Ep. 1637 Matt Irwin Interviews Luca Speri | Clubhouse Ambassadors’ Corner

Since 2017, the Italian wine podcast has exploded recently hitting 6,000,000 listens. Support us by buying a copy of Italian wine unplugged two point o or making a small donation. In return, we'll give you the chance to nominate a guest and even win lunch with Stevie Kim and professor Atelio Scenzza. Find out more at italianwinepodcast.com. Welcome to this special Italian Wine Podcast broadcast. This episode is a recording of Clubhouse, the popular drop in audio chat. This Clubhouse session was taken from the Wine Business Club and Italian Wine Club. Listen in as wine lovers and experts alike engage in some great conversation on a range of topics in wine. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through italianwinepodcast.com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. And remember to subscribe and rate our show wherever you tune in. Alright. Hello, everybody. My name is Stevie Kim, and welcome to the Italian wine club. For everyone out there, this episode will be replayed on Italian wine podcast as usual. Our usual slot is half past five now, I think. Alrighty. So you guys know what the deal is. Right? It's called the ambassador's corner, and we've been doing for a couple of years now. We started it during the pandemic. And it's you know, in the beginning, I was a bit hesitant to do this for, like, an hour because I'm like, who the hell is going to listen to geeky stuff for an hour? But turns out that it is actually one of the most popular shows. And the reason being, I think, is that all of the wine geeks, Italian wine geeks, gravitate to this series, the ambassador's corner. And, of course, thanks to our Italian wine ambassadors at Lodge. And today, our host for today who will be hosting this room is Matt Erwin. Ciao, Matt. Ciao, Stevie. Hello. Very excited. Still awake? Again. Are you still awake? I'm still here. Yeah. I'm still here. Matt, why don't you tell you a little bit about yourself? Well, I'm currently in Sydney, Australia. I work for WSET, the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, as a business development for Australia and New Zealand. But before that, I was importing, Italian wine for over fourteen years in both Canada and Australia. I have an absolute love for Italian wine. I have ever since, I was traveling through Italy as a tour manager there in my younger days. And, just their passion and their energy and their stunning wines, made me just fall in love and chase a career in it. And I've been lucky enough to be able to to work in Italian wines for, well, quite a while now. Now, of course, Matt Erwin is our new Italian wine ambassador. He he had been anointed in April 2023, spanking new Italian wine ambassador. I'm not sure you traded up going from importing business to w set, but it is what it is. Okay. So tell us why, Matt, you've chosen Barry Winery, Lucas Barry, as your interviewee today. Well, Luca, first of all, is a friend of mine that I've gotten to know over the last couple of years. Yep. I can't believe it. Myself as one of them, luckily. But himself and his family are one of the most wonderful families I've had the pleasure of getting to know. There's over seven generations that have worked in the Sperry family in the winery, and they hold on to tradition, but they still they understand the modern changing world. They're a leader in the wine community, and they use their influence, to better the region, the region's wines and the environment as well. They're always handing down heritage, in their land and in their passion and the grapes that they grow. And I just couldn't think of a a more, passionate family to bring on to this podcast. I mean, there are quite a few of them, the spares. But you know what I love about the spares is they're modest, but also they all get on as a family, which is kind of a rarity nowadays in this, wine world, especially in Verona. So I love that. I haven't seen Luca in a while. He's all grown up now. Look at look at that. He's, like, kinda has a mustache and everything. So I'm looking forward to your chat. Listen, Matt. To all of us. Yeah. I know. I know. It did happen especially during the pandemic. So you know what the deal is. What are the learning objectives that we should expect from you for all the geeks out there? Well, you know I love a learning objective. And tonight, we're going to be talking, to understand the history of the region of Valpolicella better and what it was like growing up in one of the world's great wine regions according to Luca. I also want to learn how Sperry Wines utilizes its traditional methods, of the Appascimento and the traditions of the region to maintain the identity of Valpolicella wines, but they are understanding that the world is changing and how they use this knowledge to continue to improve the quality of the wines and their region. And finally, I wanna better understand the threats and opportunities facing Valpolicella region and the and Sperry one. Yeah. I would like to have his opinion on that as well. I'm I'm very curious. So alrighty. So I will pass over the mic onto you now, and I will mute my mic. As you know, that rarely happens. You best take full advantage of the situation. And then, you know, I'll come back to see if there are any questions from the audience or from, like, or anybody else at the office. Okay? Fantastic. Okay. See you soon. See you soon. Bye. Alright. Well, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce Luca Sperry, co owner and sales manager for Sperry wineries in the Valpolicella region. Luca, together with his sisters, Kiara and Laura, and his cousins, Alberto, Gianpaolo, Giampietro, represent the sixth generation of Sperry wines. Beside them is also Giuseppe, who's Alberto's son that brings in the seventh generation. Luca's the youngest member of the his generation, yes, topping out at 43 years old but has already has a massive amount of experience. He started working full time in the winery since 2002 and has been involved in every activity within the entire business. He was mentored by his father and his cousins in the production of the wines and in the sales and marketing. He's involved in, mainly the sales and exports the wines to over 60 countries including The US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and many others. Besides being a part of the family winery, Luca is also a founding member of the member of the board of the Familia Storice and I'll have to ask him to pronounce that properly for me. It's an association of Amarone families who are the top wineries producing Amarone. Plus he's also the past president and still the director one of the directors on the board of Antigua Bottega del Vino in Verona one of my favorite places to visit in the world. One of the most historical restaurants in Verona with one of the greatest wine lists you can imagine if you are an Italian wine lover. Ciao Luca. Ciao, Matteo. How are you? How are you? How are you? And you. Yeah. It's wonderful to have you on this podcast with me, and thank you so much for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to talk about, your wine. So I'm very excited. It's a pleasure, Matt, to be in this thing with you, Stevie. Like, I mean, I I you know that this thing for me, it's very important. You guys are gold for us. You know? You are gold for the Italian wine. So anytime you need the support from us, it's it's there. And we appreciate that so much. First of all, I want to start off and ask you to tell us about the history of, your family and your winery going back seven generations. Oh, yeah. I mean, the the story, it's, it's very long. I mean, we are one of the the oldest wineries here. The the first bottles, the first documents date back to eighteen seventies, I would say. And, then, you know, the the family was, was there. The family was there making everything from the real beginning. We still are there. The fact that Sperry, up to seventh generation, it's still, in the business as a family with no changing is q