Wine, a family affair? Only 70% of family businesses are handed down to the second generation

Wine, now more than ever, is a family affair. The Harvard Busines School believes that 70% of wine families businesses are sold or bought before being handed down to the second generation. Only 12% survives into the third generation. But perhaps the tendency is changing: only a couple of generations ago, heirs of the most important wine producers went to the city looking for a different career, maybe in finance or abroad. But today, thanks also to the birth and diffusion of prestigious viticulture schools, new generations take charge, proudly, of family wine companies , with the desire (and with the awareness) to be able to meet their parents’ ambitions, leading the historic wineries into new marketing and social media trends .
Just in that direction, as stated on The Drinks Business, goes “10 Great Wine Families”, the new book of the Master of Wine Fiona Morrison, published by Academie du Vin, that spent time with the 10 most important, old and influential wine families: the Italian Frescobaldi and Gaja, but also Torres, Perrin , Thienpont, Knoll, Niepoort, Palacios, Müller e Liger-Belair. In short, the great names of the Europian and world wine, that dominate the wine sector for decades, and that survive to generational changes, to innovations and trends. Morrison, living with them, wanted to check on their enthusiasm and passion, which take the families through the vineyards and help them to face wine and family challenges, over the years. The book, originally published in Fleming, was later translated in English to reach a wider audience, to give a different point of view to lovers and not on the great wine families.