Most eligible man modest

Press, 23 April 1983, Page 9

Most eligible man modest

Sipping cognac in a plush ba? at Noahs Hotel, Francesco Marone Cinzano says he,'does not like being billed the most eligible bachelor in the world.

.“That was bestowed on me by the first journalist who interviewed me in Australia and it has unfortunately stuck. I guess some people consider me that way, but I do not really feel that way. I take people at face value,” he said.

It is not surprising that the label has stuck, however. The slim, dark, handsome 24-year-pld heir to the Cinzano empire is the perfect gentleman - sophisticated, charming, wealthy, and definitely “simpaticb.” /j Mr Cinzano, the eldest son of the president of Cinzano International, Count Alberto Marone Cinzano, was born in Switzerland .and brought up in Italy. - His family left Italy in 1975, when a plot to kidnap him and his sister was uncovered Since then, he has lived in many parts of the worltV working with Christie’s f Art Auctioneers and with a New York merchant He -Jk -spending a year

with a Cinzano subsidiary in Australia, and is on a brief visit to New Zealand to see the sights and to look into

the company’s'work here. Mr Cinzano, who speaks fluent English, Italian, Spanish and French, said his

family business was started in north-west Italy in 1757.

It was expanded last century and early this century until subsidiaries were opened throughout the world. In countries such as New Zealand Cinzano was made with 75 per cent local wine and with a special Italian blend of herbs and spices. Mr Cinzano, who hopes to return to live in Italy one day, believes that wines have a good future, in spite of the glut in Europe. “The glut will eventually end because Nature will take care of it,” he said., , There was. a , growing market for wide and wine products in many countries, at the expense of breweries. Although the New Zealand wine industry was young, the quality of white wines was quite good, he said. A few more years experience would be useful in competing for overseas markets, but the base had been'established so the industry could be confident about its future.

‘You are in a very advantageous position for the United States market, which is very Wg,” he said.