Ep. 1724 Marco Nordio Interviews Salvino Benanti | Clubhouse Ambassadors’ Corner

The Italian Wine Podcast is the community driven platform for Italian wine geeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italianwinepodcast.com. Donate 5 or more euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, My Italian Grape Geek Journal, absolutely free. To get your free copy of My Italian Grape Geek Journal, click support us at italianwinepodcast.com or wherever you get your pots. 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 italianwineepodcast.com. Any amount helps cover equipment, Hello. Good morning. Difference time slot, half past nine in the morning, and I'm just drinking my coffee here. I bought a new, lock time maker. I'm trying to explain how that works to Laika this morning. Good morning, everybody. My name is Stevie Kim, and welcome to the Italian wine house, now it's called. It used to be called Italian wine club. Everything is different now on Clubhouse. As you know, this is what we call the ambassador's Corner where an Italian wine ambassador at Lodge, they get to interview their favorite wine producer in Cierca sixty minutes. I know it seems very long, but it's actually one of the most popular shows that we replay on Italian wine podcast wherever you get your pots. And I see I see Nico, Buongiorno, Sue, Tolleson. This is a different time slot and Dave, thank you for joining us. We usually do it later. But the reason being because today's ambassador's corner is hosted by Marco Naudio, who's a Kiwi. Hey, Marco. Good morning. Hi, Stevie. How are you? What time is it over there? Where are you, first of all? Well, I'm in Auckland, New Zealand. It's 09:30PM, so it's twelve hours difference. We are ahead of two twelve hours here. Yeah. You make it sound like it should be really obvious. We know where you are, but, most people do not know. I saw you at wine two wine. Did you also go on Chitascolastica? No. I didn't. I didn't. I it was a very short trip to Italy just for wine to wine. Plus, I visited my family in, Kyogia near Venice, and then I came back to New Zealand. It was just ten days in Italy. Wow. Okay. You'll have to join us next time. It was really fantastic. I went to Marche, which is completely undiscovered for for the most part as with regards to, you know, our studies, and it was the first time ever to go into the market region. It was fantastic. And then the other group went to, of course, the Benvenuto Brunello, which is a more consolidated event with many, many Italian wine ambassadors at large. So, Marco, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, a skinny version of who you are to our listeners? Oh, yes. Certainly, Stevie. So I've been in New Zealand for twenty years here, and, in my, I was I'm born I was born in Kyoto, near Venice in 1964, long time ago. And I'm, I studied economics at the Bocconi University in Milan. So my initial, career was as a in finance, and this is similar to what Salvino actually had. Salvino Benanti was saying kind of background. I I'm a Bocconiano. I mean, I did their MBA program, but so we're all Bocconiani. Yay. Absolutely. Yeah. That's very good. Actually, I visited Bocconia recently when I was in Milan just just a few days ago. Actually, Bocconi changed a lot. I mean, it grew. They have a 50 meter swimming pool now part of the university. I wish it was there when when when I was a student. Are you a swimmer? I mean, you you look like I am. I am a swimmer. Okay. And then are you from finance to So, basically why wine? How did that happen? Well, it happened that I actually took a break from my, career in finance, and I had this epic trip by sailing boat. It took it took me three years, and I sailed from Italy to New Zealand with, with a yacht and with my wife. And we landed in New Zealand, and New Zealand is a country where you can start, afresh. You can, you can start a new project. And I I went again to university. I attended a course, one year course in wine science, and then I planted a small vineyard in the the land that I bought near near Auckland. And, I I learned how to make wine when I realized that it's much much easier to import good wines like ben empty wines rather than trying to produce wines, which is a extremely difficult job. And and so I I became, an an importer, an importers of, Italian wines. Now I have a very large portfolio and, very, very successful so far. Yeah. So that's fantastic. So, Marco, why did you choose one of the twin brothers today? Why did you choose Salvino today? Oh, I I chose, Benanti, and then I didn't know if, Salvino or Antonio was available, but they are twin brothers. They are both working in the winery. And, because Benanti, as everyone knows, is a benchmark producer of Etna wines since the beginning of Etna wines. They actually, in a way, started the whole thing. Nowadays, Aetna is very popular, but back in 1988 when the winery, the Benanti winery was founded, the situation was very different. So in my opinion, the growth of Aetna wines in the last twenty years represents a model to follow for all denominations in Italy, really, a truthful representation of a territory with a strict focus on quality. So Benanti has led the way in this regard. So I think there are plenty of reason to choose Benanti. Yeah. I mean, you know, when we go to, as you know, we've been going to Aetna as the group, you know, for Via. We've been doing the chitestolastica for, many, many I will I wouldn't say many, many, but I I think good six or seven years now already. And, of course, we always meet up also with, you know, Sarva Forti who was their enologist because they're kind of the alpha. Right? They've started this whole Aetna movement. So I'm very excited to have Sarvino on the show today. And as you know, you know, we're kinda geeky here. So what are the learning objectives that we should expect from this call today? Well, today, we will learn about, where we are at with Aetna Wines. I mean, this grow in the growth in the reputation and the profile high profile worldwide has been phenomenal so far. But what are the next stages? What what's gonna happen going ahead? So Antonio Benanti, the the Salvino's brother, held the leadership role in the consortium of Etna wines until recently. And certainly, Salvino can can tell us what the drivers of this denomination will be in the near future. Specifically about his winery, Benanti will let us know what what he thinks are the reasons for the current success of of his wines and what are his next, projects. Okay. Fantastic. So I'm looking forward to this call, and I am going to leave the floor to you. So take over, Marco, and I will come back towards the end of the show to see if there are any questions. Over to you. Very good. Thank you again, Stevie. And, hi, Salvino. How are you? Hi, Marco. Hi, everybody. I'm great. Thank you. It's 09:30AM, so the beginning of my day, and it's a good day to start. It's a good way to start my day. So thank you for inviting me. I just had a glass of Etna Rosso, dinner. I guess for you, it's a bit too early for a glass of your wines. I had an espresso. Yeah. First of all, Sabina, I would like to tell you, about to remind the listener how I came to know Benanti, because I think there is a it's an interesting story here. So the connection between me and Benanti came through California of all places because, California, specifically, I'm referring to Shelley Lindgren, but is a very leading ambassador of Italian wines in California and probably in US in general. And she she's a very close friend of one of one very famous restaurateur in New Zealand, and, she introduced me to to Benanti. So in 2016, I visit the winery with a couple of my customers,