for the Italian wine industry as it approaches Vinitaly 2026: a major company, a great Italian family like Angelini, is investing in wine once again. And, for me, it is a source of particular pride that a group like Angelini Wines & Estates is investing in my region, Umbria, and in Montefalco, the land of Sagrantino”.
With a new chapter beginning, thus, through a transaction (handled by Paolo Pietrostefani of Pietrostefani Corporate, Alberto Calvi Coenzo of Avvocatidiimpresa, and Alberto Bezzetto of Cdr Advisory, ed.) that sees Angelini Wines & Estates enhance its portfolio of wineries focused on the production of fine wine, built over time around brands representing the excellence of Italian wine (which, in addition to the aforementioned Bertani, Val di Suga, Puiatti, and now Caprai, also includes Tenuta Trerose in the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano region, and Fazi Battaglia in the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico area), covering over 1,700 hectares of land, of which more than 600 hectares are planted with vines. And Arnaldo Caprai can continue, under the guidance of Marco Caprai, a story that began in 1971, when Arnaldo Caprai, an Umbrian entrepreneur in the textile sector who was awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro in 2002 for his contributions to agriculture, purchased 42 hectares in Montefalco, 4 of which were already planted with vines at the Tenuta Val di Maggio. A story that, through the synergy between Angelini Wines & Estates and Arnaldo Caprai, is moving toward a new future.