Gianni Flego

For Gianni Flego, wine is in the blood. Both his father and grandfather were involved in the New Zealand wine industry, and his family in Italy have a history of winemaking. After living in Europe and working in the hospitality industry, Gianni developed an interest in winemaking and decided to study full time. On graduating from Lincoln University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology degree he joined Villa Maria Estate on the Winemaking Cadetship scheme. Since then, after spending time in various winemaking roles looking after many aspects of winemaking and wider wine business, he is a winemaker based at the Villa Maria Auckland winery for most of the year and in Hawkes Bay at the Villa Maria Gimblett Gravels winery for harvest. As well as being focussed on winemaking activities he supports a wide area of the operation from viticulture systems support through to bottling, traceability, continuous improvement and systems integration across the wider company.