Neil and Maria Empson's first trip to Italy together was in 1969, on their honeymoon. Both 30 years old at the time, he was a New Zealander whose business career had taken him to work in London and she an American of Italian descent whose career as an artist was founded on training completed at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Their shared interest in wine had drawn them toward the idea of establishing a négociant business in France, a plan derailed during their Italian expedition. They realized that, in contrast to the well-populated wine brokerage business in France, virtually no one represented the small, quality conscious producer-growers of Italy. France had a long-established tradition of promoting and exporting the quality and image of Gallic commodities, whereas the Italian disdain for national chauvinism and presumption had done nothing to further appreciation of the country's wealth of natural products. Eighteen months of empirical research identified the producers the Empsons would approach to become the foundations of their portfolio; for its first four years, their business was financed through buying, restoring and reselling classic cars, a passion Neil Empson still cultivates.

Market conditions of the early 1970s were changing. Revival of interest in Italian design, fashion and cuisine was reshaping Italy's image abroad, while a new generation of wine producers was transforming technique and methodology on its own front. Initially, the Empson's enterprise met with raised eyebrows on both sides: the producers were surprised that anyone abroad would be interested in buying their wines, and the American retail system was skeptical of wines from a country whose prevailing wine export was packaged in straw-wrapped flasks. Neil Empson recounts one of the first turning points: "I had an appointment at Sherry Lehmann in New York on one of the coldest of snowy January days. There was nobody about - the streets were so empty you could have fired a gun down them - but I made the call anyway. Sam Aaron told me that anybody who could call on such a day deserved an order. And his order was not only large, but also for the best wines." With enterprise, perserverance and solid business integrity, the Empsons brought together over the next few years a portfolio of 65 exceptional producers under the "Neil Empson Selections" umbrella to whom they are bound by mutual respect, professionalism, and in some cases, friendship.

One of the Empson's early exports, in the mid-1970s, was a Chardonnay from the Collio zone of Friuli, the first Chardonnay to be exported from Italy and a project which at the time had required considerable petitoning of the authorities in Rome to permit the varietal to appear on the label. Once over the hurdles, the wine grew to represent nearly a third of the Empson Selections volume. When the producer's contract came up for renewal, however, a major American importer negotiated the representation away, bypassing the Empsons. Undaunted, Neil Empson created Bollini Chardonnay. He focused on the Trentino area's tremendous potential for fine quality white wines in the crisp, varietally distinctive style he had in mind, and enlisted the technical help of the region's highly respected school of oenology, the Istituto Agrario Provinciale of San Michele. Maria Empson provided the creative elements of packaging and promotional materials, and the brand was launched. It was not long before Bollini Chardonnay was joined by a Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, as well as a full range of reserve wines. In a characteristic spirit of enterprise, Neil and Maria Empson have firmly set the Bollini brand on a future path of innovation and tireless commitment to quality which have thus far marked its highly successful evolution.