It doesn’t take much for a small town to become awash with gossip. And it’s certainly the case right now in the rural winemaking town of Gambellara, with a population of 3000, located between Verona and Vicenza in northern Italy.
The largest winemaking family-turned-empire here is Zonin. In the picture above, the grey roofs (to the left of the church) are Zonin, showing you how the company dominates the local economy. Zonin have other seven estates scattered over Italy (from Friuli and Tuscany to Sicily) but these are the headquarters and where they make prosecco, the beating heat of Italian wine exports. I drive past Zonin every day on the school run and my son always plays a guessing game if there will be just one or maybe two or three trucks waiting to load or unload.
Why am I talking about Zonin today? They’ve just announced their latest accounts. The numbers I’ve heard range from 14 to 80 million – such is the level of gossip Chinese whispers that this town is capable of.
What does seem to be true is that:
- Annual turnover in 2025 is apparently 10% down on 2024 (source: nordest.it, April 2026) – a figure that seems more than plausible given the global market slow-down – for a total of 183 million euros in 2025. (Source: pambianconews, April 2026.) Turnover in 2024 was somewhere between 165 million (as reported on the official Camera di Commercio website) and 210 million euros (in the wider press.)
- Debts are astronomical. The Gambero Rosso yesterday reported that a three year restructuring plan has been set up to offset the 80 million of debt that Zonin has accrued. (Source: gamberorosso.it, April 2026.) Other sources (i.e. the local TV channel) are reporting 83 million of debt, but for the first time in my life, three million euros is irrelevant.
It’s important to state too that the Zonin facility in Gambellara no longer presses fresh grapes and vinifies. It buys wine and bottles it. If a négociant company like Zonin, with its extensive export sales network, can’t stay afloat in this current climate, who will?
Zonin have 8 months to come up with a plan to reduce this eye-watering debt, but hushed whispers around town are concerned that Zonin might go into liquidation or find another way not to pay off the debt. Why? Well, just ten years has passed since the last Zonin scandal – which caused thousands of local people to lose their life savings.
Very little has been written about this online – I would even go as far as to use the word omerta – apart from one spot-on blog post written by Michael Goldstein in 2023 which I’ll copy and paste in its entirety here:
During our conversations with farmers and bottlers in the Prosecco region of Italy, we’ve observed a persistent sense of animosity regarding a particular topic. Specifically, the farmers inquire whether we know about the “boycott Zonin wines” movement and our opinion on it.
In 2015, as reported by Reuters and the Financial Times, Zonin Wines, an Italian wine company, was accused of financial improprieties, including the misuse of company funds and misrepresentation of financial data. These allegations have since sparked the “Boycott Zonin Wines” movement.
According to reports, Italian wine mogul and former banker Gianni Zonin was president of Banca Popolare di Vicenza from 1996 to 2015. The bank’s collapse resulted in the loss of 118,000 clients’ savings and devastated Italy’s industrial northeast, wiping out 6.5 billion euros in savings. The collapse affected many small shareholders, including local business owners and farmers famous for producing the Prosecco glera grape in the region.
Although the name Zonin may not be well-known in the United Kingdom, Zonin Wines produces Kylie Minogue’s “Kylie Prosecco” under the producer alias “CVZ S.p.A., Gambellara (VI). Italy,” which is an abbreviation of “Casa Vinocola Zonin SPA.” (Source: prosecco.com, 2023)
Let me bring you up to speed…
Gianni Zonin was also the president of Banca Populare di Vicenza (BPVI) and in 2021, he was found guilty and sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. (He appealed.)
“The bank was accused, among other things, of pressuring clients to purchase Popolare di Vicenza shares and convertible bonds by making it a condition for issuing loans, mortgages, and other lines of credit.
There were also allegations that 975 million euros worth of shares in the bank were bought during the 2012-2014 period via Popolare di Vicenza loans, in breach of banking regulations…
An ill small saver committed suicide after losing hundreds of thousands of euros in shares in the bank.
The bank was probed for criminal conspiracy as well as false accounting.” (Source: ansa.it, 2021)
And of course:
“The top management of the bank, in the weeks following the opening of the investigation into the crash, “registered movable and immovable property to their wives and children to the detriment and detriment of creditors”, said judge Roberto Venditti….
For Zonin – for 19 years at the helm of the bank, accused of rigging and obstruction of supervision of Bank of Italy and the ECB – the seizure of movable or immovable property sold or given to third parties primarily concerns the Winery of family, Gianni Zonin Vineyards Sas. The manager had in fact sold shares to his children equal to 26,9%. Between the end of 2015 and 2016, the transfer of assets from Zonin to his family members was not limited to the wine business: land, buildings, real estate companies and so on.” (Source: firstonline.info, 2018)
In the same article (on firstonline.info) we get an idea of the size of those assets conveniently reassigned to other family members:
“The judge at the preliminary hearing ordered the precautionary seizure for 176 million euros on movable and immovable property registered to the wives and children of Zonin and five other former managers of the Veneto bank. Glimmer of compensation for over five thousand shareholders.” (Source: firstonline.info, 2018)
Of course in the last 10 years, things have changed. In 2018, Alessandro Benetton (you may be familiar with that name too? The United Colours of…) bought 36% of Zonin1821 for somewhere between 60-65 million euros. The remaining 63% is still in the hands of the Zonin family.
Two days ago, Maurizio Rossetti has been nominated administrator to lead the company through these choppy waters. Let’s hope they can. I want them to succeed because our town will be much poorer without Zonin…
But, and this is my final plea for today, if you’re a buyer or a writer, please do your research and choose to spotlight people who pay their suppliers and treat their employees correctly. Obviously, a winery like ours could never produce the volumes for Kylie Minogue or Andrea Bocelli (who also partners with Zonin) and nor we wouldn’t want to… and whilst the big guys have their place in the industry, please hold them to account. Don’t let the wool be pulled over your eyes by the buzzword “sustainability.” Ask them the hard questions. Ask for results. Wineries may go under in this period – importers too – but if they worked with real sustainability and integrity at the forefront, they’ll sleep well at night. When there is so much wine to choose from, choose wisely.
See also: article based around the B.S. wishy-washy concept of sustainability in Dr Wine in Sept 2025 “A chat with Francesco Zonin.”
Justin Keay – I don’t mean to pick on you – but the closing of your article in The Buyer just two months ago (having attended the Zonin annual portfolio tasting in London) is just too perfect to let slide:
“Epilogue. The last word goes to Michele Zonin who admits he is confident the group is on the right track.
“Going forward we see these estates as the core of our growth, and are seeking to premiumise further. All of our estates are focused on sustainability and this is something we will deepen and develop.”” (Source: The Buyer, February 2026)
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