Ep. 1516 Ciro Pirone Interviews Claudio Sottile | Clubhouse Ambassadors’ Corner

Since 2017, the Italian Wine Podcast has exploded and expects to hit 6,000,000 listens by the July 2023. We're celebrating this success by recognizing those who have shared the journey with us and giving them the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing success of the success of the shows. By buying a paper copy of the Italian Wine Unplugged two point o or making a donation to help the ongoing running costs, members of the international Italian wine community will be given the chance to nominate future guests and even enter a prize draw to have lunch with Stevie Kim and professor Atelio Schenza. To find out more, visit us 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. Hello everybody, my name is Stevie Kim and welcome to the Thai and Wine Club now called House on Clubhouse. We have surpassed our hundredth episode milestone on Clubhouse of the Ambassador's Corner, about a couple of weeks ago, I believe. And, like, yes, I've turned on the record button on the Rodecaster because, few few episodes ago, I completely forgot, which was kind of, kind kind of insane. Anyway, welcome. You know how this works. You've been here. I see some of you. Hello. Hello to Pablo, Fermented Boss, Cynthia from The Office, Kevin. Oh, yeah. It was with Kevin when I had forgotten to, press the record button, and it we couldn't replay it from the Clubhouse. Long story. Anyways, Jody, Valentina, Cynthia, of course, from the office. Hello, everybody. So today's mod is mister Chiro Pirone. Ciao, Chiro. Ciao, Stevie. Where are you? I am, well, I'm in Massachusetts, in a town called Wakefield right now. What's the weather been like there? It's, it's it's warm. I mean, we've had, lots of rain as well here and there scattered, but, it's been warm. I mean, nowhere near what's happening in Italy, but, definitely a pretty warm typical summer for here. It's been crazy, you know, that last night in the past few days, actually, there there has been thunderstorms. And, the other the other night, actually, the other day, a man even got, he got, struck by lightning, and I think he's he's passed, unfortunately. It's been crazy. Yesterday, there was such huge hailstorm also by Cynthia. She said, like I mean, the hell's hailstorm the hails, like, they were the size of not of a golf ball, but quite large. So let's just cross fingers for, our friends everywhere. Of course, you know, with the all the, mildews and now this, it's it's kind of a mess. Let's let's hope for the best and maybe you can ask also, Claudia, our guest today. So of course, those of you who are unfamiliar with Ciro Pirone, he is our friend and our Italian wine ambassador many, many times. In fact, I had to create a special category for him with the honorable mention because, he was trying to resit for expert, but I'm still, if you are committed, I'm still convinced that you will become our Italian wine expert one day. I am committed. Just waiting for, the right moment. US tour comes. Yes. So, Chito, so what are you what are you up to nowadays? Are you still the director of Italian wines for Horizon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm still with Horizon, which has been sixteen years now. So obviously it's been, yeah, quite a while. But it's all good, you know, things are busy, never stop. And, you know, it's a healthy market and, obviously the summer, you know, slows down in some areas, but overall things are good and Italian wine is still in great demand. Yeah. I've I've heard, I've spoken to some of the Italian wine producers lately, and they had said that I mean, '22 was really, really great, you know, above their expectation. And '23 has they've seen a little bit of decline, a bit of a drop. What what are what are your thoughts on that? Well, definitely, the, the retail side of business slowed down quite a bit this year because after, you know, several years of growth during COVID and post COVID, you know, now it's kind of flattened. And at least in this market, there's also an increase of amount of licenses available for off premise accounts, which obviously means wine is available in a lot more locations. So, obviously, it's challenging to get that business. But, in the restaurant world, instead, things are, like, definitely going, pretty well. Again, there is an element of seasonality where Cape Cod and the islands and some of the other coastal areas get very busy. And maybe areas surrounding Boston, they get a little bit slower because people go away in the summer. Mhmm. But overall, on premise is going strong and off premise is where things are more flat. So tell tell us a few of the, I I I guess Claudio is one of your, supplier? So Claudio is one of the yes. Basically, we represent, he's a really single wine here in Boston and Massachusetts. Yep. And who are give us some of your other Italian, winers that we would recognize just to have an idea in terms of horizon. Yeah. Yeah. We represent roughly 50, I think 55 to 57 wineries. They might have changed a bit, but from, you know, bigger names established like Rufino, Frescobaldi, Bamfy, but also Donna Fugata, Tenerta Sanguito, Fattoria di Rodano, Vila Matilde and Campania, Claudio Quartempuya, Borgo Conventi and Colavinia Friuli. So do you have do you cover do you cover every single region? Not every single region because the way it works, we as a distributor, we buy wines from, suppliers, which obviously are the importers. Mhmm. And some of our importers cover more Italian region than others. And, not many necessarily have things like Liguria, Basilicata, Molise Molise. You know, some of the smaller regions, if you will. Yeah. Molise. I said Molise. Drive right through it. Just to make them okay. Okay. So let's get to, today. Your, guest today, your interviewee, for this Yes. Call is Claudio Sotile. So how how come you chose Claudio out of all of these producers that you can you can have in, your hands? I feel like, you know, the purpose of the platform here is also to give voice to some of the micro producers that have obviously still a great story behind them. And specifically, in the few years that I've known Claudio, you know, in doing business together, you know, we grew close and basically I've been trying to help wine really, grow here in the Boston market. And, knowing his passion and obviously effort that he puts into making the wine and all the challenges that come along with that, I think it's a story worth being told and definitely wine's worth drinking for people to experience. Okay. Excellent. I'm always I'm unfamiliar with also Claudia's wine and winery. So I'm looking forward to your conversation today. What are the learning objectives as usual? What do what are we expecting from you today? I I think, a few where, you know, obviously Sicily today, you know, represents one of the, I think, greatest wine regions of the world at large with its, you know, wealth of grape varieties, terroirs, but also foods and traditions and whatnot. And although some areas like Aetna have become incredibly popular and, well traveled by many, there's a lot of greatness in many other places and many things are happening. So I think it's important to also shed the light over the many beautiful stories and talented producers that are throughout the island in places maybe not as famous as Edna. And specifically for this interview, also have a bit of a deeper conversation on Cattarato, which is really the grape Claudio works with, that for the longest time was really only thought of a