Alessia Antinori

A member of the 26th ?generation of an old Italian wine family, Alessia Antinori shares with Gigi Onag what it feels like to "conquer" the world

How does it feel to be a woman in the male-dominated wine business?

Especially a few years ago, it was quite tough to be female and involved in the technical side of the wine business, which was so male-oriented. Things have changed now and there are many more women involved in the wine business either in sales or technical parts.

Do you think the altitude makes a difference On wines being served onboard the aircraft?

There are two views on this. One is that certain wines travel well and taste better than others in the air. My view is that wines don’t particularly change (their taste), but only if they have been stored in the right way in the warehouses on land.

What kind of a traveller ?are you?

Very curious to understand new cultures and interested in Asia and the Middle East. For this reason, I was following the ?Asian markets as sales manager for our family business.

Where do you normally go?

I was flying to Asia for the last five years and lived in Hongkong for a time. Now I fly around and live in the US.
For intercontinental trips, I fly Business Class for flights that last more than eight hours, or coach for all the shorter ones. Until two years ago, I travelled in coach for 10 years.

What is the first thing you do when you arrive in a foreign country?

I visit the city, try the local food and meet the local business people to understand their mentality and approach.  

Where do you take your holidays?

For leisure, I love going to India and (other parts of) Asia. My most favourite place in the world after Italy is India because of the intense emotions that the country always transmit to me – the colours, the smells and the people.

What’s your most unforgettable travel experience?

Visiting India 10 years ago and Burma 12 years ago gave me great experiences that I have treasured ever since. In Burma especially, it feels like you are one of the first foreigners to go there.

You have two sisters, Albiera and Allegra. What is the story behind your names?

Albiera was an Antinori family name. Allegra because my mother was ?reading a book of a family friend entitled Allegra. Alessia because she liked it. She wanted all our first names to start with ?an "A". My father’s reason was quite different. At that time, airlines used to not print the full first name of the passenger, and only had the first name initial. He thought if he took one of us on a trip, it would have been easy to make a last-minute change because the ticket printed as ìA Antinoriî could have been used by any of us.