12/24 - Lorenzo Torelli, Gabriella Torelli, Matt Viotto,

Lorenzo Torelli-Lesky -  President  Casa Torelli Imports

Michael Jordan & Lorenzo talk about an "Italian Christmas".  Casa Torelli will leverage the success and recognition our founder M. Gabriella Torelli has had in producing and selling private label Italian knitwear lines in the U.S. and Canada. Ms. Torelli’s success marketing Italian products for the U.S. has not gone unnoticed by her peers and vendor base in Italy. In an effort to find new distribution opportunities for their wines, a group of fine Italian producers approached her to create an avenue to the U.S. consumer market. After an exhaustive review and sampling process with her staff of oenologists and sommeliers, a group of select wineries were chosen. This producer network is viewed by Casa Torelli as working partners, and is a keystone asset of the company.  Casa Torelli’s portfolio represents genuine and traditional wines from 6 regions and 11 Wineries. The wines selected for the U.S. market are not only true to their varietal but traditional in their winemaking heritage. The wine makers and Casa Torelli reviewed the market to insure their selection and offering of wines would also compete on a price to quality ratio for a national distribution model.  Casa Torelli was also fortunate to have the opportunity to create a select grouping of wines for one of the most well known and passionate Italians -- Mr. Thomas Lasorda. Mr. Lasorda shared the same passion for his culture and love for Italian family values as the Torelli’s and made the relationship between the Lasorda and Torelli families a perfect match. Tommy Lasorda has had a lifetime of success by putting together a team of passionate and loyal players, while creating a family environment to compete. He has undoubtedly chosen to create the same with his wines and Casa Torelli Imports.

Gabriella Torelli

Our founder and namesake, M. Gabriella Torelli, was born and raised in Florence, Italy. She moved to the United States in 1963, were she raised a family of three sons while establishing and operating various small successful businesses. She then returned to her roots, and partnered in a textile manufacturing business in Florence, Italy. Her goal was to create a private label manufacturing opportunity for major retailers in the United States. She has built and maintains ownership in this successful knitwear company to date. Today Ms. Torelli is fulfilling one more passion and desire to create a business with her sons. In starting Casa Torelli she felt that her family’s ties to its’ Italian culture and tradition would be the basis of this business -- and its’ center point is the family gathering for dinner while enjoying great Italian wines. Since she and her partner already ran a small vineyard in Tuscany, it made perfect sense for her to create an import business to bring a variety of fine Italian wines to the United States with her family and sons.

Matt Viotto - Talbott Estate Vineyards

In 1982, Robb Talbott began planting his original Diamond T Estate vineyard on a cold, windswept mountaintop in Carmel Valley. Conventional wisdom was against him, and many said the steep, exposed site with its massive shale boulders was “too cold,” “too difficult to plant” and “too challenging to grow on.” But Robb had a vision—a vision he held on to as he prepared the cliff-side vineyard by hand, breaking apart its massive boulders with a 12-pound sledgehammer. “It all began with my first taste of a great Burgundy,” says Robb. “That experience profoundly shaped my palate, and as I grew older I knew that I wanted to create unique and exceptional Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Wines that took their inspiration from the traditions of Burgundy, but had their roots in California’s soils.”  To achieve this goal, Robb Talbott established one of the Central Coast’s most esteemed estate programs, featuring two of Monterey County’s grand cru sites: Diamond T Estate and the legendary Sleepy Hollow Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Though located a mere 18 miles apart, these two vineyards offer remarkably different growing conditions, yielding rich and distinctive Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs that embody their unique terroirs. At its heart, the history of Talbott Vineyards is the story of one family’s determined focus and commitment to excellence. In 1950, Robert Talbott, Sr., his wife Audrey, and their son, Robb, moved to Carmel, California, where they started a luxury tie company. Audrey sewed the ties by hand and Robert, Sr. sold them up and down the California coast. During silk buying trips to Europe for their business, the Talbotts visited French and Italian vineyards and soon became interested in fine wine. As their interest grew, they aspired to produce their own California wines, using the Burgundian techniques that they had become passionate about.  In 1982, Robb planted Diamond T, and the Talbotts built their original winery in idyllic Carmel Valley. For his first plantings, Robb selected the storied Corton-Charlemagne Chardonnay clone, planting it in Diamond T’s almost soil-free chalky shale. Robb knew that the vines would have to struggle to survive at Diamond T, producing miniscule yields and wines of great intensity.  After years of working with fruit from Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, in 1994 the Talbotts achieved another important milestone when they were able to acquire the property—making Talbott an all-estate winery. Featuring blocks of old Wente clone vines planted in 1972, Sleepy Hollow has earned a reputation for producing wines of great depth and voluptuousness. Today, Sleepy Hollow’s River Road block is home to the winery’s state-of-the-art winemaking facility, where Robb Talbott and renowned winemaker Dan Karlsen guide Talbott’s storied Chardonnay and Pinot Noir programs. These estate wines have gained a reputation for their lushness, grace and great aging potential, and have become benchmarks of quality on the Central Coast.