Love for Piedmont Gifts of the Sun

Italy, the Promised Land of Wine

If you were to meet František Šamla in person, you would soon find that his favourite country, where he seeks interesting wine delights for his customers, is Italy. "It has a long winemaking history and a very indented terroir – soil and climatic conditions – which is why an unusually wide range of grape varieties has developed there," he explains his enthusiasm for Apennine wines, adding: "Our vision is to bring our customers tasty, interesting wines which are not normally offered by large distributors. And Italy, with its diversity in the range of varieties and wines, represents an almost inexhaustible resource for the fulfilment of this vision of ours."

 It started with the enjoyment of Zweigeltrebe

It is interesting that František joined the admirers of wine only later in life. He comes from Vysočina, and for a long time preferred beer to wine. The change occurred around the millennium, when he met wine-lovers in his job. "We talked a lot about wine, we started looking for and tasting other wines, and we also travelled mainly to Moravia for wines. And there I once encountered Vino with a capital "V" – it was the 1999 Zweigeltrebe wine. It definitely opened the door to the world of wine for me." Even though Zweigeltrebe remains František's favourite variety in this country, his heart belongs to the Piedmont region of Italy, where he found his first partner winery, Boeri Alfonso, and from where about one-half of his Italian partners also come.

 Medal after Medal

Other wines from different countries were added, mainly thanks to personal acquaintances or recommendations from winemakers or wine-lovers. This personal contact has resulted in significant success in wine competitions for František Šamla, in the form of medals for his imported wines for several years now. "We started in 2010, when two of our wines, not by chance from the Boeri Alfonso winery, won the Gold Medal. Last year, however, we reached the very top in the Prague Wine Trophy contest. Our wines won a total of 131 medals! Thanks to this, our company was declared The Best Importer in 2022."

Family Helpers

František's sons have also been contributing for some years now to the success of the wines he offers on the Víno pro Vás website. They take care of the administration, the running of the company and the provision of logistics. František enthusiastically adds: "I am in charge of sales and customer care. This is what I enjoy the most – the opportunity to meet in person or even remotely communicate with customers and talk about our wines. However, as is often the case in small family businesses, it often happens that everyone does what is currently needed the most."

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