Vineyard workers stunned after boss dies and leaves them entire winery in his will

A group of workers at a vineyard were left stunned after they found out they were set to inherit their workplace after the boss died.

Astonished employees at the Italian winery thought their boss had been “joking” when he occasionally told them he planned to leave them the business in his will.

But when entrepreneur Piero Pittaro, from the Friuli region of north-eastern Italy, died on March 24 at the age of 89, he did, in fact, decide to leave his winery, which he founded in the 1970s, to his workers.

The delighted crew of nine workers were stunned when the will was opened and they found that they were the new owners of the business where they had all worked for 10 years or more, Il Messaggero reports.

The employees, including an agriculture expert, his accountant, his sales assistant, and the vineyard’s other workers are now set to dorm a new company which will run the vineyards following Piero’s death.

The Vigneti Pittaro will now be taken over by a new company comprised of the workers

The vineyard is spread out over 85 hectares and produces 300,000 bottles a year, including 100,000 bottles of sparkling wines and another 200,000 bottles of red and white wine, with 35 per cent of the wines being exported to the United States, to Singapore and to the EU.

The vineyard’s head winemaker Stefano Trinco told local media: “When we did some checks in the vineyards or tests in the cellar he told us, every now and then, in the Friulian dialect, ‘Us lassi dut a vualtris’ [‘I am leaving everything to you’], but frankly we thought Piero was joking.”

He added: “On our part there is great emotion, as well as a due thank you. And certainly, the commitment and awareness to personally carry on the company.” The first order of business, according to local media, will be the creation of a new wine, one which Piero himself had been planning to bring into production before his death.

They will be launching a Blanc de Noir sparkling wine, naturally made with the classic method, from exclusively Pinot Noir grapes – as patriarch Piero himself had envisioned.