I stumbled into Fattoria Poggerino in 2002 as a student abroad. I had just turned 21 and my parents were able to make the trip to Italy from Indiana to visit me. My dad wanted to rent a car and hit up Chianti Classico… do a little driving and check out some wineries. He'd always appreciated wine, but tended to lean to California while wanting to understand and appreciate Italian reds - if for nothing else than the fact that our last name, Lazzara, has Italian heritage. We took a left and a right through the endless hills of Tuscany before arriving, by luck, to Radda in Chianti. Down another hill we found an "open" sign and headed up the gravel drive of Poggerino where I met Benedetta and Piero Lanza. They'd been handed down the property by their mother and father in the early '80s. I heard the story, tasted the wines and almost immediately had chills run down my spine... it was here I told my dad "if wine can be this good, maybe this would be a cool job for me". Fast forward to 2007, I take a break from working at a consulting firm to develop my business plan and head back to Poggerino. I told Piero I was ready to import his wines to the US and he asked where I was based. I said Colorado... to which he replied "where is that?"... roughly I explained it was between California and New York and I'd pay cash for the first pallet of wine. We've been great friends ever since!