2024 Honorary Chair

by Kathy Merchant, DipWSET
January 31, 2024

“Drink good wine. Travel to see beautiful places. Come visit Castello Banfi in Tuscany!”

This glorious bit of advice from Cristina Mariani-May, CEO of Banfi Vintners, could easily be her personal and professional motto, and a measure of her warm hospitality. Brimming with energy, vision, creativity, and an entrepreneurial spirit, Cristina is the third generation of the Mariani family to helm Banfi since its founding in 1919—105 years!

The Spirit of Banfi: Zia (Aunt) Teodolinda

You might be wondering how a business owned for more than a century by the Mariani family came to be called Banfi. It is a unique and very special family history. As Cristina is fond of saying, “it’s the experience and story of wine that matters.”

Cristina’s grandfather, Giovanni (John) F. Mariani, Sr., was born in Torrington, Connecticut (1895) to Italian American parents who were carriage makers. After his father passed away when John was only nine years old, his mother Eva (Banfi) took her five children back to Italy to live with her sister, Teodolinda Banfi.

Aunt Teodolinda, who was not married, taught her nephew over the next decade about the skills of hospitality, service, business, and the joys of quality Italian food and wine. She had an amazing job as head of household staff for the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Achille Ratti. (In a twist of fate, “Miss Linda” had been adopted by Cardinal Ratti’s family when she was orphaned at an early age.) When the Cardinal was elected Pope Pius XI in 1922, she accompanied him to the Vatican and continued to serve as head of household, a position that included selecting the Pope’s wines as she had previously when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Milan. Teodolinda Banfi is to this day the only lay person to ever work for a Pope, live in the Sistine Palace (in a two-room apartment overlooking the Belvedere River even after her retirement), be granted Vatican citizenship, and be buried in Vatican City.

Pioneering Spirit: Founding Banfi Vintners in 1919

After a decade living in Italy under Aunt Teodolinda’s tutelage, John Sr. returned to the U.S., settling in New York City during WWI. At age 23, he enlisted in the Army, but never saw active duty because the war was coming to an end in 1918.

John Sr. launched Banfi Vintners in 1919 as an importer of Italian food and wine. His timing wasn’t great! Prohibition was enacted in January 1920. He quickly pivoted the company to importing mineral water, spices, and medicinal bitters (Amaro, an alcohol product permitted under the new law). At the end of Prohibition in 1933, he immediately returned to importing wine.

Innovation: Second Generation

In the meantime, John Sr. had married (1928) and started a family. John Sr.’s middle child and oldest son, John Jr., joined Banfi in 1956. His youngest son, Harry, joined the firm after college graduation in 1959. (Their elder sister Joan had also joined the business in 1951 but left five years later when she got married.) The brothers started traveling and bringing in the great wines of the world from France, Germany and Italy (eventually concentrating on Italian wines) as negociants.

In 1963, John Sr. turned the business over to his two sons but remained involved until his passing in 1972.

Then things really started to pop! On a trip to the Emilia Romagna region of Italy in 1967, the Mariani brothers discovered a delicious fizzy Lambrusco called Riunite. They became U.S. distributors in 1969, testing the drinks market for this fun new beverage until 1975 when they opened distribution nationally. “Riunite on ice, that’s nice” was wildly successful, becoming more popular in the U.S. than Portugal’s rosé Mateus. (Yes, that was a certain era…)

Fueled by their success, by the mid-1970s the brothers were eager to grow and diversify the business even further, and to apply lessons learned from the great winemakers of the world. It was time to add production to the brand. They hired oenologist Ezio Revella to search for suitable property in Montalcino. The result of the search was that the brothers purchased 4,500 acres of the Poggio alle Mura estate in 1978 which they named Castello Banfi.

Starting from scratch to create a flagship Brunello estate, they planted Sangiovese (and later other varieties), becoming one of the most important growers, promoters, and exporters of Brunello di Montalcino wines. In 1983, Banfi purchased the remainder of the Poggio alle Mura estate, including the castle dating from 1438 which is situated near the confluence of the Orcia and Ombrone rivers. Expanding to 7,100 acres, Castello Banfi is the largest contiguous vineyard property in Europe. Today, 1/3 of the property is planted to vines and Banfi’s Brunello is sold in 100 different countries.

Leadership and Strategy: Third Generation

Cristina Mariani grew up surrounded by the family business. Her sister wasn’t interested in Banfi, nor did she necessarily want to join the company. Cristina chose to study art history at Georgetown University during which she spent her junior year abroad in Florence. A light bulb went on: her family had already captured the magic (and much of the wine market) of beautiful Tuscany, so why would she even consider any other career? She pitched the idea to her father and started learning the business as soon as she graduated from college in 1993. The voice in her head—it sounded like her father!—kept saying that she needed a stronger business background. So off she went to Columbia University to get an MBA. She graduated the same year (1999) she married Marshall May.

In 2007, Cristina and her cousin James (Uncle Harry’s son) were named co-CEOs as part of a planned family succession. Over the next decade, they had to figure out how to deal with the “great recession” and to balance work with family life. Even during that time of shared leadership, Cristina will say openly that she was insecure about her position in the company. She was concerned she would be viewed as “just the owner’s daughter” despite being rightly very proud of her MBA and clear about her success in the company up to that point. She took to heart an old adage about family businesses: the first generation is the founder, the second generation is the builder, and the third generation is the destroyer. She was (and is) determined to prove that saying wrong!

When Cristina assumed the sole CEO role at the company in 2018, she knew she couldn’t keep the same 100-year-old strategy. Banfi had grown so large that they received a buy-out offer from LVMH, the French luxury conglomerate. But Cristina decided to pursue a different direction, at some considerable risk and lacking a full “atta girl” from the family. She streamlined the portfolio from two million cases of value-priced wines to 300,000 cases of premium wines focused on their own Banfi labels and three sustainably focused brands.

As Liz Thatch MW wrote about Banfi and Cristina in Forbes in 2022, “…she radically changed it to a new direction, which many people doubted was the right business move. However, three years later, and after surviving a global pandemic, May’s gutsy moves and visionary insight have paid off. Banfi achieved a 25% growth in revenue in 2021, with positive trends continuing into 2022. Today the company focuses on a streamlined portfolio of four wine brands, which are distributed in 100 countries.”

Over the years, Cristina has cultivated a clear and strong leadership style. While it contains many elements, the essence can be summed up to this: build trust, collaborate, pay it forward, and don’t stop growing and learning. The next level of her leadership includes helping to empower women in a male-dominated industry.

Married with three children (now ages ranging from 16 to 21), Cristina continues to advocate the importance of finding work/life balance. For her, this includes marathon running, swimming, cross-training, and—ok, dive off the edge or up in the air—get a pilot’s license. (You can pick your own edgy pursuit!)

Will there be a fourth generation at Banfi Vintners? Stay tuned.

About Castello Banfi

Today Castello Banfi has become a destination experience in the beautiful Tuscan hill town of Montalcino. According to Cristina, “we are not just selling wine, we are selling a way of life.” Castello Banfi’s robust features include:

TOUR the winery (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/borgo/winery-tours)

SIP wine at the enoteca (“wine bar”) and shop to purchase wine and artful items (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/enoteca)

STAY at Il Borgo (“the village”), a Relais & Chateaux hotel with 14 suites/rooms with beautiful amenities (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/hotel-il-borgo)

EAT at two restaurants: La Taverna (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/la-taverna-restaurant) and La Sala dei Grappoli (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/sala-dei-grappoli-restaurant)

TASTE 12-year balsamic vinegar at Banfi’s Balsameria (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/borgo/balsameria)

EXPLORE HISTORY at the glass museum named for founder John F. Mariani, Sr. (https://www.castellobanfiwineresort.it/en/borgo/glass-museum)

Equally important, Castello Banfi has become a research center, pioneering innovations in the vineyard and in the winery that are open sourced to other wineries, shared widely to inform the industry about Brunello and Super Tuscan wines. In 2006, Banfi became the first winery in the world to achieve the ISO 9001, ISO 14000, and SA 8000 accreditations.