Meet Ed Lazzerini

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ed Lazzerini. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ed, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

I’ve found that my sources for optimism can change over time, and that different wellsprings come into play for me depending on current circumstances and context. When we were just starting the Vox Vineti project, for example, pure excitement about the newness of the opportunity coupled with my own nescience regarding the wine industry helped keep me motivated through countless challenges related to winegrowing, marketing, and selling wine successfully within the mid-Atlantic region. Encouragement from friends and family was an important factor in the early days as well.

As time progressed, information and stories shared with colleague winegrowers in the region helped me focus on the positive, rather than getting bogged down in negativity that can result from the mistakes and losses that inevitably occur in business.

Now that Vox Vineti is over a decade mature, experience itself has become the most important source of optimism for me.
I keep in mind what’s happened since our family started its wine journey 20 years ago here at the Galloping Cat Vineyard, and it helps me accept the challenges, as well as the ups and downs, that occur each vintage.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

During my childhood, my parents would put money aside and every 4 years we’d spend the summer in Europe, where my dad would teach or do research as part of the trip. I was 10 years old one of those summers, and we happened to spend a week in Burgundy on our way to Innsbruck. I remember tasting wine right from a barrel and enjoying a meal that combined amazing locally-grown wine and food during our stay in Beaune. I caught the food and wine bug then and there.

Fast forward to 2003: my wife and I began looking for a site on which to grow wine in the mid-Atlantic region. A 3 year search culminated in us finding an amazingly rocky hillside in Andrews Bridge, PA, about an hour west of Philadelphia and just inside of Lancaster County. We purchased that site in 2006 and established the Galloping Cat Vineyard there in 2010 in order to provide estate-grown grapes for Vox Vineti, our new wine brand.

At Vox Vineti, Latin for “voice of the vineyard”, we grow globally-competitive wine in what is very much a frontier wine region. We primarily craft red Bordeaux blends that highlight Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, but our Nebbiolo is perhaps the wine for which we’re best known. Planted on a whim because of our vineyard’s low water holding capacity soils, our Nebbiolo vines yield an outstanding wine from a variety that has been difficult to grow outside of its traditional homes in northern Italy.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

– acceptance of reality
– seek expertise/help from others
– learn from mistakes and apply those learnings in future

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

Raising the reputation of wine that’s grown in the mid-Atlantic is another part of Vox Vineti’s mission. This is a challenge because the mid-Atlantic isn’t already known as a bonafide wine region, largely because consistency of wine quality can be a legitimate concern for potential consumers.

We’re taking this head on by educating the market, both retail and professional, about the most compelling styles and types of wines that can be grown here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.voxvineti.com
• Instagram: @voxvineti
• Other: questions/contact email address is [email protected]

Image Credits

Dan Sauer