What happens when you lose all of your customers at once? In 1978, that’s exactly what happened to Garbellotto S.p.A., one of Italy’s oldest and most celebrated barrel-makers. Founded in 1775 and still run by the same family today, it had once supplied barrels to the House of Habsburg. By the 20th century, the company’s vessels aged wine and spirits for some of Italy’s most storied producers, from Biondi Santi to Vecchia Romagna. Their craftsmanship had earned them a reputation in the industry as the Rolls-Royce of barrels. And yet, none of it mattered in 1978. The oil shock of the 1970s froze long-term capital investment across Europe. For wineries, barrels were among the first expenditures to cut because they are expensive and slow to pay off. At the same time, consumer tastes had shifted from aged wines to younger, lighter varietals, rendering Garbellotto’s barrel-aging style almost irrelevant.…