Riccardo Cotarella

The Path

Institutional authority and cellar work have run in parallel through Riccardo Cotarella’s career. As president at Assoenologi Italy, he sat inside the profession’s technical and cultural conversation. At the same time, he was serving as enologist overseeing vineyards and winemaking at Il Palagio in Tuscany (from 2020) and as consulting enologist at Il Palagio in Tuscany (from 2020), a combination that shows how his practice moves between direct production and advisory oversight without losing contact with either. Breadth is built into the job description. Riccardo Cotarella is winemaker of Falesco Winery, president and general manager of Riccardo Cotarella Winemaking Consultancy, professor of viticulture and enology of University of Viterbo, consultant of more than 80 wineries in Italy and worldwide, and president of Union Internationale des Œnologues. Production, management, education, and representation all sit in the same working life, which is why his influence reaches beyond any one cellar or label.

The Work Today

Leadership remains part of the craft. Riccardo Cotarella serves as president of Assoenologi Italy and president of the Union Internationale des Œnologues. Those roles keep him in the professional structures that shape wine at scale, while the work still rests on the practical demands of viticulture, enology, and daily decision-making. In this profile, leadership is not separated from making; it is one more form of technical responsibility.

Signature

Riccardo's signature wines include Montiano, Sister Moon, Casino delle Vie, When We Dance, and Message in a Bottle. The names are distinct, but the through line is consistency of intent: each bottle is expected to carry identity, structure, and balance with enough clarity to be read on its own terms. That attention to recognisable character is part of the craft here.

In Their Words “The goal we have set ourselves is to make great wines given the potential of the territory.” The emphasis falls on territory as material, not backdrop. The work is to read what the site can offer and to shape the wine around that limit and that possibility. The statement points to a disciplined approach: quality comes from drawing out what is already there, not from forcing the result. “I am working on stronger identity in this wine.” That sentence names a familiar enological task: tightening until the wine can speak with more precision. It suggests revision rather than display, and a maker’s attention to how character is built, clarified, and held in place.

Acclaim

Riccardo's honors include Honorary Degree in Economics and Management, Honorary Degree in Agronomy, Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2008), International Award (2007), Business and Culture Award (2001), and Best Italian Winemaker (2001). The range matters. These recognitions point to a career acknowledged across technical, academic, cultural, and professional registers, and to a body of work that has shaped expectations as well as wines.

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