Gotto d'oro Società Cooperativa

On 10th July 1945, 41 winemakers formed a consortium called “Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Marino” a wine cooperative with head office in a semi-devastated state plant in Ciampino, which at the time was a village under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Marino, in the province of Rome.

From the very first commercialisation on an industrial scale, the wine flasks bore the logo with the traditional wine cart of the Agro Romano (the rural area around Rome), the same cart reproduced on today’s bottle labels.

The wine cart is, indeed, one of the emblems that best represent the territories of Marino and Frascati, the most important production areas for Gotto d’oro, and soon became the icon that easily paved the way for an authentic journey not only aimed at commercial pursuits, but also focussed on a strong link with the territory and on brand recognition.

Ezio Rivella was hired as wine-making technician at a young age and is now considered one of the figures who most influenced the history of Italian wine. With him, Gotto d’oro bought state-of-the-art wine making equipment, like the modern sistem of “flash pasteurization”.

“Goccia d’oro” is the original name used to market our packaged wine, but a dangerous homonymy with the winery Mirabella in Marsala, which sold its wines under the same name, resulted in a controversy that dragged on until 1964, when the issue was solved thanks to a brilliant intuition: replacing the word Goccia with Gotto term that derives from the Latin word “guttus”, or glass beaker for the ancient Romans, a variant of which also indicates its content of wine. Those were the years when 42 sales agents supplied 2795 customers in Italy and around the world.

The strength of tradition is well matched with numbers and awards that fully promote company policies. It was 1966, the economic boom was in full swing, and the Frascati DOC was recognised among the first designations of controlled origins in Italy. Later, in 1970, it was followed by Marino DOC, the wine that has made the history of the winery.

The new Gotto d’oro headquarters in Frattocchie, a modern collection and processing centre, were officially declared open in 1973. The winery had 17,000 customers throughout Italy and around the world. The Ciampino Distillery was shut down.

The 80s started with the first meeting of the members in the new Frattocchie plant and the takeover of the winemaking centre in Frascati.

The name of the winery changed from Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Marino to Cantina di Marino Gotto d’oro. In 1989, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forests nominated Gotto d’oro as a “cooperative company of national interest”.

During the first decade of the new century, Gotto d’oro implemented a very important industrial restyling initiative.

Many steps were taken to upgrade cellar space and technologies: remake of the purification waste water plant, inclusion of an osmosis reverse plant and construction of a 99 kW photovoltaic system.

2011 saw the inauguration of the Wine Lounge at the current Frattocchie headquarters located at 347 Via del Divino Amore. A new shop where one can not only buy all the Gotto d’oro wines, but also take part in events, sommelier courses and tastings.

Vinea Domini, a new line of wines that represents the excellence of Gotto d’oro production, was created in 2016 and dedicated to the catering industry with the intent to enhance the value of autochthonous grape varieties and the DOC/DOCG wines of Lazio, giving them a well-deserved recognition.

Through our collaboration with Labozeta S.p.A., we set up the new chemistry and microbiology lab to further increase the control, research and quality of our wine products.

Members have reached 150, with 1000 hectares of vineyards and a yearly production of 5,100,000 bottles. On occasion of the 75th anniversary of the winery, we created the new line Settantacinque75, 12 wines conceived for young consumers attentive to sustainability.

The concept of sustainability is made up of concrete steps, which is why we decided to join ETHIC Project by Amorim Cork Italia: a new model of circular economy for the collection of any type of cork stopper.

We are the 1st winery in the Lazio region to have obtained the EQUALITAS certification: a European certification brand for the standard of sustainable wine, based on three pillars: social, environmental and economic.