The history of the Distilleria Gualco begins way back in 1870, when Paolo Gualco, formerly a cooper, founded the Distilleria Gualco.
His son Paolo II, ex Garabaldino and longstanding mayor of the village, continued his father’s work, while the other son Matteo II, having built up a thriving silkworm farm, set up the Distilleria Gualco Matteo on his own.
Duilio, son of Gualco Paolo II, returning to his fatherland from Argentina in 1932, followed in his father and grandfather’s footsteps.
Bartolomeo, Matteo I’s son, also returned from Argentina, and joining forces with his uncle Paolo together they founded the Distilleria Gualco Bartolomeo in 1934.
Despite being small, it fast became the best known grappa distillery in the area, on account of the high quality of the grappa as well as the charisma of the distiller (not without good reason known as the “wizard of the grappa”).
Bartolomeo, who had no children, chose Susanna, Duilio’s daughter, of all his nieces and nephews, as the best suited to continue the family tradition.
Thus Susanna found herself in the position to unify her father and uncle’s expertise and businesses and carry forward their wonderful ancient traditions.
Later her cousin Benito Gualco (son of Matteo II) also ceased to distill and gave his custom to Susanna, who thus became the only remaining producer of the three Gualco distilleries.
In turn, Susanna handed down her great experience to her son Alessandro Soldatini and to her grandchildren Giorgio and Marcella, owners of the Distilleria Gualco Bartolomeo e Susanna di Giorgio and Marcella Soldatini s.n.c. from 2001 to 2020.
In 2016 Alessandro Soldatini was elected president of the Consorzio Tutela Grappa Piemonte and Barolo and during his mandate, which ended in 2020, important results were obtained in protecting the economic, cultural and traditional value of Piedmontese Grappas.
In 2020, during the pandemic, the distillery reached the milestone of 150 years of activity (1870-2020).
In 2021 the company became Distilleria Gualco di Giorgio Soldatini & C. s.a.s. and Giorgio runs the company with the help of his staff, of his father Alessandro who continues to be a backbone of the company and sometimes even of Marcella, who occasionally carves out some time from his main activity as a psychotherapist .
