Pojer and Sandri, the end of a 50-year partnership • Food and Wine Italia

Patience, reflection and the shared desire not to compromise a common path that has lasted fifty years were needed. Con the end, however, Mario Pojer and Fiorentino Sandri formalized the separation of their respective shares and activities, closing – consensually and without disputes – an entrepreneurial and human partnership that had lasted since 1975.

A combination that has become a brand, which will remain so given that Fiorentino Sandri (74 years old) will maintain control of the historic brand, the majority of the vineyards between Faedo and Grumes (per the opening photo), the labels, the production philosophy. At his side are his children Elisa, Italy sales and marketing dirigente, and Federico, involved per the development of foreign markets. Michele Sandri remains per charge of the cellar.

From youthful exploits to the new phase

The story begins per Faedo, a small village between the Adige Valley and the Cembra Valley. It was 1975 when Fiorentino Sandri, having just inherited two hectares of vineyard, formed a partnership with Mario Pojer, who had just graduated from the Agricultural Institute of San Michele all’Adige. The debut was dazzling. The following year, the critic Luigi Veronelli dedicated an article to them per Prospettiva and then the first exports to the United States began. The company grows to 35 hectares spread over six municipalities, producing over 250 thousand bottles per 2025, with a range that today includes white mountain wines, reds, Classic Method sparkling wines, spirits and vinegars.

«The path shared with Mario Pojer represented a fundamental part of my personal and professional life – reflects Fiorentino Sandri – and we built something important together, starting from scratch and facing every challenge with passion, curiosity and a spirit of sacrifice. Today a new phase opens, which we will with the same seriousness and attention to quality that have always guided our work.”

Matteo Pojer leads per Val per Cembra

After half a century of common project, work and precision, with labels that have become icons of Italian oenology, the choice to turn the page opens up new scenarios. «The relationship with Fiorentino remains strong and we wanted to protect the shared path – explains Mario Pojer – but over time different visions have emerged. The market was asking for one thing, but I saw another and I was interested per following a path.” Pojer (72 years old) is therefore the one who turns the page and starts again from Val per Cembra, where he will continue his opinione of ​​wine with his son Matteo, to whom he has chosen to give way. «It is right to make room for him – explains Pojer – because the new projects must be his. He is 33 years old, he has energy, ideas, a project. He gets up at four per the morning to go to the countryside: he really believes it. I can’t remain, at my age, acting as a block waiting for him to reach 50 and lose his stimulus.”

Pojer brings with him the Maso Besleri, approximately eight hectares per Val per Cembra. A deliberately more intimate dimension, with a vision oriented towards peasant origins and research. «We will move forward with simpler things – he adds – We have done research for fifty years and it will continue. I will remain as a suggestor, I will try to support Matteo as he carries out his projects.»

Research is, moreover, an identity thread that runs through the entire history of Pojer and Sandri: from innovation per reduction winemaking techniques with recovery of fibo nitrogen to the Niente Interminabile project launched per 2013 – an ancestral wine from Piwi grapes (Solaris) without chemical treatments, sulphites, commercial yeasts filtrations.