June 8, 2023 • 50 mins
Today we have a real treat for you, a wonderful interview with Gudrun Cuillo, a hospitality property owner, a winemaker, and an author.
Listen as Gudrun shares how she turned passion into reality.
Gudrun has had a career in opera as an artist-in-residence for stage scenery and makeup, then a winemaker, a hospitality property owner and now an author.
If you are looking for some fun stories, great observations, and amazing insights you can take and use in your life, you’ll want to listen to this interview.
All that being said, let’s jump into this…
⇒ TO WATCH, READ OR LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE ON KEYSTONE HOSPITALITY PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT:
https://keystonehpd.com/gudrun-cuillo-hospitality-property-owner-winemaker-author-346
“The Guide to Owning & Operating a Hospitality Property – Successfully” course.
https://KeystoneHPD.com/Course
Get your copy of the “How to Improve Your Hospitality Properties Success” e-book?
https://keystonehpd.com/how-to-improve-your-hospitality-propertys-success
Get Your INNsider Tips
https://KeystoneHPD.com/INNsider-Tips
Join one of your private groups
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Say hi on social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeystoneHPD
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeystoneHPD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keystone-hospitality-development
Listen to The Hospitality Property School PODCAST here
https://hospitality-property-school.onpodium.co/
YouTube
https://youtu.be/5MkyrEAaujA
A Division of Keystone Hospitality Property Development
Listen as Gudrun shares how she turned passion into reality.
Gudrun has had a career in opera as an artist-in-residence for stage scenery and makeup, then a winemaker, a hospitality property owner and now an author.
If you are looking for some fun stories, great observations, and amazing insights you can take and use in your life, you’ll want to listen to this interview.
All that being said, let’s jump into this…
⇒ TO WATCH, READ OR LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE ON KEYSTONE HOSPITALITY PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT:
https://keystonehpd.com/gudrun-cuillo-hospitality-property-owner-winemaker-author-346
“The Guide to Owning & Operating a Hospitality Property – Successfully” course.
https://KeystoneHPD.com/Course
Get your copy of the “How to Improve Your Hospitality Properties Success” e-book?
https://keystonehpd.com/how-to-improve-your-hospitality-propertys-success
Get Your INNsider Tips
https://KeystoneHPD.com/INNsider-Tips
Join one of your private groups
https://keystonehpd.com/private-groups
Say hi on social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeystoneHPD
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeystoneHPD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keystone-hospitality-development
Listen to The Hospitality Property School PODCAST here
https://hospitality-property-school.onpodium.co/
YouTube
https://youtu.be/5MkyrEAaujA
A Division of Keystone Hospitality Property Development
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Our interview today at the Hospitality PropertySchool is with Gudrun Quillo, a woman
of many talents. Gudrun has hada career in opera as an artist in
residence for stage scenery and makeup,then as a winemaker, a hospitality property
owner, and now an author.Wow, Gudrun, I'm amazed you're able
(00:23):
to make the time to share yourstory and expertise with us. All that
being said, Gudrun, are youready to jump into this? Absolutely good.
Now, most of our listeners arehospitality property owners, and I want
to talk about your very unique property, but I'll do that in a little
bit. First. It's not uncommonfor the hospitality property owners I know who
(00:49):
have not started in hospitality but inother fields, just as you have.
And I would like to know howyou got into theater, specifically opera.
How did that happen? It happeneda pure chance. My profession that I
have, but my background is thatdoesn't really exist in the United States.
(01:10):
It's called a fugistan. So it'sbasically you learned everything about plans and telling.
Makeup comes in and then you havedifferent courses that you can take.
And I soon realized that I wasmore into the part of makeup. I
went to Vienna and they had aprogram with an exchange student to go to
(01:32):
United States, and I took thisopportunity and I ended up in New York.
But when I started with the makeupthere and going, you know to
further educational parts of it, itbecame very clear to me that New York
was not giving me what I thoughtwould enhance my career, in sense that
(01:53):
I maybe ended up with people thatmy English at that time was not very
good, so I was always orderedto get cough in all kinds of other
things. And then, strange enough, a friend of mine went to Palm
Beach and from from my hometown,and she was working for a family and
(02:13):
the family, you know, we'reall snowbirds, employda and the left for
the summer to go to Long Island, and she was staying by herself,
taking care of the house. SoI came down and for me, Austria
been inland, you know, noocean, and I have the palm trees
and the beautiful scent, and everythingis said to myself, I want to
(02:34):
stay here. And I found alady. Her name was Georgid Kinger,
and she had stores throughout the UnitedStates. It's almost like Elizabeth Arden.
And I introduced myself to her andshe became very intrigued by me and how
I did my makeup. So shewas my sponsor and she was the one
(02:57):
was able to give me the workto stay in the United States. And
from there everything changed her rapidly.I started to work in auditoriums and make
up in my Ami did makeup ina best Palm Beach. Um did courses
and of course, you know,worked in her store doing makeup when people
(03:21):
had the facials and things like that. It was not very glamorous, but
for me it was beautiful because Iwas accepted that's who I am, and
still were very eager that I improvedwith my English, and missus Klinger was
very very much involved in my education. And soon after my sister arrived in
(03:44):
Palm Beach and then years go byand we you know, being ventured into
a different kind of kind of abusiness. And then my sister got married
and that's how I'm Admhausment through mysister. Actually no nice, yeah,
And then you know the story isthat you get married and so here I
(04:05):
am. So I became an American. I became an American citizen. I
do have also my Austrian roots andI'm still an Austrian as well. And
but life completely changed when I marriedmy husband. My husband was an American
immigrants. Now my husband spent wasAmerican immigrants that met on the boats going
(04:31):
to the United States. They soonafter marriage and they had seven children,
and Baba's the second youngest, growingup very very poor one in the Bronx,
and he always said to himself hewould make it from director the riches.
He would go back to Italy andbuy property. And that's what he
did. Nice. So that's whenyou you found a passion from what I
(04:57):
understand, a passion in the Italianculture. So what happened was is you
know, when you are married tosomeone who was very much involved in the
in the theatrical community. He didmany many Broadish shows and he bought the
theater of Burt Reynolds, um investonBeach and he was a person who would
(05:23):
um support young artists and give thema chance to grow. He also did
CDs, you know, did music, UM cities and I mean a lot
of things. He was in arestaurant business and um. But he made
his fortune in the car industry,so he was um he had to Yoda.
(05:43):
He was the first Lexo steeler inthe United States, and he really
grew himself and he was, ofcourse, you know, much older than
me, but he was very muchinvolved with UM me getting to know myself
better. So he was very,very supportive of the things that I wanted
(06:04):
to do. He always asked whatI think, and I writing was always
my passion, and I never reallywrote a book or anything like this,
but I wrote lyrics to songs andI write every day in my diary of
things that happened around me. Andthen, you know, after years going
(06:28):
into my husband said to me thathe really wants to go and buy something
in Italy. And he came fromNapoli, so he wanted to buy something
in hebrid that did not go through. So he already told everybody in the
States that he bought the place.And so Leah Cocker was one of his
(06:55):
very close friends, and we cameto see him and we were not the
best house guests because the face wasvery tree st We were not very happy.
And he said, go around anddrive around, and go and taste
the different wines Duscany has to offer, and We ended up in the winery
called Reaction in we Are. Theowner was Gary Bowman, who worked for
(07:18):
Instant Young. Then the wine makerwas Irish and his wife was driving.
So it was a gloomy Sunday afternoonand we got to drink and we had
a really great time and you getsome cheese. Then we end up having
pasta with them. And then Shansaid to my husband, says, greatly,
(07:39):
buy something in Naples Dondard It's orbuy something in a duskany mask.
He said, good by not soSean said, he's them. There is
a property called Castle Dano. It'sa running county. It is not for
sale, but the owner passed awayand the wife wants to move back to
Switzerland. Why don't we just gothere tomorrow. So sure enough, we
(08:01):
arrived on a Monday at eleven o'clock, met the lady, had the handshake
at one o'clock, and on Fridaythey exchanged their money and like Commo,
and then we had us very happyand Gary, here comes to funny story.
So we got back to America.We knew that they had a south
gate at the North gate, thatthe property was really big. The house
(08:22):
was a disaster so we had toget the contractor and you deal with all
of that, and then we arehome and around Christmas time, they're getting
a phone call from a lawyer inFlorence called Lorenzo Country, and he's telling
us that the property has six anda half hector of key anti classical rights
(08:43):
and there's a winery nearby who wantedto buy those rights. So my us
was looking at me like because wedidn't understand what that meant, because we
thought maybe that we had been atsomewhere we did not see them. And
then he explained to us what thatmeans. And then my husband said,
okay, give me your number andI'll call you back. So he hung
(09:07):
up. And this is good fromguessboards. I said, as if we're
going to go and plant grapes incastle Vento winds in Castavento. I said,
what are you talking about? Theyhave they have rights here that this.
You need to go back to Italyas soon as possible. We need
to figure everything out. So Isaid, okay. So we went back
to Italy and m with the contractor, who also U was able to help
(09:31):
us with the vineyards, and sowe decided that you're going to go and
plants the vineyards around Castle Vent toour house, so not buying the property
in in compriate on an islands.We actually now live on an island just
around it, not by water,but but by wine by per grade.
Wow. Yeah. And the ideawas because we didn't know anything about the
(09:54):
wine making process. However, Itook them out from a family that my
grandfather built wine cellars in the southernpart of Austria in Styria, and we
also had had a veher brewery.So somehow every you know, I knew
a little bit clims and things ofhow the process would go. And the
(10:18):
idea that was that this winery wouldcome in who wanted to buy our rights
and they would run the property.And then my husband and they had the
first meetings when they did all ofthe excavation work, when we took two
years to plans, and finally intwo thousands, you know, we had
the plans in the field, soyou have to wait another four years.
(10:43):
But then it became so interesting tome how everything came together. And then
when you only get one thousand bottlesback after you spend so much money.
My husband actually came up and withthis idea one one night in the evening
is a scot. Why don't youjust go and educate yourself and you do
(11:05):
it. I suppose that's impossible.I didn't even know the language. She
says, well, you're young enough, you have nothing else to do,
so you learn the language. Youknow, you read the books, you
do this, you do that,you get you an analogist, to get
you an agronomist, and you justgo and be hands on. And that's
how it all started. Wow.Yeah, I mean they have no agronomists,
(11:28):
they have no analogists. I'm runningthis by myself with my great manager
Martina, who is the right hairedman here, and and I learned.
I mean, all the people sincenineteen ninety seven have been with us from
the beginning. Not one person hasleft. That's incredible. We have a
(11:50):
family that lives in the property.The Sun is now working for us.
They have a little son, thenamed after my husband Roberto. I have
Debor, my sweetheart in the house, who is the worries in the book,
Matina Carl in the office. Wehave in Givanano a great crew.
So it's just really the only sometimespeople change is you know, then we
(12:13):
open up the aguaturismo because you don'tbe only open from Easter until the fifteenth
of October, so we have peoplethat come in part time, but even
that, after the last twelve yearsbecame stable, so we always have the
same people coming and it's just abig family. And I think that the
(12:33):
road to success, in my pointof view, is the people that are
around you. And you cannot beand I personally have to be a b
person. You have to be ateam. And we are all a team,
and we are a family, andthat's how it all comes together.
At Corona time, I was soworried about everybody, and David worried that
(12:56):
it would send them home or whatever. I said, listen, guys,
we could go and have a zoomboon, get everybody together, and then we'll
talk about who did what's in romania? Who did what detractor drive or what
did you do before? And wefound out that everybody had some kind of
refar take. Some one knew howto paint, the other one knew how
(13:16):
to be electrician and do certain things. So I said, okay, so
nobody gets off the property. Youguys are all staying together. We have
all the vegetables, you're organic,We have all the foods. We have
no guests, so you can takewhatever you want to. You don't go
into town, meat, eggs,whatever you need, we have them deliver
(13:37):
to you guys on the gate.And you do this, you paint the
walls, you do this, youwill you know, everybody helped together,
and then when it was time toopen up, we were ready to go
with like boom boom, and noneof us had color, none of us.
That's amazing. Wow, you shouldbe teaching this. It's it's it
(14:01):
was. It's just like you know, because I saw Gary how they are
with me okay, and how theytreat me, and I'll treat me as
a woman the man. They stillrespect you, and so with disrespects you
cannot just give up when hard timescome. You have to start even being
(14:22):
more closer to them and make surethat they're okay, because if you're nice
to them, they will be niceto you. If you're not respectful to
them, they will not respectful.They will not be respectful to my company,
they will not respect be respectful tomy lands, and they will not
respect the owner. So it's it'sone hand washes another and ask them very
(14:46):
well with that. That's incredible,So you're totally open now, yes,
yeah, you're open fully function.Our satisfaction rate is ninety seven and we
are in the middle of Nober.But it's the aspera ad astra. It's
(15:07):
a Latin phrase. It's a difficultto the stars. So when the customers
still find us, they don't wantto leave. I can see that,
I can really see that they havea great chef, so it's it's and
later the staff everybody's nice. Sooh that's excellent. So what type of
wines do you produce? Okay,so we are in the heart of canteen
(15:30):
canty classical, so we produce countcassicles. It has to rooster the Galomeo
on it, and that means thatthey have to produce with the wine sanchiser
in twenty percent. You can usegrapes that they have growing in the winding
effect me lower company, but youare not allowed to irrigate the wines.
(15:52):
You're not allowed to buy other grapesfor the council action, which is a
new kind of of a appellation thatwe're having. So it's a it's very
interesting. Casaba only produces white mind, so we have the supertaskers, which
isbane Um called Pianos and um there'salso nice story behind that one. And
(16:15):
Gavanano also produces white mine. Sowe have there, we go Melo,
Cambani Caballo, we have give ItsTraMineR, we have Sune blanc and we
have Chartnae casa Vento, we haveAlacante, we have um Um Sanchez of
course Melo and Cambane Cava front.Yeah. And if I'm not mistaken,
(16:41):
I think I heard that you alsoproduce a low country wine. Yes,
yes, it was a project.It was a project that um came from
Virginia, Philip and Um she isa very dear friend. Also helped me
with the education with wine and tastings, and she is located on beach and
(17:07):
she was the first master and it'sstill very much involved in that. And
um. Yeah, so she cameup with this idea. She came to
visit me and we created the lowcalory wine called ninety ninety yeah, ninety
calories per glass. Oh nicety Okay, yes, yeah, I can see
(17:33):
that being a very popular. Theymade were safe in mats A Chatournee and
the mates a red wine. Okay, excellent. Now I would like to
talk about your property. Now,your property I mentioned earlier is very unique.
It can't be classified as a hotelor a bed and breakfast, and
(17:56):
you tell us a little bit ofwell, first of all what the property
is and how it came up bothokay. So Casa Dento was our first
adventure. Then we put a lotof money in there, and our first
vintage in two thousand and four wemade in the garage and my husband said,
(18:18):
man, this is very too missing. I don't want to do that.
We need to build a wine celler. So we started to build a
wine selling casta vent zone and thenone day he said, you know,
he put so much money in there, and they come out with our wine.
We never made any wine, sonobody will ever know us. So
we dwelve around and we came acrossa property called Levanano, which is actually
(18:41):
a chase that now to Casa Denton, but you cannot go directly to it.
You have to drive around it.So we basically bought all little properties
up in between, made another twohectors of wineries there. But so it
was really funny. So the ownerwas Sky and Libanana is a mid evil
(19:04):
town. Levanand is one thousand fivehundred years old. The last owner of
family left Givanan in nineteen fifty threeand the Swiss guy came in and he
planted one hector or two hectors ofgrapes and he meets like what in America
called gavage mine and um it waslocal salts. One was called bursange,
(19:30):
which means one bloods um it wasSanchoism. And then he had another one
called Lebanana, which was a plantof mello and santurism and um. Like
a lot of other people, youknow, when they buy something, money
always runs out faster than you thinkit would. And we became close friends,
(19:53):
and my husband said, you know, if you want to, they
become partners. So they became partnersin two thousands and most of the there
was only one house that was restored. Everything else was still a run.
The church was a disaster, theroads were a disaster. And we then
(20:17):
decided that we would work together witha pay all plant to get came out
over a certain kid of years.And the reason why it was because we
could not run both vineads together becausemost of the time, you know,
we didn't live need to live.We live in the United States. But
mister Gipsy Kimbagan and mister Spickenstan asmy husband is called. They did not
(20:44):
get warm and that relationship ended fasterthan you could say good morning. So
we were left alone. And thenafter we finished our mine sell here,
the crew went over to Levanano andwe went to the archives since Sienna found
on the old footprints of what Lebananawants looked like. And slowly but surely
(21:06):
we started to rebuild one house afteranother and now it houses only our guests.
We specialized in beddings and get togethersand things like that. Um,
because we have to church on itand so many other things that Levanana has
to offer. And we have fullyself contains with our own waters, our
(21:27):
vegetable gardens. We have to poisesea waks that we do we do.
We play operas a couple of timesa year in the in the villas,
and yes we're very much cultural involved. We do poetry readings, we have,
as I said, a lot ofweddings and um, yeah, it's
(21:49):
became a destination for a lot ofpeople, and the whole hamlet, the
whole village. Yes, it's onlyfor our customers. That's amazing. M
And they feel free, they havethe cheft, the grill outside, they
have the public use, they havethe Roman fests to do all kinds of
things. So and yeah, forme, it's it's exciting to see the
(22:14):
people when I get there, howhappy and how relax and relief they are.
And they always tell us when theirrights to make a reservation, to
give them information about the surroundings theareas because they want to travel here,
they want to travel there, andthen they come and they don't move,
they stay there. They do thecooking classes. Really. Yeah, so
(22:36):
how many rooms on your property?We have twelve suits. We can sleep
to many people. So the waythe government government was here, you can
just make one room after another likethis or everything has to have like a
living room sort the Toronto and thatbomb then has to have to have a
recreational area. So it's they're veryvery big and spacious rooms and suites.
(23:00):
That's amazing. And the restaurant isright there on site, isn't it's on
site? Yes, So we havebreakfast at lunch service, left innis service
and yeah, great wine apparently.So yeah, it's obvious that you're very
busy, and that's when you decidedto write a book. Now my wife
(23:23):
is an author. Oh, Idon't know, and I know how busy
she was. She's written a coupleof books, and I know how busy
she gets when she's writing. Howdid you manage to balance your professional life
and you're writing? So um,My husband's was diagnosed with a very sad
(23:51):
illness. He they called him theEndlessnceman, and he had the life of
achievement awards in business. He hadmany, many different awards and did great
things, and he was a supporterof the arts of the Patriots. And
he knew he was not feeling verywell, but nobody really took him seriously.
(24:12):
And finally one doctor diagnosed him withthe mansion. And then the mansion
came into alzheimer and it became verydifficult. So I don't know if you're
familiar with that, but when peopleget in that stage, they start to
(24:33):
lose the present. And he forgotwho I was and it was just really
devastating, and I needed to havesome kind of of an out and outlets
had not to become two SAIDs.And then my mother said to me,
good one, you always wrote suchbeautiful stories. Why don't you just write
(24:57):
a book and as his mom,I don't know how to write a book.
I said, it will come toyou. And so what I did
was it suddenly. It just cameto me one day and I started writing
down in the evenings in Palm Beach, was sitting outside of the glass of
wine, and I had my fountainpen my lucky again, and I came
(25:19):
up with an idea, and soI wrote the beginning the first two chapters.
And I came back to tasking andwith my husband and with my whole
crew, and I had my momread it and she said to me,
good one. We need to continueon. So she said, where's your
phone? So she took my phoneand she says, how do you do
(25:41):
this when you have to put thelamb in there? And I said,
what are you talking about? Soshe put from one o'clock until five o'clock,
and she said, from one o'clockuntil five o'clock, you'll sit in
front of this paper and you write. And it was like going, like
when you want me to go tothe gym, And they said, you
have to exercise every day, andI want to go. But if you
do go, you're so happy toevents. That's how it happens and I
(26:07):
found the time mainly in the evenings, but later on also doing the daytime.
Then the other positivity but that Ihad because I also own an important
company in the United States, isthat the six hours time difference. So
my day Europe would start at threeo'clock in the afternoon, which I changed
into five o'clock in the mornings.I will be down in the cantina.
(26:30):
Then you have your weekly reports thateverybody reports to to you, and the
only thing that you need to dois delegates. And that's what I did.
And I wrote this book and itwent so fast, I mean,
it just put out and it wasamazing. It was like I'm still And
(26:52):
then on my birthday in Austria,all my friends for my birthday party,
and then I they said to me, so you know, what are you
up to now? What are youdoing? Nothing? Really, I'm just
writing a book and they all lookedat me. Now, she's losing her
mom sky. But I wrote itfor myself. First. I wanted to
(27:15):
do something, and I'm always aperson. If I started a project,
I completed, it doesn't matter howdifficult it is. Then writing the book
was not the difficult finding a publisherthat's that's the whole whole other story.
But I to them and um,it's um, yeah, it's quite interesting
(27:37):
how everything started. Would you mindsharing the plot of your book? Okay,
So what happened was I made inmy mind. I had this story.
I wanted to talk about a womanwho thinks she has everything in life,
the perfect life, and then somethinglife, you know, crows her
(28:00):
care fall. So I invented thecharacters. I invented Eric Her, I
invented Craig, and I had hernot knowing about her past. Her parents
passed Debate when she was eighteen.Craig's family, you know, took her
partly in so in her growing upit was never really talked about about her
(28:22):
backgrounds, and she knew that somethingmust have happened in the past. But
you know, if your parents arenot talking about this, you're not going
to go and ask so. Andthen also what time, you know,
you get used to it that youdon't have any uncles or any cousins and
things like that. So she wasbasically alone when they passed aby when she
(28:44):
was eighteen years old on a planecrash, and they were together quite well.
So Craig was a very successful realestate attorney and Erica is works in
a company that um turns to stresscompanies around, So she studied business and
(29:06):
her partner Tiffany, they started thecompany and then the book starts out where
you know they've been together for thirteenyears, where then Craig finally pops the
question if she wants to if theywant to get married in September, because
she's study years old, he's studyfive years old. And that's how it
starts. And soon after she goesto work, she gets a letter and
(29:30):
that she had to sign for fromItaly, and it turns out that she
inherited property. So of course it'sdistressing the whole thing and the lawyer it
demands immediately the chess to come toItaly, and then her whole life becomes
to an upset down and from aperson who lives in a city, you
(29:56):
know, where's all of this couldtruClose doesn't cook because New York offers and
everything, why do you cook?And the lifestyle that they lets, you
know, the weekends in Newhampton's.So she really did not think that she
missed something in life, but unexpectedthat she came here, not knowing what
would expect and then finding out thatthis was actually her grandfather's property, and
(30:19):
then meeting the lawyers, and thenyou know, finding out that's Tiffany at
something with her fiance, and allof this coming together, her emotions coming
together. She realizes that the lifethat she has lived is not a life
that fulfills her. And in NewYork, you don't see a rainbow.
(30:42):
You know, in New York everythingthe time goes by so fast, you
don't open up your eyes, youbump into people. Everything is more important
to society, what rank you're having. But funny enough, when I was
writing it, so the story wasmade up, but deeper and even deeper
going into the chapters and the chapters, I realized that Erica became mean and
(31:07):
unconsciously I was writing and it hadmy visual thinking in there. So what
I what I was lacking in inlove, what I was lacking in closeness,
what I was lacking about you know, the nature, the rainbows,
the rosemary to smell, the cooking. I started to cook when I came
(31:33):
here. So I brought all ofthese experiences that I had. I started
to bring this in this book,and um, and then it was so
it was so fascinating. And thenI put two characters. I put my
employees in there, and everybody wasallowed to choose their own name. So
Deppor became Doris, and Carla becameSusan, and all of all of all
(31:55):
of this this thing that came altogether. They are so proud of this,
this venture because it was a venturetogether. And here especially now, you
know, it's when it's not importantto where could your clothes, It's not
important what car you drive. Itis not important because I live in Palm
(32:16):
Beach, where where money is beingshown. If you don't live in at
twenty million dollars home or the things, you know, you're not closed up
in the society. Not to talkbad about it, because most of the
people can make their money. They'reworking, but their wives such as have
nothing else to do. They goand play golf, they play cards,
to go and belong to clubs.That's not me, that's not me.
(32:38):
And and I went through a verydifficult phase. The maskon was sick.
But in any event, I realizedthat life is so much more to offer.
And now I cannot wait to goto bed, and I cannot bake
up in the morning every day there'sa different day in Palm Beach, or
Monday cames about. I didn't evenwant to get out of bed, and
(33:00):
here I cannot wait for the Mondayto come. To go down in the
continua, to greet my customers,to give them a vine to where the
vine tastings, to go to liveAnana, to say hello to them,
you know. And yes it's astrather bianca. It's a wide vote.
But everything is so happy and allmy workers. Everybody's smiling here, nobody's
(33:20):
crumpy. That's lovely. That isthis is all in your book. Yes,
so it's the whole setting in yourbook is where you are and live
Anano. That's the setting. That'smy place. It starts out in New
York, it ends up in Italy. And then then she find out,
(33:40):
you know, then she didn't wantto sell, and then she had this
her father, her grandfather had thisum this parts in the will that she
can only accept the will or theproperties if she lives for five months in
Italy. In doing five months,she will receive letters that the grandfather wrote
(34:05):
to talk about the history where shecame from, how events to the United
States, how he had to comeback, what was the story and those
letters came without a date, andthen she so many tweaks from the neighbors,
from the bureaucracy, from things whereshe's become scared, and and then
at the end she stays the fivemonths here, she falls in love with
(34:28):
with the manager of Levanano, ofCasa and to Paula and um, it's
a whole new different life that sheleads. She brings her she has a
great couple of gay friends that shebrings from the United States to come to
visit. And then at the endwhen she's taking the property over and she's
(34:49):
the rightful owner of Levanana and thenLevanano, there was another twist where the
lawyer said to her, you know, sometimes the lawyers have to do things
that is more than just you know, stick to the law. So I
need to tell you, and Ihope you understand that it was your grandfather's
(35:12):
wish, and now you know whohe was, and you have many time
mentioned to me that your wish youwould have known your grandfather, and your
grandfather has not passed today, yourgrandfather, she stand the document over to
you and he's right next door,and it's up to you if you want
to meet him. He's eighty nineyears old and of course a little fragile,
(35:35):
and first, you know, heremotions go through the roof. She
doesn't understand if she should be happy, and she realized the power was in
that everybody was in. Then shefeels betrayed by all of the people.
But at the end she comes toher and she says, you know what,
take me to him, and theygo and they look at each other,
they embrace, they both cry,and then she says to him,
(35:57):
let's go home, grandfather. Thenthey drive home and Paulo is driving extremely
slowly. She gets aunty and thenshe said, Grandpa, why did you
not just call me when you foundout about my existence and my thing and
just try to get, you know, to talk to me. This is
Erica. Would you really have thoughtsthat if I would call you out of
(36:21):
the blue, with the light thatyou've left lived in the United States,
if you would talk to me orcome to Italy and dig over the properties.
I said, that was the onlyway for us to try to get
you to Italy. That's what itdid. And then she leaned back and
she says, you know what,Grandpa, I think you're right. I
wouldn't have come, and I thankyou for it, and I thank you
(36:43):
for the change you've made in mylife, and I'm so happy. And
then when they finally arrived from Cassaand everything is so quiet, and then
she sees Paula the grandfather sticking somethingto Powler puts it in his pocket,
and then they come around the cornerand there was this big faster and the
lights go on and all employees havegay friends, all of her people that
(37:05):
have been deferred the last five monthsmonths or before the celebrates. And then
it turns out because it was thesixth of October that it was the eighty
ninth birthday of the grandfather. Andthen our proposes to her. She of
course accepts, and the ring,the dole thing with what he gave her
was a ring. There was asoundflower that belonged to her grandmother. Wow,
(37:30):
yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah,even I cried, But I had
to read my own book. Isaid this. I couldn't believe I actually
did this, and I finished it. That's that's okay, that's wonderful.
So you took everything from or noteverything, but you took a lot of
(37:51):
it from your own life and everythingaround. That's that's great. I know
that anybody listening to this now,he's going to be intrigued about you and
your property. The wine reads theproperty and your book. Where could they
find out more information? Yeah,everything is online them and le Banana has
(38:12):
its own websites. Um, ifyou go into Rada County, can best
binaries, cinema binaries pop up.Because my husband always said to me,
a good one if you do this, remember one thing in my stay of
age, I don't buy green bananasanymore. Everything has been perfect, Everything
has to be good, everything hasto be clean. And we made wines
(38:35):
that are not really the canty ofTuscany. I mean, there are rules
and regulations that they have to goby, but we have we put our
own techniques in and for us itwas important very much so because real we
are in this area in the countyCastico region, which is very very small
inside of canty inside of Tuscany.It's only a very small percentage, okay,
(39:04):
but we have very different soil here. So we have the al the
raised stone, and so you haveto really excavate very deep. So then
then two and a half three metersdown to roll the soil to cut the
stones and to give the nugition innutrition in there because the wines the rootstocks
are going very very deep down.And what's our goal was where when you
(39:32):
drink wine, we did not wantit. We have to the taste of
the woods, the taste of theoak. We wanted to have to taste
when you open up the bottle ofwine. The chiney comes out of Tuscany
in the bottle where you can smellthe coldness, the warmth to it.
They very can smell the foods,the blackberries, the currents, a bit
(39:57):
of the tobacco inside, you know, and be ferments not only in in
oak, but the ferments in stainlesssteel, deferments in concrete, and so
many different things, so with differentvariety. And then because we are organic,
we don't add any yeast, sothe wine has to stay on the
(40:20):
skin much longer, so the processof the fermentation can go up to three
three months instead of just like twoor three weeks. But all of that
SAIDs um, everything is clean inthe wine cellar, Everything is fantastic to
people really respect it. And thenevery parts of the vineyetts have a different
(40:42):
position in the wine cellar, sothen behalf the Melo fam Livnano and the
melo from Casavento, the melo fromAugust East or from Polchi. We all
ferment everything separately. Then after fermentation, we start tasting the wines and then
we decide to make the brand ofwhat we're going to go and do.
So therefore, we can never say, oh, I'm making three thousand bottles
(41:05):
of this every year. I'm makingsix thousand bottles of this every No,
it changes every year, and ifthe year is not good, we don't
make the wine. Twenty fourteen wasa horrible year. We did not make
one bottle of wine. We justsell the bulk to other wineries and we
skipped the year and then we gointo the next vintage. So um,
it's you know, unfortunately a lotof people cannot afford to do that.
(41:30):
But with us, you know,it paid off and became becoming a very
young winery. We have a veryhigh recognition in this area, and it
is difficult to be a foreigner tobe accepted in this community, and sometimes
(41:52):
it's very tough for us. Butslowly, but surely, you know,
everything that we did we built withlocals. We did not go to rely
and get a huge company coming andbuild a wine seller. We did not
go into Banana and put people fromfrom Albania into into making our rebuilding our
hamlet. Now, everything was doneby locals that are surrounding us. So
(42:16):
we are a big supporter, especiallyfor the families you know, and it
has served as well. I don'tknow enough about wine to appreciate everything you've
shared now, but I'm interested inlearning. If if I want to learn
more, how would you suggest somebodywould start? Okay? Um, if
(42:37):
I answer this correctly, Um,there's only one way to make wine.
You need a grape and you needto ferment, and you know how the
ferment, fermentation, the choose thegrape choose becomes alcohol and into wine.
I believe the secret of the goodwinemaker is the lens where your blends,
(43:02):
the grapes, the rootstocks that youhave them. They work in the cellar.
And that's that's my philosophy. Andthe other thing is too. I
always say, who says that thisis the best one? Who's these are
the professionals? Okay, But inmy point of view, I believe that
(43:23):
every consumer that drinks wine has itsown palets and they will find out what
palette do they like, So that'sthat's what that's what they should go for.
I don't. I'm not a believerof buying the most expensive follow wine
on the menu. When I goin the restaurants, I usually never buy
(43:45):
wine that's over a hundred dollars,Okay, And yes, I mean they're
they're the French wines that there arethat they had or they still have in
their recognition what they have on.But there's so many good wineries around counts.
There's so many good young winemakers.They really put their soul into it,
(44:05):
and they are they're treating this likea child. They're treating this like
like gold. And with me,what I always do is like I have
my little kids. So every yearbuy one hundred and fifty new woodstocks and
I put them in the garden andyeah, in my in my garden for
two years. I talked to them. They said, you know, in
(44:27):
twenty twenty five, you've got togo and be planted. You know,
you're going to see your parents andgoing to do this, and yeah,
so and who as I said,woodstocks, And I think it's the best
and of course better. So weare in the mercy of the gods.
So there's really nothing we can doabout it. If the year is not
(44:51):
fantastic. Ship that it was verywarm in the spring, there is,
and they already started to pat andthen the flowers are out to starting to
bloom, and then they have afrost, so it's a disaster. Or
in the middle of the summer,you know, it gets really hot and
this storm comes in and they havelightning, and then hell comes down and
(45:12):
many winners, you know, losetwo or three hectors of lens in a
matter of five seven minutes. Wow. Or my hunters, they go hunting,
they forget to close the doors andstay chinkialis the wild boar go in
there and they're having a feast.They're going from great behind yum yum yum.
(45:37):
And six of those wild boars caneat one Hector Brandes. And then
you go in the morning when Isee and I said, oh, my
gods, I can believe everything.But that's nature. Wow, you've got
an incredible attitude. You've really motivatedme to want to visit your region.
(45:58):
I'd love to go down there sometimeand check it out. Absolutely, I
want to see. Is there anythingelse you would like to share with the
listeners. You've shared so much.I can't imagine there is but anything you'd
like to tell or do I havesomething to share with a lot of readers.
Okay, I start to right ofdesperate because I was alone so much
(46:23):
and everything fell on my head.I would like to let everybody know that
it is up to you how youdeal with the situations. You can cave
in and make yourself sick, andthen you cannot help your partner, or
you cannot help anybody with the situation. Having a positive attitude, a good
(46:45):
outlook, be always kind and humble, say thank you if somebody does something
for you, and don't make adifference between him and hers, because at
the end of the day, lovedoes not have a face, does not
have a gender, it does nothave the looks or religion. You know,
you have to be open to embraceand let everything else that is around
(47:07):
you come in sights and be opento challenges, because if out the challenge,
you cannot live. If you falldown, it's supposed to be that
you fall down, that you areand it's important for you then to find
your way to go back up,and you will never find yourself alone even
(47:31):
if you are and I feel likeit's it's not my thing. It's from
Hans christian Anism and he said livingalone is not enough. One must have
freedom, sunshine and a little bitof flower. And what I try to
do with my book and with mystory is to give the readers happiness and
(47:54):
they can overcome any challenge they wantto if they can. But I think
what also important is never true onthe past, and don't think on the
future, but live in the presencebecause every second it will pass, you
will never revisit you. Wow.Good, that's awesome. Wonderful words to
(48:20):
end our chat with. I wantto thank you so much for being so
generous with your time. I know, I know how busy you are,
so I really appreciate you taking thisthe time to chat where compared to follow
you. Um there is some Okay, So if we have the websites,
I'm gonna look, I'm gonna linkthat in the post notes. Then we
(48:43):
have the Instagram with Nzo Guy's also, Um, the books are being sold
on Amazon okay. Um, italso will be sold to Barnes and Nobles
and um, you actually can goany bookstore that is around the corner and
you just put the title in ormy name, and then it pops out
(49:05):
and you can order the book justfrom the MNDM perfect you come out in
audio. Oh good, are youdoing the audio? No? If I
read a book, I'd like toread my book in silence. I don't
want to read it out loud.So that's fun. Well, I'll put
(49:25):
all the links in the show notesso everybody can be easily access them.
And I also have to say somethingto the cover. So everybody designs the
covers, and you have to designa coming in. I have such amazing
friends, and one of my verydear friends, Helmotes Schusler, who has
who is in a completely different worldin in in the finance world. His
(49:49):
passions photography, and he actually wenthere and he did the picture of the
cover and I loved it so muchthat I used it because that is actually
view of my house. Oh nicein the morning. Yeah, that's the
view okay, at my house.Those are my videas. The olive growths
in between the road that goes upto it. Yeah nice. The lemons
(50:15):
that you grow here, the olivesthat they grow here will make olive oil
and make our tomato sauces. Marmaladesand if it's fun. So when they
ask me what the cooking tone goodone, I says, I don't know
yet. They have to look whatthe garden has to offer. That's great.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou so much for taking the time.
(50:38):
I really enjoyed. Yeah, metoo too. All right, will
you take care of yourself? Thankyou. And I look forward to senior
poverty at some point. Okay,absolutely, but love it come as soon
as possible. If your wife,thank you.
Our interview today at the Hospitality PropertySchool is with Gudrun Quillo, a woman
of many talents. Gudrun has hada career in opera as an artist in
residence for stage scenery and makeup,then as a winemaker, a hospitality property
owner, and now an author.Wow, Gudrun, I'm amazed you're able
(00:23):
to make the time to share yourstory and expertise with us. All that
being said, Gudrun, are youready to jump into this? Absolutely good.
Now, most of our listeners arehospitality property owners, and I want
to talk about your very unique property, but I'll do that in a little
bit. First. It's not uncommonfor the hospitality property owners I know who
(00:49):
have not started in hospitality but inother fields, just as you have.
And I would like to know howyou got into theater, specifically opera.
How did that happen? It happeneda pure chance. My profession that I
have, but my background is thatdoesn't really exist in the United States.
(01:10):
It's called a fugistan. So it'sbasically you learned everything about plans and telling.
Makeup comes in and then you havedifferent courses that you can take.
And I soon realized that I wasmore into the part of makeup. I
went to Vienna and they had aprogram with an exchange student to go to
(01:32):
United States, and I took thisopportunity and I ended up in New York.
But when I started with the makeupthere and going, you know to
further educational parts of it, itbecame very clear to me that New York
was not giving me what I thoughtwould enhance my career, in sense that
(01:53):
I maybe ended up with people thatmy English at that time was not very
good, so I was always orderedto get cough in all kinds of other
things. And then, strange enough, a friend of mine went to Palm
Beach and from from my hometown,and she was working for a family and
(02:13):
the family, you know, we'reall snowbirds, employda and the left for
the summer to go to Long Island, and she was staying by herself,
taking care of the house. SoI came down and for me, Austria
been inland, you know, noocean, and I have the palm trees
and the beautiful scent, and everythingis said to myself, I want to
(02:34):
stay here. And I found alady. Her name was Georgid Kinger,
and she had stores throughout the UnitedStates. It's almost like Elizabeth Arden.
And I introduced myself to her andshe became very intrigued by me and how
I did my makeup. So shewas my sponsor and she was the one
(02:57):
was able to give me the workto stay in the United States. And
from there everything changed her rapidly.I started to work in auditoriums and make
up in my Ami did makeup ina best Palm Beach. Um did courses
and of course, you know,worked in her store doing makeup when people
(03:21):
had the facials and things like that. It was not very glamorous, but
for me it was beautiful because Iwas accepted that's who I am, and
still were very eager that I improvedwith my English, and missus Klinger was
very very much involved in my education. And soon after my sister arrived in
(03:44):
Palm Beach and then years go byand we you know, being ventured into
a different kind of kind of abusiness. And then my sister got married
and that's how I'm Admhausment through mysister. Actually no nice, yeah,
And then you know the story isthat you get married and so here I
(04:05):
am. So I became an American. I became an American citizen. I
do have also my Austrian roots andI'm still an Austrian as well. And
but life completely changed when I marriedmy husband. My husband was an American
immigrants. Now my husband spent wasAmerican immigrants that met on the boats going
(04:31):
to the United States. They soonafter marriage and they had seven children,
and Baba's the second youngest, growingup very very poor one in the Bronx,
and he always said to himself hewould make it from director the riches.
He would go back to Italy andbuy property. And that's what he
did. Nice. So that's whenyou you found a passion from what I
(04:57):
understand, a passion in the Italianculture. So what happened was is you
know, when you are married tosomeone who was very much involved in the
in the theatrical community. He didmany many Broadish shows and he bought the
theater of Burt Reynolds, um investonBeach and he was a person who would
(05:23):
um support young artists and give thema chance to grow. He also did
CDs, you know, did music, UM cities and I mean a lot
of things. He was in arestaurant business and um. But he made
his fortune in the car industry,so he was um he had to Yoda.
(05:43):
He was the first Lexo steeler inthe United States, and he really
grew himself and he was, ofcourse, you know, much older than
me, but he was very muchinvolved with UM me getting to know myself
better. So he was very,very supportive of the things that I wanted
(06:04):
to do. He always asked whatI think, and I writing was always
my passion, and I never reallywrote a book or anything like this,
but I wrote lyrics to songs andI write every day in my diary of
things that happened around me. Andthen, you know, after years going
(06:28):
into my husband said to me thathe really wants to go and buy something
in Italy. And he came fromNapoli, so he wanted to buy something
in hebrid that did not go through. So he already told everybody in the
States that he bought the place.And so Leah Cocker was one of his
(06:55):
very close friends, and we cameto see him and we were not the
best house guests because the face wasvery tree st We were not very happy.
And he said, go around anddrive around, and go and taste
the different wines Duscany has to offer, and We ended up in the winery
called Reaction in we Are. Theowner was Gary Bowman, who worked for
(07:18):
Instant Young. Then the wine makerwas Irish and his wife was driving.
So it was a gloomy Sunday afternoonand we got to drink and we had
a really great time and you getsome cheese. Then we end up having
pasta with them. And then Shansaid to my husband, says, greatly,
(07:39):
buy something in Naples Dondard It's orbuy something in a duskany mask.
He said, good by not soSean said, he's them. There is
a property called Castle Dano. It'sa running county. It is not for
sale, but the owner passed awayand the wife wants to move back to
Switzerland. Why don't we just gothere tomorrow. So sure enough, we
(08:01):
arrived on a Monday at eleven o'clock, met the lady, had the handshake
at one o'clock, and on Fridaythey exchanged their money and like Commo,
and then we had us very happyand Gary, here comes to funny story.
So we got back to America.We knew that they had a south
gate at the North gate, thatthe property was really big. The house
(08:22):
was a disaster so we had toget the contractor and you deal with all
of that, and then we arehome and around Christmas time, they're getting
a phone call from a lawyer inFlorence called Lorenzo Country, and he's telling
us that the property has six anda half hector of key anti classical rights
(08:43):
and there's a winery nearby who wantedto buy those rights. So my us
was looking at me like because wedidn't understand what that meant, because we
thought maybe that we had been atsomewhere we did not see them. And
then he explained to us what thatmeans. And then my husband said,
okay, give me your number andI'll call you back. So he hung
(09:07):
up. And this is good fromguessboards. I said, as if we're
going to go and plant grapes incastle Vento winds in Castavento. I said,
what are you talking about? Theyhave they have rights here that this.
You need to go back to Italyas soon as possible. We need
to figure everything out. So Isaid, okay. So we went back
to Italy and m with the contractor, who also U was able to help
(09:31):
us with the vineyards, and sowe decided that you're going to go and
plants the vineyards around Castle Vent toour house, so not buying the property
in in compriate on an islands.We actually now live on an island just
around it, not by water,but but by wine by per grade.
Wow. Yeah. And the ideawas because we didn't know anything about the
(09:54):
wine making process. However, Itook them out from a family that my
grandfather built wine cellars in the southernpart of Austria in Styria, and we
also had had a veher brewery.So somehow every you know, I knew
a little bit clims and things ofhow the process would go. And the
(10:18):
idea that was that this winery wouldcome in who wanted to buy our rights
and they would run the property.And then my husband and they had the
first meetings when they did all ofthe excavation work, when we took two
years to plans, and finally intwo thousands, you know, we had
the plans in the field, soyou have to wait another four years.
(10:43):
But then it became so interesting tome how everything came together. And then
when you only get one thousand bottlesback after you spend so much money.
My husband actually came up and withthis idea one one night in the evening
is a scot. Why don't youjust go and educate yourself and you do
(11:05):
it. I suppose that's impossible.I didn't even know the language. She
says, well, you're young enough, you have nothing else to do,
so you learn the language. Youknow, you read the books, you
do this, you do that,you get you an analogist, to get
you an agronomist, and you justgo and be hands on. And that's
how it all started. Wow.Yeah, I mean they have no agronomists,
(11:28):
they have no analogists. I'm runningthis by myself with my great manager
Martina, who is the right hairedman here, and and I learned.
I mean, all the people sincenineteen ninety seven have been with us from
the beginning. Not one person hasleft. That's incredible. We have a
(11:50):
family that lives in the property.The Sun is now working for us.
They have a little son, thenamed after my husband Roberto. I have
Debor, my sweetheart in the house, who is the worries in the book,
Matina Carl in the office. Wehave in Givanano a great crew.
So it's just really the only sometimespeople change is you know, then we
(12:13):
open up the aguaturismo because you don'tbe only open from Easter until the fifteenth
of October, so we have peoplethat come in part time, but even
that, after the last twelve yearsbecame stable, so we always have the
same people coming and it's just abig family. And I think that the
(12:33):
road to success, in my pointof view, is the people that are
around you. And you cannot beand I personally have to be a b
person. You have to be ateam. And we are all a team,
and we are a family, andthat's how it all comes together.
At Corona time, I was soworried about everybody, and David worried that
(12:56):
it would send them home or whatever. I said, listen, guys,
we could go and have a zoomboon, get everybody together, and then we'll
talk about who did what's in romania? Who did what detractor drive or what
did you do before? And wefound out that everybody had some kind of
refar take. Some one knew howto paint, the other one knew how
(13:16):
to be electrician and do certain things. So I said, okay, so
nobody gets off the property. Youguys are all staying together. We have
all the vegetables, you're organic,We have all the foods. We have
no guests, so you can takewhatever you want to. You don't go
into town, meat, eggs,whatever you need, we have them deliver
(13:37):
to you guys on the gate.And you do this, you paint the
walls, you do this, youwill you know, everybody helped together,
and then when it was time toopen up, we were ready to go
with like boom boom, and noneof us had color, none of us.
That's amazing. Wow, you shouldbe teaching this. It's it's it
(14:01):
was. It's just like you know, because I saw Gary how they are
with me okay, and how theytreat me, and I'll treat me as
a woman the man. They stillrespect you, and so with disrespects you
cannot just give up when hard timescome. You have to start even being
(14:22):
more closer to them and make surethat they're okay, because if you're nice
to them, they will be niceto you. If you're not respectful to
them, they will not respectful.They will not be respectful to my company,
they will not respect be respectful tomy lands, and they will not
respect the owner. So it's it'sone hand washes another and ask them very
(14:46):
well with that. That's incredible,So you're totally open now, yes,
yeah, you're open fully function.Our satisfaction rate is ninety seven and we
are in the middle of Nober.But it's the aspera ad astra. It's
(15:07):
a Latin phrase. It's a difficultto the stars. So when the customers
still find us, they don't wantto leave. I can see that,
I can really see that they havea great chef, so it's it's and
later the staff everybody's nice. Sooh that's excellent. So what type of
wines do you produce? Okay,so we are in the heart of canteen
(15:30):
canty classical, so we produce countcassicles. It has to rooster the Galomeo
on it, and that means thatthey have to produce with the wine sanchiser
in twenty percent. You can usegrapes that they have growing in the winding
effect me lower company, but youare not allowed to irrigate the wines.
(15:52):
You're not allowed to buy other grapesfor the council action, which is a
new kind of of a appellation thatwe're having. So it's a it's very
interesting. Casaba only produces white mind, so we have the supertaskers, which
isbane Um called Pianos and um there'salso nice story behind that one. And
(16:15):
Gavanano also produces white mine. Sowe have there, we go Melo,
Cambani Caballo, we have give ItsTraMineR, we have Sune blanc and we
have Chartnae casa Vento, we haveAlacante, we have um Um Sanchez of
course Melo and Cambane Cava front.Yeah. And if I'm not mistaken,
(16:41):
I think I heard that you alsoproduce a low country wine. Yes,
yes, it was a project.It was a project that um came from
Virginia, Philip and Um she isa very dear friend. Also helped me
with the education with wine and tastings, and she is located on beach and
(17:07):
she was the first master and it'sstill very much involved in that. And
um. Yeah, so she cameup with this idea. She came to
visit me and we created the lowcalory wine called ninety ninety yeah, ninety
calories per glass. Oh nicety Okay, yes, yeah, I can see
(17:33):
that being a very popular. Theymade were safe in mats A Chatournee and
the mates a red wine. Okay, excellent. Now I would like to
talk about your property. Now,your property I mentioned earlier is very unique.
It can't be classified as a hotelor a bed and breakfast, and
(17:56):
you tell us a little bit ofwell, first of all what the property
is and how it came up bothokay. So Casa Dento was our first
adventure. Then we put a lotof money in there, and our first
vintage in two thousand and four wemade in the garage and my husband said,
(18:18):
man, this is very too missing. I don't want to do that.
We need to build a wine celler. So we started to build a
wine selling casta vent zone and thenone day he said, you know,
he put so much money in there, and they come out with our wine.
We never made any wine, sonobody will ever know us. So
we dwelve around and we came acrossa property called Levanano, which is actually
(18:41):
a chase that now to Casa Denton, but you cannot go directly to it.
You have to drive around it.So we basically bought all little properties
up in between, made another twohectors of wineries there. But so it
was really funny. So the ownerwas Sky and Libanana is a mid evil
(19:04):
town. Levanand is one thousand fivehundred years old. The last owner of
family left Givanan in nineteen fifty threeand the Swiss guy came in and he
planted one hector or two hectors ofgrapes and he meets like what in America
called gavage mine and um it waslocal salts. One was called bursange,
(19:30):
which means one bloods um it wasSanchoism. And then he had another one
called Lebanana, which was a plantof mello and santurism and um. Like
a lot of other people, youknow, when they buy something, money
always runs out faster than you thinkit would. And we became close friends,
(19:53):
and my husband said, you know, if you want to, they
become partners. So they became partnersin two thousands and most of the there
was only one house that was restored. Everything else was still a run.
The church was a disaster, theroads were a disaster. And we then
(20:17):
decided that we would work together witha pay all plant to get came out
over a certain kid of years.And the reason why it was because we
could not run both vineads together becausemost of the time, you know,
we didn't live need to live.We live in the United States. But
mister Gipsy Kimbagan and mister Spickenstan asmy husband is called. They did not
(20:44):
get warm and that relationship ended fasterthan you could say good morning. So
we were left alone. And thenafter we finished our mine sell here,
the crew went over to Levanano andwe went to the archives since Sienna found
on the old footprints of what Lebananawants looked like. And slowly but surely
(21:06):
we started to rebuild one house afteranother and now it houses only our guests.
We specialized in beddings and get togethersand things like that. Um,
because we have to church on itand so many other things that Levanana has
to offer. And we have fullyself contains with our own waters, our
(21:27):
vegetable gardens. We have to poisesea waks that we do we do.
We play operas a couple of timesa year in the in the villas,
and yes we're very much cultural involved. We do poetry readings, we have,
as I said, a lot ofweddings and um, yeah, it's
(21:49):
became a destination for a lot ofpeople, and the whole hamlet, the
whole village. Yes, it's onlyfor our customers. That's amazing. M
And they feel free, they havethe cheft, the grill outside, they
have the public use, they havethe Roman fests to do all kinds of
things. So and yeah, forme, it's it's exciting to see the
(22:14):
people when I get there, howhappy and how relax and relief they are.
And they always tell us when theirrights to make a reservation, to
give them information about the surroundings theareas because they want to travel here,
they want to travel there, andthen they come and they don't move,
they stay there. They do thecooking classes. Really. Yeah, so
(22:36):
how many rooms on your property?We have twelve suits. We can sleep
to many people. So the waythe government government was here, you can
just make one room after another likethis or everything has to have like a
living room sort the Toronto and thatbomb then has to have to have a
recreational area. So it's they're veryvery big and spacious rooms and suites.
(23:00):
That's amazing. And the restaurant isright there on site, isn't it's on
site? Yes, So we havebreakfast at lunch service, left innis service
and yeah, great wine apparently.So yeah, it's obvious that you're very
busy, and that's when you decidedto write a book. Now my wife
(23:23):
is an author. Oh, Idon't know, and I know how busy
she was. She's written a coupleof books, and I know how busy
she gets when she's writing. Howdid you manage to balance your professional life
and you're writing? So um,My husband's was diagnosed with a very sad
(23:51):
illness. He they called him theEndlessnceman, and he had the life of
achievement awards in business. He hadmany, many different awards and did great
things, and he was a supporterof the arts of the Patriots. And
he knew he was not feeling verywell, but nobody really took him seriously.
(24:12):
And finally one doctor diagnosed him withthe mansion. And then the mansion
came into alzheimer and it became verydifficult. So I don't know if you're
familiar with that, but when peopleget in that stage, they start to
(24:33):
lose the present. And he forgotwho I was and it was just really
devastating, and I needed to havesome kind of of an out and outlets
had not to become two SAIDs.And then my mother said to me,
good one, you always wrote suchbeautiful stories. Why don't you just write
(24:57):
a book and as his mom,I don't know how to write a book.
I said, it will come toyou. And so what I did
was it suddenly. It just cameto me one day and I started writing
down in the evenings in Palm Beach, was sitting outside of the glass of
wine, and I had my fountainpen my lucky again, and I came
(25:19):
up with an idea, and soI wrote the beginning the first two chapters.
And I came back to tasking andwith my husband and with my whole
crew, and I had my momread it and she said to me,
good one. We need to continueon. So she said, where's your
phone? So she took my phoneand she says, how do you do
(25:41):
this when you have to put thelamb in there? And I said,
what are you talking about? Soshe put from one o'clock until five o'clock,
and she said, from one o'clockuntil five o'clock, you'll sit in
front of this paper and you write. And it was like going, like
when you want me to go tothe gym, And they said, you
have to exercise every day, andI want to go. But if you
do go, you're so happy toevents. That's how it happens and I
(26:07):
found the time mainly in the evenings, but later on also doing the daytime.
Then the other positivity but that Ihad because I also own an important
company in the United States, isthat the six hours time difference. So
my day Europe would start at threeo'clock in the afternoon, which I changed
into five o'clock in the mornings.I will be down in the cantina.
(26:30):
Then you have your weekly reports thateverybody reports to to you, and the
only thing that you need to dois delegates. And that's what I did.
And I wrote this book and itwent so fast, I mean,
it just put out and it wasamazing. It was like I'm still And
(26:52):
then on my birthday in Austria,all my friends for my birthday party,
and then I they said to me, so you know, what are you
up to now? What are youdoing? Nothing? Really, I'm just
writing a book and they all lookedat me. Now, she's losing her
mom sky. But I wrote itfor myself. First. I wanted to
(27:15):
do something, and I'm always aperson. If I started a project,
I completed, it doesn't matter howdifficult it is. Then writing the book
was not the difficult finding a publisherthat's that's the whole whole other story.
But I to them and um,it's um, yeah, it's quite interesting
(27:37):
how everything started. Would you mindsharing the plot of your book? Okay,
So what happened was I made inmy mind. I had this story.
I wanted to talk about a womanwho thinks she has everything in life,
the perfect life, and then somethinglife, you know, crows her
(28:00):
care fall. So I invented thecharacters. I invented Eric Her, I
invented Craig, and I had hernot knowing about her past. Her parents
passed Debate when she was eighteen.Craig's family, you know, took her
partly in so in her growing upit was never really talked about about her
(28:22):
backgrounds, and she knew that somethingmust have happened in the past. But
you know, if your parents arenot talking about this, you're not going
to go and ask so. Andthen also what time, you know,
you get used to it that youdon't have any uncles or any cousins and
things like that. So she wasbasically alone when they passed aby when she
(28:44):
was eighteen years old on a planecrash, and they were together quite well.
So Craig was a very successful realestate attorney and Erica is works in
a company that um turns to stresscompanies around, So she studied business and
(29:06):
her partner Tiffany, they started thecompany and then the book starts out where
you know they've been together for thirteenyears, where then Craig finally pops the
question if she wants to if theywant to get married in September, because
she's study years old, he's studyfive years old. And that's how it
starts. And soon after she goesto work, she gets a letter and
(29:30):
that she had to sign for fromItaly, and it turns out that she
inherited property. So of course it'sdistressing the whole thing and the lawyer it
demands immediately the chess to come toItaly, and then her whole life becomes
to an upset down and from aperson who lives in a city, you
(29:56):
know, where's all of this couldtruClose doesn't cook because New York offers and
everything, why do you cook?And the lifestyle that they lets, you
know, the weekends in Newhampton's.So she really did not think that she
missed something in life, but unexpectedthat she came here, not knowing what
would expect and then finding out thatthis was actually her grandfather's property, and
(30:19):
then meeting the lawyers, and thenyou know, finding out that's Tiffany at
something with her fiance, and allof this coming together, her emotions coming
together. She realizes that the lifethat she has lived is not a life
that fulfills her. And in NewYork, you don't see a rainbow.
(30:42):
You know, in New York everythingthe time goes by so fast, you
don't open up your eyes, youbump into people. Everything is more important
to society, what rank you're having. But funny enough, when I was
writing it, so the story wasmade up, but deeper and even deeper
going into the chapters and the chapters, I realized that Erica became mean and
(31:07):
unconsciously I was writing and it hadmy visual thinking in there. So what
I what I was lacking in inlove, what I was lacking in closeness,
what I was lacking about you know, the nature, the rainbows,
the rosemary to smell, the cooking. I started to cook when I came
(31:33):
here. So I brought all ofthese experiences that I had. I started
to bring this in this book,and um, and then it was so
it was so fascinating. And thenI put two characters. I put my
employees in there, and everybody wasallowed to choose their own name. So
Deppor became Doris, and Carla becameSusan, and all of all of all
(31:55):
of this this thing that came altogether. They are so proud of this,
this venture because it was a venturetogether. And here especially now, you
know, it's when it's not importantto where could your clothes, It's not
important what car you drive. Itis not important because I live in Palm
(32:16):
Beach, where where money is beingshown. If you don't live in at
twenty million dollars home or the things, you know, you're not closed up
in the society. Not to talkbad about it, because most of the
people can make their money. They'reworking, but their wives such as have
nothing else to do. They goand play golf, they play cards,
to go and belong to clubs.That's not me, that's not me.
(32:38):
And and I went through a verydifficult phase. The maskon was sick.
But in any event, I realizedthat life is so much more to offer.
And now I cannot wait to goto bed, and I cannot bake
up in the morning every day there'sa different day in Palm Beach, or
Monday cames about. I didn't evenwant to get out of bed, and
(33:00):
here I cannot wait for the Mondayto come. To go down in the
continua, to greet my customers,to give them a vine to where the
vine tastings, to go to liveAnana, to say hello to them,
you know. And yes it's astrather bianca. It's a wide vote.
But everything is so happy and allmy workers. Everybody's smiling here, nobody's
(33:20):
crumpy. That's lovely. That isthis is all in your book. Yes,
so it's the whole setting in yourbook is where you are and live
Anano. That's the setting. That'smy place. It starts out in New
York, it ends up in Italy. And then then she find out,
(33:40):
you know, then she didn't wantto sell, and then she had this
her father, her grandfather had thisum this parts in the will that she
can only accept the will or theproperties if she lives for five months in
Italy. In doing five months,she will receive letters that the grandfather wrote
(34:05):
to talk about the history where shecame from, how events to the United
States, how he had to comeback, what was the story and those
letters came without a date, andthen she so many tweaks from the neighbors,
from the bureaucracy, from things whereshe's become scared, and and then
at the end she stays the fivemonths here, she falls in love with
(34:28):
with the manager of Levanano, ofCasa and to Paula and um, it's
a whole new different life that sheleads. She brings her she has a
great couple of gay friends that shebrings from the United States to come to
visit. And then at the endwhen she's taking the property over and she's
(34:49):
the rightful owner of Levanana and thenLevanano, there was another twist where the
lawyer said to her, you know, sometimes the lawyers have to do things
that is more than just you know, stick to the law. So I
need to tell you, and Ihope you understand that it was your grandfather's
(35:12):
wish, and now you know whohe was, and you have many time
mentioned to me that your wish youwould have known your grandfather, and your
grandfather has not passed today, yourgrandfather, she stand the document over to
you and he's right next door,and it's up to you if you want
to meet him. He's eighty nineyears old and of course a little fragile,
(35:35):
and first, you know, heremotions go through the roof. She
doesn't understand if she should be happy, and she realized the power was in
that everybody was in. Then shefeels betrayed by all of the people.
But at the end she comes toher and she says, you know what,
take me to him, and theygo and they look at each other,
they embrace, they both cry,and then she says to him,
(35:57):
let's go home, grandfather. Thenthey drive home and Paulo is driving extremely
slowly. She gets aunty and thenshe said, Grandpa, why did you
not just call me when you foundout about my existence and my thing and
just try to get, you know, to talk to me. This is
Erica. Would you really have thoughtsthat if I would call you out of
(36:21):
the blue, with the light thatyou've left lived in the United States,
if you would talk to me orcome to Italy and dig over the properties.
I said, that was the onlyway for us to try to get
you to Italy. That's what itdid. And then she leaned back and
she says, you know what,Grandpa, I think you're right. I
wouldn't have come, and I thankyou for it, and I thank you
(36:43):
for the change you've made in mylife, and I'm so happy. And
then when they finally arrived from Cassaand everything is so quiet, and then
she sees Paula the grandfather sticking somethingto Powler puts it in his pocket,
and then they come around the cornerand there was this big faster and the
lights go on and all employees havegay friends, all of her people that
(37:05):
have been deferred the last five monthsmonths or before the celebrates. And then
it turns out because it was thesixth of October that it was the eighty
ninth birthday of the grandfather. Andthen our proposes to her. She of
course accepts, and the ring,the dole thing with what he gave her
was a ring. There was asoundflower that belonged to her grandmother. Wow,
(37:30):
yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah,even I cried, But I had
to read my own book. Isaid this. I couldn't believe I actually
did this, and I finished it. That's that's okay, that's wonderful.
So you took everything from or noteverything, but you took a lot of
(37:51):
it from your own life and everythingaround. That's that's great. I know
that anybody listening to this now,he's going to be intrigued about you and
your property. The wine reads theproperty and your book. Where could they
find out more information? Yeah,everything is online them and le Banana has
(38:12):
its own websites. Um, ifyou go into Rada County, can best
binaries, cinema binaries pop up.Because my husband always said to me,
a good one if you do this, remember one thing in my stay of
age, I don't buy green bananasanymore. Everything has been perfect, Everything
has to be good, everything hasto be clean. And we made wines
(38:35):
that are not really the canty ofTuscany. I mean, there are rules
and regulations that they have to goby, but we have we put our
own techniques in and for us itwas important very much so because real we
are in this area in the countyCastico region, which is very very small
inside of canty inside of Tuscany.It's only a very small percentage, okay,
(39:04):
but we have very different soil here. So we have the al the
raised stone, and so you haveto really excavate very deep. So then
then two and a half three metersdown to roll the soil to cut the
stones and to give the nugition innutrition in there because the wines the rootstocks
are going very very deep down.And what's our goal was where when you
(39:32):
drink wine, we did not wantit. We have to the taste of
the woods, the taste of theoak. We wanted to have to taste
when you open up the bottle ofwine. The chiney comes out of Tuscany
in the bottle where you can smellthe coldness, the warmth to it.
They very can smell the foods,the blackberries, the currents, a bit
(39:57):
of the tobacco inside, you know, and be ferments not only in in
oak, but the ferments in stainlesssteel, deferments in concrete, and so
many different things, so with differentvariety. And then because we are organic,
we don't add any yeast, sothe wine has to stay on the
(40:20):
skin much longer, so the processof the fermentation can go up to three
three months instead of just like twoor three weeks. But all of that
SAIDs um, everything is clean inthe wine cellar, Everything is fantastic to
people really respect it. And thenevery parts of the vineyetts have a different
(40:42):
position in the wine cellar, sothen behalf the Melo fam Livnano and the
melo from Casavento, the melo fromAugust East or from Polchi. We all
ferment everything separately. Then after fermentation, we start tasting the wines and then
we decide to make the brand ofwhat we're going to go and do.
So therefore, we can never say, oh, I'm making three thousand bottles
(41:05):
of this every year. I'm makingsix thousand bottles of this every No,
it changes every year, and ifthe year is not good, we don't
make the wine. Twenty fourteen wasa horrible year. We did not make
one bottle of wine. We justsell the bulk to other wineries and we
skipped the year and then we gointo the next vintage. So um,
it's you know, unfortunately a lotof people cannot afford to do that.
(41:30):
But with us, you know,it paid off and became becoming a very
young winery. We have a veryhigh recognition in this area, and it
is difficult to be a foreigner tobe accepted in this community, and sometimes
(41:52):
it's very tough for us. Butslowly, but surely, you know,
everything that we did we built withlocals. We did not go to rely
and get a huge company coming andbuild a wine seller. We did not
go into Banana and put people fromfrom Albania into into making our rebuilding our
hamlet. Now, everything was doneby locals that are surrounding us. So
(42:16):
we are a big supporter, especiallyfor the families you know, and it
has served as well. I don'tknow enough about wine to appreciate everything you've
shared now, but I'm interested inlearning. If if I want to learn
more, how would you suggest somebodywould start? Okay? Um, if
(42:37):
I answer this correctly, Um,there's only one way to make wine.
You need a grape and you needto ferment, and you know how the
ferment, fermentation, the choose thegrape choose becomes alcohol and into wine.
I believe the secret of the goodwinemaker is the lens where your blends,
(43:02):
the grapes, the rootstocks that youhave them. They work in the cellar.
And that's that's my philosophy. Andthe other thing is too. I
always say, who says that thisis the best one? Who's these are
the professionals? Okay, But inmy point of view, I believe that
(43:23):
every consumer that drinks wine has itsown palets and they will find out what
palette do they like, So that'sthat's what that's what they should go for.
I don't. I'm not a believerof buying the most expensive follow wine
on the menu. When I goin the restaurants, I usually never buy
(43:45):
wine that's over a hundred dollars,Okay, And yes, I mean they're
they're the French wines that there arethat they had or they still have in
their recognition what they have on.But there's so many good wineries around counts.
There's so many good young winemakers.They really put their soul into it,
(44:05):
and they are they're treating this likea child. They're treating this like
like gold. And with me,what I always do is like I have
my little kids. So every yearbuy one hundred and fifty new woodstocks and
I put them in the garden andyeah, in my in my garden for
two years. I talked to them. They said, you know, in
(44:27):
twenty twenty five, you've got togo and be planted. You know,
you're going to see your parents andgoing to do this, and yeah,
so and who as I said,woodstocks, And I think it's the best
and of course better. So weare in the mercy of the gods.
So there's really nothing we can doabout it. If the year is not
(44:51):
fantastic. Ship that it was verywarm in the spring, there is,
and they already started to pat andthen the flowers are out to starting to
bloom, and then they have afrost, so it's a disaster. Or
in the middle of the summer,you know, it gets really hot and
this storm comes in and they havelightning, and then hell comes down and
(45:12):
many winners, you know, losetwo or three hectors of lens in a
matter of five seven minutes. Wow. Or my hunters, they go hunting,
they forget to close the doors andstay chinkialis the wild boar go in
there and they're having a feast.They're going from great behind yum yum yum.
(45:37):
And six of those wild boars caneat one Hector Brandes. And then
you go in the morning when Isee and I said, oh, my
gods, I can believe everything.But that's nature. Wow, you've got
an incredible attitude. You've really motivatedme to want to visit your region.
(45:58):
I'd love to go down there sometimeand check it out. Absolutely, I
want to see. Is there anythingelse you would like to share with the
listeners. You've shared so much.I can't imagine there is but anything you'd
like to tell or do I havesomething to share with a lot of readers.
Okay, I start to right ofdesperate because I was alone so much
(46:23):
and everything fell on my head.I would like to let everybody know that
it is up to you how youdeal with the situations. You can cave
in and make yourself sick, andthen you cannot help your partner, or
you cannot help anybody with the situation. Having a positive attitude, a good
(46:45):
outlook, be always kind and humble, say thank you if somebody does something
for you, and don't make adifference between him and hers, because at
the end of the day, lovedoes not have a face, does not
have a gender, it does nothave the looks or religion. You know,
you have to be open to embraceand let everything else that is around
(47:07):
you come in sights and be opento challenges, because if out the challenge,
you cannot live. If you falldown, it's supposed to be that
you fall down, that you areand it's important for you then to find
your way to go back up,and you will never find yourself alone even
(47:31):
if you are and I feel likeit's it's not my thing. It's from
Hans christian Anism and he said livingalone is not enough. One must have
freedom, sunshine and a little bitof flower. And what I try to
do with my book and with mystory is to give the readers happiness and
(47:54):
they can overcome any challenge they wantto if they can. But I think
what also important is never true onthe past, and don't think on the
future, but live in the presencebecause every second it will pass, you
will never revisit you. Wow.Good, that's awesome. Wonderful words to
(48:20):
end our chat with. I wantto thank you so much for being so
generous with your time. I know, I know how busy you are,
so I really appreciate you taking thisthe time to chat where compared to follow
you. Um there is some Okay, So if we have the websites,
I'm gonna look, I'm gonna linkthat in the post notes. Then we
(48:43):
have the Instagram with Nzo Guy's also, Um, the books are being sold
on Amazon okay. Um, italso will be sold to Barnes and Nobles
and um, you actually can goany bookstore that is around the corner and
you just put the title in ormy name, and then it pops out
(49:05):
and you can order the book justfrom the MNDM perfect you come out in
audio. Oh good, are youdoing the audio? No? If I
read a book, I'd like toread my book in silence. I don't
want to read it out loud.So that's fun. Well, I'll put
(49:25):
all the links in the show notesso everybody can be easily access them.
And I also have to say somethingto the cover. So everybody designs the
covers, and you have to designa coming in. I have such amazing
friends, and one of my verydear friends, Helmotes Schusler, who has
who is in a completely different worldin in in the finance world. His
(49:49):
passions photography, and he actually wenthere and he did the picture of the
cover and I loved it so muchthat I used it because that is actually
view of my house. Oh nicein the morning. Yeah, that's the
view okay, at my house.Those are my videas. The olive growths
in between the road that goes upto it. Yeah nice. The lemons
(50:15):
that you grow here, the olivesthat they grow here will make olive oil
and make our tomato sauces. Marmaladesand if it's fun. So when they
ask me what the cooking tone goodone, I says, I don't know
yet. They have to look whatthe garden has to offer. That's great.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou so much for taking the time.
(50:38):
I really enjoyed. Yeah, metoo too. All right, will
you take care of yourself? Thankyou. And I look forward to senior
poverty at some point. Okay,absolutely, but love it come as soon
as possible. If your wife,thank you.
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