Everything
began for Mr Didier BARBE in 1997. The son of a family of
wine growers,
DB showed enthusiasm to
make aperitif. He then decided to make an old local recipe
fashionable, and to market it as an aperitif. First, he only
made the ‘red’ Magra Bandi. The receipe of this
aperitif, a wine-and-raspberry-based drink, was passed on to
him from a older inhabitant of his home town.
As far as the name of the aperitif is concerned, it is
the anagram of the first letters of the name of
his wife and children.
For the first
year, only 500 bottles of the aperitif were produced, and
had he come to fail, friends would have been there to have
a drink
in order to finish the unsold bottles of aperitif.
But, unfortunately for those friends, the ‘red’ Magra
Bandi was a great success. And then, this success turned
into a real pride for the company, as evidenced by the increasing
demand for the Magra Bendi. In fact, the company produced
10,000 bottles in 1998, 16,000 in 1999, and at present, the number
of bottles produced is reaching 25,000 a year.
In 2001, Didier BARBE’s increasing success encouraged
him to extend his range of products, and he therefore produced
the ‘white’ Magra Bandi. The recipe of this
new version of the apertif is not based on raspberry
but on peach
and pear.
In 2002, the company extended its ‘cuverie’ that
permitted the production of the traditional aperitif
from Aube, the ratafia from Champagne which is based on the blending of
champagne and must of grapes.
In 2004, the marketing of the Didier BARBE
selected champagnes began
