Italian Wine Exports: You Have To Be Responsible To Everyone

Tara Empson may just seem like a young Millennial at the age of 34 years old who was placed into the sweet position of being handed the title of CEO of her family’s company Empson & Co. and Empson Canada yet when one gets a chance to sit down for a long conversation with this impressive woman, her fierce work ethic, intelligence, down-to-earth values and business know-how becomes evident; more importantly her deep concern for all of her wine producers comes across in a voice that is laced with the conviction of someone ready to take on these wine producers’ fights.

How It All Started

To begin to understand Tara, look at the story of how her family’s export business first came into existence. Her parents, Maria Gemma Empson and Neil Empson, met on a blind date in New York City. It was the 1960s and Maria, an Italian-American, was set up on a date with an adventurous man from New Zealand who restored classic cars. They had both just gotten out of bad marriages and on their first date “swore that they would never get married again” according to Tara; 11 days later Neil asked Maria to marry him and they have been together ever since.

Tara’s mom had previously studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and she desperately wanted to go back to Italy, which sounded great to Neil as all the great classic cars at the time were Italian. They ended up in Milan as it was the best place to find work in Italy’s struggling post-World War II economy. Tara noted that her mother and father were “as poor as church mice” and that they had to wait until Neil sold one of his restored classic cars, which he advertised in the Herald Tribune, so they could afford a dinner out… and those dinners out introduced them to several small Italian wine producers.

Read the Full Article

By: Cathrine Todd | Forbes