The history of the Mastroberardino family, one of the oldest dynasties in Italian enology, enters the Museum in an exhibition space set up inside the ancient cellars of Atripalda, in the province of Avellino. In fact, it is called MIMA – Museo d'Impresa Mastroberardino Atripalda – the new cultural project which, almost like the plot of a novel, recounts three centuries of history of Italy and the world intimately linked to the personal events and business choices of its ancestors, digging back through ten generations.
The history of the dynasty passes through the reform of the agricultural system of the Kingdom of Naples; the Great War; the launch of prohibition in the United States and the violent years of gangsterism; Mussolini's rise to power; the outbreak of the Second World War. In between, the hijackings of Gabriele D'Annunzio's legionaries, during the Fiume enterprise, to the detriment of the steamer "Cogne" (the "ghost ship" that carried a load of company wines towards Buenos Aires); the Atlantic crossings to North America; the episodes of sabotage by the British secret services which sank the steamer Cesare Battisti with the fine family wines in the port of Massaua; the blockage of navigation due to the war affecting cargo traveling on the steamers Adua and Prague; trade relations grappling with the censures of Nazi occupations in Czechoslovakia or Norway, or the British in Malta; the construction, to escape the Allied bombings, of an air-raid shelter in the cave now used for refining wines.
In particular, the exciting reconstruction began in the 1700s, made possible thanks to the collection of over 10 documents, including official deeds, original documents and family letters, displayed along three sections divided by period. The first, over a period of time up to 1914, traces the beginnings of the company and the first steps taken on the internationalization front, thanks to the foresight of Angelo Mastroberardino, appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy by King Vittorio Emanuel III. The second section, on the other hand, ranges from 1914 to 1932, focused on the first phase of the professional experience of Angelo's son, Michele Mastroberardino, who at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the role of ambassador of the family's international affairs, developed commercial relations in various countries of the Europe, in North America and in colonial Africa. In the background, the mobilization of the Great War, the first version of fascism in power, the entry into force of prohibition in the United States under President Wilson, the opening of commercial traffic in Latin America, the capillarization of distribution on European markets, the opening of ever new markets in Asia, Africa and Oceania, with an expansion that brings Irpinia wines to touch all continents in this period. To close the fascinating journey of the family business is the story of the events between 1933 and 1945, when Michele, now mature, seizes the opportunity of the fall of American prohibition by Roosevelt, continues the work of consolidating the presence of its wines on a vast number of foreign markets, while internally it faces the consolidation of the fascist corporative model, the phase of autarchy and the organization of internal relations within the Italian Colonial Empire, the outbreak of World War II, the most critical phase of the bombings of '43. Michele's death and the end of the war marks the wake of a tiring and stubborn post-war reconstruction work carried out with great determination by Antonio Mastroberardino, not surprisingly appointed Knight of Merit for Labor ninety years after his grandfather. He deserves credit for having revived a family and a brand, now recognized all over the world.
“The choice of the name of the museum – explains Piero Mastroberardino, son of Antonio, who today has taken over the baton of the family business – represents a distinctive sign with which I grew up and which today lives with new vigor. In fact, they are the initials of my grandfather, Michele Mastroberardino, who coined this acronym at the turn of the thirties, during one of the decisive moments of our company. And it was precisely the story of his legend that prompted me to reconstruct the generational events that spanned three centuries, indelibly marking the history of Italian and Irpinia wine. Thanks to my father Antonio and his love for historical artefacts, jealously guarded, this treasure therefore takes shape and I wanted to restore it to the memory of the young members of our family and of a wider public".
