Cheerful Hawke’s Bay character still winning gold at almost 90 years old

Antonio Giugliano in his garden. Photo / Paul Taylor

Antonio Giugliano has always liked to keep busy and at almost 90 years old he’s still going strong and winning gold.

The amateur winemaker, who has a folder full of certificates won over many years of making sparkling wine in the garage, says he likes a good challenge.

“I don’t like to be sitting around with nothing to do,” Antonio said.

His latest success comes just weeks after rejoining the Hawke’s Bay Amateur Winemakers and Brewers Club, of which he had been a member for many years before taking a break.

He won gold in this month’s 2023 New Zealand Amateur Winemakers and Brewers Federation national competition , earning Best in Class for his W19 Dry Sparkling and Best in Class for his Dry Sparkling Feijoa.

I could have sat with Antonio and his wife Judy for hours listening to their life stories.

Many Hawke’s Bay people will know Antonio as Mr Luigi. He owned and operated several hair salons in Hawke’s Bay.

“I was the inventor of the blow dry,” he told me.

“I had a client that came from Wellington to see me and rock ‘n’ roll people from Palmerston North as well.”

The couple immigrated to New Zealand in 1973 with their three children.

Antonio’s winemaking hobby began in Italy. “My family in Italy make wine the old-fashioned way, so I had a lot of knowledge about winemaking when I came here.

Antonio Giugliano with his award-winning feijoa sparkling wine and his gold medals. Photo / Paul Taylor

“I went to EIT and studied winemaking under Nick Sage. Sadly a health problem meant I couldn’t finish the course.”

However, that hasn’t stopped Antonio.

Back in the day the couple - who have been married for 64 years - “entertained a lot”.

Judy, who is English, said she loves to cook Italian food and their dinner parties were “a lot of fun”.

Life has been far from easy for Antonio.

“My father died aged 37 after coming back from the war with TB. I was just 3 years old. Then I had just started school and war broke out. The schools were closed. After the war, I cried to my mother to send me back to school so I could learn to read and write. They put me in a class of children my own age but because I hadn’t learned anything I couldn’t keep up, I was put in with the baby class and finally I started to learn.”

Sadly with no father for her son and no “help from the government”, Antonio’s mother had no choice but to pull him out of school after just three months and send him to work.

His lack of early education certainly hasn’t stopped this cheerful character from building a once-thriving business and making some superb amateur wine. It was a pleasure to meet them.