Maddalena Riboli, founder and visionary, Riboli Family Wines:
I created this tasting and all the other wineries followed.
Kyle Dunn, Wells Fargo Commercial Banking:
What better way to celebrate strong women than by looking at the example that Maddalena has set in her story?
Dante Riboli Colombatti, Marketing director, Riboli Family Wines:
If you were to ask my grandma, what does she think of the word ‘glass ceiling,’ I don’t think that word exists in her vocabulary. To her, there was no boundaries. She wouldn’t allow there to be a wall to prevent her vision, her ideals, to carry on.
Maddalena Riboli:
I had to take care of the main winery, every week go by the new tasting room.
Lisa Riboli, Legal/Strategic Partnerships & Events director, Riboli Family Wines:
When I do talk to her about how she managed to overcome or not be intimidated by this male-dominated industry, she would just look at me and say, ‘I stayed strong. And even in my moments of doubt, I just stayed strong and I kept my eye on my vision.’
Anthony Riboli, fourth generation winemaker, Riboli Family Wines:
She always believed in doing many things, right? That was the survival of an immigrant to this country. And it’s not just about working hard. It’s finding time for all these pieces.
Maddalena Riboli:
So, the men were a little jealous because I knew just as much as they did. I was a hard worker.
Anthony Riboli:
In her time that she was working in this company, that’s what made her such a female trailblazer, was the wine industry was all male-dominated back in the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s. So for her to accomplish what she did, it took even more willpower, you know, even more passion and sticking to what you believed in.
Dunn:
I think when we look at the San Antonio Winery name, it starts with family. We’re working with the third and fourth generation today, which is an amazing thing that we don’t see in a lot of companies. But to be able to do that is incredible.
Maddalena Riboli:
I never dreamed. And yet I knew that the winery would be much bigger and also the wine that we sell to the stores, never dreamed that we would do so well.
Lisa Riboli:
One of the many lessons that I have learned from her in this lifetime is that family comes first, no matter what. And if you work together and you stay strong and you’re loyal to each other, nothing can stop you.
Dunn:
I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to have women in leadership where I’ve been able to work under and then also personally, my mom is an immigrant from Guatemala who came from a very young age and established that, you know, immigrant work ethic in a sense that kind of parallels to San Antonio Winery that we see. And that’s had a huge influence in my life.
Riboli Colombatti:
Her vision and my grandpa’s vision is what we want to continue in that legacy of our grandparents and my grandma and my grandpa is a legacy that our generation, our fourth generation and our fifth generation want to continue. And most importantly, it’s the two words that our family always says, and that’s ‘sempre avanti,’ which means you must always, always move forward and never give up.
Maddalena Riboli:
Salute and buona fortuna.
