Dolia Talks | Wine, spirits and beverages marketing and sales

This show is sponsored by Dolia
Francesco Airenti is the Marketing Manager at Mack & Schühle Italia, with more than 20 years leading marketing at Campari, Santa Margherita and Allegrini behind him. Few people in wine have sat on both the classic-brand side and the challenger side of the business the way he has.
He walks through how a wine marketing budget should actually be split, why most packaging restyles are a waste of money without a clear positioning behind them, and the evolution-not-revolution rule he applies to rebranding heritage brands. We also cover GRAPUR, his award-winning low-alcohol wine line, and GENEVITIS, the cooperative-partnership model reshaping how Italian wine regions go to market.

AGENDA:
1:42 The value of design in the wine industry & supply chain consistency4:16 Design vs. terroir: is design becoming more important for differentiation?6:12 What wine can learn from spirits and other industries (Campari, luxury, fashion)15:03 The role of a marketing manager in wine — trade marketing, sales support, and fragmented markets19:20 Sales & marketing relationship: communication challenges and alignment21:34 When should a winery hire a marketing manager?24:27 Where marketing budget gets wasted 27:08 When to rebrand or redesign packaging 29:21 Healthy budget allocation31:35 KPIs & measuring marketing ROI32:50 GRAPUR project — low-alcohol wine, sustainable packaging, and design awards41:57 Opportunity for traditional producers in low-alcohol & zero-alcohol wines44:42 GENEVITIS project — cooperative partnerships across Italian regions & market consolidation53:15 Francesco's quickfire round

This show is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands.

Amanda Thomson founded Noughty in 2019, years before non-alcoholic wine became a category investors chase. She trained in fine wine and champagne in Paris, ran her own sparkling and champagne label, and only then built a non-alcoholic wine brand out of a genuine gap in the market.
She and Giovanni talk through how Noughty built its UK distribution model before the country's biggest distributor came calling, how she decides between fine wine distributors, trend-led importers, and food service partners depending on the market, and why she still says no to distribution deals she doesn't believe in.
Essential listening for anyone building or distributing a beverage brand in a category still working out its own rules.

AGENDA:
1:09 Origins: "good wine before good non-alc wine"
2:16 Launching Noughty in 2019 & the market opportunity
3:17 Developing the product & finding winemaking partners
6:00 What makes a good non-alcoholic wine
7:19 Launching just before COVID & the pandemic pivot
9:51 Zebra striping / flexi-drinking trend
13:57 Noughty's customer profile
15:13 B2C vs. B2B: the omni-channel launch strategy
21:52 Importers, distributors & portfolio fit
24:31 How Amanda selects (and rejects) distributors
26:55 UK vs. US market differences
31:04 Paid brand partnerships
33:21 Social media's role in building the brand
34:17 Community & the "wine club"/DTC approach
41:45 Lessons fine wine taught Naughty
43:06 Amanda's quick-fire round

This show is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more here.
Juan Carlos Maroto Jara has built brand strategy for three very different beverage businesses: Gin Mare from a blank sheet, Matusalem through a 150-year-old family business turnaround, and Match, the premium mixer brand he co-founded at Curius, designed from day one for e-commerce and specialty coffee rather than the back bar.
In this episode, he walks through how each brand's positioning got built, from Gin Mare's refusal to claim a single Mediterranean country, to the global governance reset that saved Matusalem, to why Match is stripping "tonic water" out of its own name starting in the US, with Europe following in 2027.
Essential listening for anyone working in beverage brand positioning or international market entry.

AGENDA:
1:39 – Common thread across Gin Mare, Matusalem & Match
5:40 – Building the Gin Mare brand & "Mediterranean gin" concept
12:29 – Was the "no single country" branding strategy right, and would it work today?
16:12 – Translating brand story into buyer/trade pitches20:03 – Matusalem: reviving a 150-year-old brand
27:32 – Why launch something new: the origin of Match
31:12 – "Fashion-like" brand approach & the Waitrose/Corte Inglés stories
37:13 – When does a mixer stop being a mixer and become a drink?
41:08 – The role of trade shows
42:53 – What traditional wine/spirits brands can learn from Match
44:58 – Quick-fire round

This episode is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more here.

Rodolphe Frerejean Taittinger has built three beverage brands that have almost nothing in common except him. Frerejean Frères is a grower champagne house from Avize, French Bloom is the alcohol-free wine brand LVMH decided to back in 2024, and Coutanseaux is a cognac house tracing back to 1767.
In this conversation, he walks through how a scarcity-driven grower champagne house picks distributors differently than a category-leading challenger brand does, how French Bloom found its actual buyer after badly misjudging the market at launch, and why he thinks cognac's comeback depends on smaller formats and sharper positioning rather than bigger price tags.
Essential listening for anyone building a beverage brand across more than one category, or trying to figure out where the real demand for alcohol-free sits.

AGENDA:
3:07 – Champagne market: positioning, terroir, and Frerejean Fréres' philosophy7:43 – Distribution strategy and choosing specialized distributors10:13 – Entering the US and Japanese markets12:20 – Partnerships: airlines, Michelin restaurants, and creative marketing16:13 – Opportunity for smaller Champagne houses in hospitality/tourism20:08 – Transition to French Bloom: the origin story 24:34 – Understanding the non-alcoholic wine market and flexi-drinkers29:24 – Industry skepticism toward non-alcoholic products32:29 – What traditional winemakers can learn from beverage startups36:50 – LVMH investment and the Formula 1 partnership39:39 – Market performance across 68 countries and surprising wins41:56 – Introduction to Coutanseaux cognac and its family history46:21 – Making cognac more accessible and rethinking pricing47:29 – Appealing to younger cognac consumers48:46 – Quick-fire round

This podcast is sponsored by Dolia, the growth platform for beverage brands. Find out more at https://getdolia.com
Ruggero Raymo co-founded Portofino gin in 2019 after a career in sports sponsorship at AC Milan, FIFA, and Eurosport, with no prior experience in beverage or spirits. Seven years later, Portofino is a globally distributed premium gin brand, and Ruggero has become one of the sharper commercial minds in the category on how to build demand from outside the traditional trade playbook.
Ruggero walks through how Portofino used cross-industry partnerships with fashion, design, art, and sports brands to create consumer pull before ever pitching a distributor, the pyramid strategy behind sequencing on-trade, off-trade, and eventually supermarkets, and how two competitor acquisitions reshaped the Mediterranean gin category in Portofino's favor.
Essential listening for anyone building or distributing a beverage brand in a category everyone insists is already too crowded.

AGENDA
00:05 From sports sponsorships to launching a gin brand
02:40 Three lessons for launching a brand with zero experience
04:30 State of the gin and spirits market today
07:09 Is the gin category oversaturated?
09:09 Where the real growth is: premium and ultra-premium
10:08 How the market outlook has changed since 2019
13:13 The no/low alcohol trend, plus a teaser on Portofino's next launch
16:00 The early days: hand-delivering gin and first sales channels
18:58 The cross-industry partnership strategy behind Portofino
24:43 Balancing wide distribution with a premium position
27:22 Current sales channel split and market-by-market differences
28:55 How Portofino picks its next market: the data behind expansion
31:31 How two competitor acquisitions opened doors for Portofino
34:26 The US opportunity and the state-by-state playbook
36:20 Alcohol tourism and hospitality strategy
38:02 Quick fire round