Company

In 1991, Romina, Luigi’s eldest child, entered the winery management, at first directing the group’s finances, and later marketing and sales in Italy and abroad. In the late 1990s, it was the turn of Valentina; with academic training in agriculture, she oriented her activities towards the production side of the business. In that same period, wine-production expert Goffredo Pasolli, with a professional career honed in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and in Tuscany, joined the winery. His presence was auspicious, so much so that in 2000 he and Valentina were married. In 2001, third-born Martina came on board, in the sphere of administration, logistics, and collaboration with Romina in sales.

During the early eighties, Luigi Togn met the one who involved him in the project of distribution of Italian wines in America, Fabrizio Pedrolli. Owner of one of the leading clubs in Trento and skilled sommelier, he immediately emphasizes the immediacy of taste and aromas of Gaierhof wines and supports them for export to the USA

In 1978, he purchased Maso Poli, which became an independent producer, with wines aimed at wine-serious consumers and the niche market. These years witnessed remarkable activity and changes in direction in the wine market, and in the early 1980s, Luigi met Fabrizio Pedrolli, owner of one of Trentino’s most prestigious restaurants and a talented sommelier. Pedrolli immediately appreciated the taste and aromas that were the hallmarks of the Gaierhof wines and pushed for their export to the United States.

In 1976, after the sudden death of his father Germano, things began to look better for the Togn family. Just after Luigi had his second daughter, the now-flourishing bulk-wine market permitted the ever-entrepreneurial Luigi to continue investing in modern equipment. The era of demijohns had come to a close, and sales of bottled wine notably increased. Shifting over to this model, Luigi founded Gaierhof in that same year, 1976, in order to market his Trentino wines.

In the late 1950s, Germano, together with a German partner, grew his business activities through the production of grape juice. The project did not prosper as anticipated, and in a few years Germano found himself with a complicated situation that eventually led him to give up a good part of his properties. Luigi, thanks to his skills and stubbornness, was able to keep the winery, and with the help of a German winemaking expert (Berthold Smitt), imported the first specialised machines for white-wine production – horizontal presses – and introduced into the Trentino of his time innovative processes.

In the 1940s, Germano Togn, a produce broker, began personally vinifying grapes he brought in from grapegrowers and selling the wine in bulk in the area of Trentino-Alto Adige and of the ex-Austro-Hungarian empire. Over a period of 15 years, he acquired 5 winemaking operations in the region, and in addition to making wine from grapes selected from the surrounds of Roverè della Luna, he bought wine from small producers, which he blended into the bulk wine he offered for sale. The Togn winery at Roverè immediately became the vibrant centre of all of these winemaking activities.