Garbellotto

Garbellotto is a family of craftsmen with its roots in the Veneto Region, in the village of San Fior near Conegliano and 60 km from Venice.

Giuseppe Garbellotto was born in 1754 and was already working as a carpenter by 1775. His son Pietro and nephew Augusto Emilio, born in 1801, followed in his footsteps. All three craftsmen whose talent was not only applied to making barrels and vats but also artistic furniture, who used to run a very efficient workshop in the yard next to their house, employing twelve people.

Giovanni Battista was born in 1815, and later took the business management for the next fifty years, assisted by his numerous sons, including Narciso who was born in 1853. His oldest son Emilio emigrated to Brazil and founded the Brazilian branch of Garbellotto, which still continues the family traditions today (working actively in the furniture industry with three companies around Passo Fundo and Porto Allegre).

With the help of his remaining two brothers, Narciso specialised in producing wine barrels and their fame gradually grew until they became the official supplier to the cellars of the House of Hapsburg.

The company continued to prosper for a long time until the First World War, when they had to cease production due to occupation by the Austrian troops.

The family home is now protected as a Fine Arts Monument, but at that time was converted by the occupying army into a military first aid unit. The family archives all disappeared and only a few pieces of furniture and a few mementoes of the Garbellotto family were saved.

The war finally ended and Giobatta, Narciso’s son who was born in 1886, reorganised the company following an industrial model, in Conegliano where he laid the foundations for a successful future. The business rapidly expanded to become the leading Italian industry in its field and one of the best in the world.

Giobatta’s son Pietro followed in his footsteps and had the brilliant intuition to begin selling wood alongside their barrel industry, establishing an efficient synergy between the two businesses, thanks to which large quantities of wood can be bought at excellent terms, after which they are selected and used to make the barrels or, alternatively, they are sold according to the physical properties of each type of wood. 

This intuition saved the company during the serious crisis which hit the entire sector in the 80s, as the barrel makers were moved to work in the new department, thus safeguarding all their production knowhow.

Over these two centuries the company has successfully supplied wine cellars throughout the world, but there are two very special supply agreements:

With 712 closed vats with a capacity of 166 hectolitres each, for a total capacity of approx. 120,000 hectolitres, Garbellotto contributed to establishing the GALLO wine cellars in Modesto – California, the largest vintage wine cellar in the world, and a total of 4-5 years was required to complete the supply.

The residence of the Archbishop, Prince of Würzburg, in Bavaria, a prestigious castle whose entrance stairway were frescoed by Tiepolo and is without doubt one of the most beautiful cellars that Garbellotto has ever equipped.

The company is currently the world leader in the sector of large barrel production, and is managed by the three Garbellotto brothers, who continue business expansion in the world markets, producing 100,000 hl capacity of barrels every year, on an area of 60,340 square meters, of which 14,137 indoors, with 80 employees.