PRESIDENT
VITO GAMBINI
Vito Gambini the son of renowned Artist William Gambini was born in New York City and grew up in rural Hudson Valley. As a teenager Vito found him self working the summers for his father’s attorney in Lloyd’s Neck, Long Island and tending the estate vineyard of Bordeaux varietals. At an early age Vito had an appreciation for the vineyards, farming, and wine making that ultimately found the way into his professional career.
Vito’s family moved to San Diego where he attended a business college to pursue a career in business management for midsize to large corporations. In 1985, Vito decided to make a career change leaving a large consumer Products Company to become the first Sales Manager for Vintage House aka (Henry Wine Group) in San Diego County. After several years in the distributor side of the business Vito was recruited by Spectrum Foods Inc. to become General Manager of Prego Ristorante in 1989. After seven successful years at Spectrum Foods Inc., Vito started his own company called Red Hot Restaurants LLC and developed restaurant concepts for top professional athletes.
Ten years in the restaurant industry had taken its toll on his young children and wife and Vito decided to return to the wine industry and was hired as Regional Manager for R.H. Phillips Wine Company in 1999. Vito quickly was promoted to Director of National Accounts On Premise and created a successful sales channel that represented 120K cs of the company’s annual depletions. R.H. Phillips then went through a series of company acquisitions to become Vincor USA in 2002. Vito utilized his operations and Chef experience from his restaurant background and created many new On Premise programs that provided a value –added service to his national accounts.
In 2006, Constellation Brands had finalized an acquisition of Vincor USA, which prompted a new search for a national sales position preferably at a midsize privately held winery. In the summer of 2006, Vito was appointed as National Sales Director at Laetitia Vineyard and Winery. He worked closely with Eric Hickey Winemaker/General manager to reshape the company’s sales organization, distributor network and redefine the wine portfolio. An internal restructuring at Laetitia in 2008 transitioned Vito to take on a brief post at Leucadia Cellars and Estates LLC working for Gerard Yvernault.
Vito currently resides in La Costa, California with his wife and sons and will work closely with Kirby Anderson (Westerly Winemaker) and the Afromsky’s to build a world class wine brand from Santa Barbara County.
