Ep. 1002 Marta Mendonça & Cristina Crava | Uncorked

Welcome to the Italian Wine Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitili International Academy announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong from the twenty seventh to the July 29. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you wanna be the next Italian wine ambassador? Learn more and apply now at vinitiliinternational.com. Hello, everybody. My name is Polly Hammond, and you are listening to Uncorked, the Italian wine podcast series about all things marketing and communication. Join me each week for candid conversations with experts from within and beyond the wine world as we explore what it takes to build a profitable business in today's constantly shifting environment. In this episode, we're joined by the leadership team of the Porto Protocol, Marta Mendoza and Cristina Cava. As one of the oldest organizations combating climate change issues affecting wine, the Porto Protocol has taken a radical approach to collaboration, non competition, and non certification. Today, we'll talk about optimism in the face of crisis, sharing solutions for the greater good, and how the Porto Protocol team convinced over a dozen wine producers to share their stories on video. Let's get into it. Good morning, ladies, and welcome. I'm I'm so glad to have both of you here with me today. You have just returned from world travels, sharing the Porto Protocol with some of your collaborators in The US. Is that correct? That is absolutely correct. We just came back from California where we had the chance of meeting in person various of the members here at the Port Of Protocol, which we've met quite a few times via Zoom, and we felt since we had a growing community in The US that it was time for us to actually go there and be able to spread our message in person rather than via just just a digital format. But it was very curious that after all this time being, talking to these members through Zoom, that when we meet them in person, it was like we really already meet, them previously. So it was very it's it was a very good feeling. So the proximity between us. Yeah. I do think that we've overcome that barrier. I mean, it's absolutely lovely because I have that all the time with people who I've I've met, I've worked with. And you feel like when you finally get to give them a hug around the neck that you're like, oh my god. I've known you forever. I've talked to you for years. So it's a really nice barrier to break down. I I think that it does present some challenges, which we can come to when we talk about some climate activism as we go on. So I wanna ask about what you were doing in The States. But before we do that, can you just, for the benefit of all of our audience, tell us a little bit about the quarter protocol, the history, the formation, and, and the work that you're doing right now. Just a little synopsis before we dig into things. Okay. So we are, knowledge sharing wine community. We work with members all over the world from the wine community, from soil to seed. That means that in this community of ours, we have companies, spread across the wine value chain, not only wine producers, but also design agencies, communication companies, Retailers, Technology. Technologies, consultancy companies, glass companies, packaging, cork. So all different kinds of companies besides the grape and the wine growers. And and what is the criteria? What is the criteria for all of those disparate, providers and producers to to become a part of the Porto Protocol? There's no exact criteria because we believe in action rather than perfection. So if we talk about criteria, the criteria is, first of all, to commit to commit to climate action and then to share so we can actually create a network of people that share what they are doing to address climate change. Because at the end of the day, what we are doing is catalyzing climate action in the wine world. So for that, we need people to share solutions in a variety of formats. So that I think the only criteria is to be connected to the wine value chain. That's our in terms of reach, it's the the way we profile our members. So be connected in a way or or another way to the wine value chain. So commit, act, collaborate, and share. Yeah. And what are some of the ways that that your people are doing that? Like, what does that mean? Because if it's not a certification, how do they how do they commit and share? Well, they commit, first of all, by signing our letter of principles, and that they they therefore, they become signatories of the protocol. But they only become members when they share a specific solution through a variety of ways. It may be in a written format. We have templates of solutions that were that was revised by a member of our global steering committee, doctor Richard Smart, very well known within the wine industry worldwide. He's a viticulturist from Australia. And Wendy Cameron, the winemaker, also from Australia, we are now working on having, an expert panel, that will sort of peer review these solutions that are shared with us. This is still not replacement. It will be very soon. And that, expert panel has experts literally from all over the world in different with different types of expertise that will be looking into those solutions that are shared with us, not with the aim of that of judging them because we are not that is really important, but we are we are not a place of judgment as we welcome and meet companies where they are in terms of climate action. And we believe in in, again, in perfection, not actually in in continuous improvement. So that expert panel will make sure that everything that is shared for this community is robust and has enough quality to be useful for someone else on the other side of the world that is reading the solution and finds enough information to understand whether or not that that best practice is replicable to its own reality. And so that's for So it's like so it's a peer review. You know? So we've got peer reviewed solutions is basically. People submit to you the work that they're doing. It goes through a peer review process to confirm that it is replicable and that another winery or another solutions provider anywhere in the world can get on board with it. And then at that point, it gets messaged, like, do the brands share those stories? Do you share those stories? Sort of how does the dissemination of that knowledge work? We share it. Mostly, we share it. Of course, the company also shares it, but we are we are the we are the sharing knowledge platform in the sense that we share it not only via our newsletter, our social media, our website, and very important, we do it one to one. So by being able to know every single member of ours, we get to know what their challenges are and what their solutions are. So whenever a company, for example, is looking for a particular solution that has to do, for example, with water management, by having this, very personal knowledge of what is happening with all our members worldwide. We are able to say, for example, look, this company is implementing this solution or that company in another in a completely different part of the world is doing something else, and we are able to bring these people these people together. So it's not just about sharing the solution in a in a digital platform. It's also about bringing people together that are looking at like minded people that are looking for solutions or that have similar challenges, and bringing them together is part of the magic, let's say, of what we do. Yeah. It's creating a community around these same challenges, and sharing their, worries and how to overcome the the the same kind of issues that, people have. So it's like the the network that is behind this platform of solutions that it really makes the magic that Martha was, referring to. You have been around for a long time. I mean, like, the portal protocol ha