Ep. 330 Lan LIU 刘蓝

Italian wine podcast. Chinchin with Italian wine people. So, I just wanna say hello to my guest today on Italian my podcast, which is Land You. Did I get your name correct? Yeah. Correct. Alright. And so you you live in in Piamonte, but you from China originally, tell us a little bit about the nearest vineyard territories, to you in Piamonte. Yeah. In fact, I live partially in Piamonte and partially in Veneto. So I normally go to Piamonte for the weekends. And we live in a small town and just to the west of a language regions. The famous parallel parallel region. And so we spent quite a lot quite a lot of time in exploring all the vineyards. And as soon as we are about an just right at right about to enter into Barano, the commune, we would always see the big box at the viola Venus, which is, quite high, and on one of the closest vineyards to the app, our post. Be already. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. And it's name. It actually means here of the violets, and it got its name from the flowers, which bring quite early due to the sauce exposure. And that's, where I sought after character of, for wine growing. And then you you go over the hill, you enter into the town of Parolo. And, certainly, you, you could visit the famous vineyards and which candidates back to seventeenth century, the kenobi, probably one of the most famous, females, and in Italy also in the world. That's, that's that's something worth mentioning. Then as if you go, leave Barrera for our back and takes a provincial startup and three, you would be able to see and the crews of La Molla commune. So to the right, you have all the beautiful vineyards crews of Namora and to the left, you have the canopy vineyards. One thing you probably want to do is to have non in a small restaurants right in the center of the Kanubi vineyards, which is called, Locanda in Kanubi, where you can enjoy the views of, the views of the, a number of vine vineyards and also, really get yourself immersed in the atmosphere of a canopy vineyards. Okay. Now apart from your love of wine and food and the and where you live, how how did you end up, in verona? Are you from one province, I think, in China. How did you end up in Verona? Yeah. Let it's it's actually a long story because, back in twenty ten, I got a I got an opportunity to study in Europe for Viticulture and winemaking. So I enrolled in Innologist school in Monpilius, which is the school actually is called Monpiliusubakho, and it's a European program. So I got the chance to visit also other regions. I spent half a year in Geisingham in Germany, and afterwards nine months in math for my master's thesis. After that, I graduated. I went back to China, worked for a supplier, while making material supplier in China taking care of the Chinese market for three years. At a certain time time point, I want to make a break. So look look at the one map, right, the old one map. I've I've I've been studying in France. I have experience in Germany in Spain. So which one is that? Italy. That's a natural, and natural choice. Then I decided to come back, come back to Europe and get into, university in Italy and complete my, in European and one map. You got an MBA as well in you in Italy. Yeah. Yeah. That that's a that's a program. You I was seeing right here. So and that was focused on inology as well or not. And not practically, it's a program focused on food and wine. I I think it's probably one of the first one of the first budget program with the focus on both foot, both foot and one. Then I I guess the education was quite successful. I become a gong persona eater and also landed in working for Vineite International, so food and wine. Okay. So what, it's very interesting that you've got that combination of, the exotic. The food bit and the technical side as well. So, what do you find what do you find most exciting about the, about the wine business? No. I I think, basically, the wine business the more you learned and the more you understand how little you actually know. And it's, plus or out of knowledge, which is quite fascinating and also, one basis is not is generally speaking left behind, if you compare one business with other industries. And but we've got we've got this opportunity to really embrace the technology and also knowing people from all different fields and all different places. And you you're almost almost every time you'd hear a story, people who was, an investment banker and and decided to change for a career, then he he ended up being a winery, owner in Piedmont, they're in Tuscany, but you never heard a story. Why make a decided to make a life change to become a and you're based on the banking. No. That's, that's the exciting part I think. So what is your exact role at the Binitale International Academy via? So my official role is, the coordinator of Ministry International Academy. Practically, I take care of the cost development and execution with, faculty and under the supervision of our chief scientist. His name is, Artidochenza, the AKA Fishman. Then also coordinates our via ecosystem, which is, consisted of, via supporters, advisory board, via faculty, and also our via community. And another major part of my work is to, maintain the communication with our communities and either through social medias or through events, field trips, And, I guess, the most interesting part of my work is to organize the wine tastings and field trips. So to help build the connection between the wine wine for wine word and Italian wines. Okay. There's a you got a new book out called the jumbo shrimp guide. How, who had the idea and and why did you do it? The idea actually, you know, in our office, we all love reading. So at a certain point, our stevie and also our boss decided to have a wine library. So he started purchasing books, of different countries and of of all all kinds of horses. At a at a certain at a certain point, he, and she came across a book for twenty four hours while an expert by Jason Robinson. And we actually realized there was a book missing for Italian wine, you know. You need an entry, they were book for people to get into knowing Italian one way out being intimidated by the complexity and the diversity. So that's the point we decided to work out a a tiny book, which is, entertaining and easy to read, and you can also bring it and now with you to travel around Etsy. That's, that's where the idea came about. Okay. So when, Viniti International Via doesn't event, in Italy. Is there a big difference between what you do in Italy to events held in countries outside Italy? Now to be honest, no, there's there's not much there's not much being changed. The format is always the same. You have the theoretical lectures plus the guided tastings and also additional testing apps. But if you compare the courses in Italy and the courses overseas. One thing you probably will notice is that you have less return stops when you are having courses overseas. But essentially, you probably would taste less less once when you are doing taking the course in taking the course overseas. And also really depends on depends on where you are, and you probably would have, would not have the access to the archetypal HNN imperatives. That's that's the major differences for me. What is changing it via this year in terms of the education program? What news have you got? So, due to the fast development of COVID nineteen, we have to adapt sorts of, digital elements than in our course to, to make the course more, resourceful and flexible for other participants. Now in the past, it's a five day intensive program and typical sit down, typical classroom style sit down for testing and theoretic lectures. And this year, we have, formed the program into two modules. One online session in June, one practical session in November. In addition to the theoretic lectures, we actually makes a course a little bit more, a little bit more resourceful. So you would have, the video study material. You all the audio study materials, the live sessions, the practical sessions on testing, and you would also have access to the business rooms where you can get more business insights about Italian wine and also the international markets. And in the end, we also try to combine the field trip to the program. So you have a whole experience and studying this year. Great. Sounds good. It's nice that the fact that you've got the commercial side in there as well. That's often one of the things that is missing in wine course is it's about tasting and and, which grape is in which particular wine rather than the actual business side as well, which I I think is quite, is quite a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. Education after, after, perhaps, has to serve also the the sales. Right? You know, in the end, the goal is to help monitoring producers to sell more wines and and little by little way, we're trying to adapt the cost to be more relevant and also to to somehow help the students to get more talent elements into their and brain and mentality. So in in the in the future, then they'll probably would become the biggest advocates of Italian wine. So then, Lou, I just want to say thanks very much for coming in today. Talking to us about the educational program at Van Italy International Academy and also how you got there, and also, a little bit about your life in Kimonte. You live in a beautiful part of the world. And, you're clearly absolutely passionate about your wine, which is what we like here. So thanks very much, Lennon. Take it easy, and good luck with all the courses. Thank you. Thanks for the time. Thanks, Lauren. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud Apple Podcasts HeimalIFM, and more. 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