Ep. 380 Roger Bissell

Italian wine podcast. Chinchin with Italian wine people. Hello. This is Italian wine podcast. My name is Monte Walden. My guest today is Roger bissell. Roger, where are you from? Well, I'm originally from Italy. I was born here, and I, moved to the United States when I was a little boy. And I am in the wine industry in some form or fashion. Where did you move to in the States, by the way? About forty five minutes south of Boston in the town of Rhode Island, grew up on a farm. Mhmm. Yeah. So Boston is in which state? Massachusetts, Okay. Yeah. So you sort of rural upbringing. Very rural on a two hundred acre farm. So what was it? We tools, animals? Everything. Go on, everyone's giraffes, porcocks, ferrets, you name it. Really? Yes. We tapped the trees from maple syrup, only had woodstove heat, very, rustic eclectic old school, upbringing. So yeah. So you had sort of a farming experience. Dummy, did you actually like that, lifestyle? I actually liked it. Yeah. Quite a bit. It, was rewarding. Maybe at the time, I didn't appreciate it, but in retrospect, very much so now. Well, didn't you appreciate the hard work? The hard work at getting up at four AM in the morning. To do go and give us a typical tour. You know, only well water, no hoses. So you'd have to, yep, you'd have to go hand pump water, distribute water amongst the trough depending on what time of the year because it freezes. To sheep cows, horses, goats. And then you'd have to chop a little bit of wood every morning or bring in wood from the woodshed, depending on the time of the year, collect all the maple syrup, for How'd you do that, by the way? The syrup? Yeah. So it was just for us. We didn't do it for anyone else, much like an Italian family when they're making wine for themselves. We would drill into the, large maple trees about a hundred years old. Put about three spigots in a bucket on it, and you'd collect the tap, the sap rather every morning, especially when you're coming out of wintertime in the spring, that's when it's coming out. So, and then you put it on the wood stove, twenty gallons of sap equal one quart of maple syrup. Wow. So you have to reduce it down. Yep. It just sits on the wood stove boiling all day all night for probably about two weeks before you get that, then you strain it and you have liquid gold. When you use that, what did you put that on? Pancakes, I guess? Yeah. Pancakes, desserts. My, you know, I never ate a piece of meat from the store. Or anything really from the store, my entire childhood, it was very self sufficient. Yes. I mean, you're a strapping lad. How tall are you? Right. Six two. Yeah. You you look, you build like an American football player. Right. Yeah. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ask any difficult. It's just with you. You got hands that could sort of ring my neck within a turkey snake or something. It's a gentle giant. Gentle j. No. You are a gentle child. So how did you end up and when when did your wine interest develop? You know, I guess it really developed as a child because growing up in the US, I was fortunate enough that the family, that had adopted me, they produced wine, just for ourselves. So I had an appreciation. We probably had about fifty milliliters with our dinner every night by the time we were nine years old, ten years old. And then, again, in high school and college, working on Federal Hill, the Italian North End in Boston, you know, Were they restaurants or restaurants? Yep. High end, Italian American restaurants, Italian American. That was proper food then. Italian American food. Yeah. Proper food. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So, and then how did you how did you jump from the States back to Italy? Well, about eleven years ago, eleven, twelve years ago. When you were how old? Thirty roughly. It's forty, then, are you? Yeah. Don't know. You look like a twenty five. Yeah. Well, You know? It's a lot of maple syrup. It's olive oil too, maybe. You know, I went to college and then, off to Chicago worked in finance for a little while, but my heart always kept roaming back to wine and hospitality. I I had the opportunity through the finances, obviously. Life was good financially to travel all around the world as a hobby, and really bite the bug again and really want to take a step back and go back into food and wine. So Okay. Next step. Yep. Restaurant, bought a restaurant. You bought a restaurant. Yep. Bought a restaurant. Yeah. Yep. And that was where. In downtown Chicago. River North. It was called Swirl, sold it, right after the two years after the, recession. Twenty ten moved to Florida, with a little stint in Sydney, Australia. I I was consulting on some different restaurant and projects down there, all during this time getting some certifications, and moved to Florida and only consulted and did high end private club resort. Between Florida. I ran the circuit between Florida and then tuck at Naples, Florida, and then tuck at Massachusetts. So So how big of a focus when you're, obviously, you're doing consultancy, but on financials and stuff like that? I mean, how much input did you have on you know, wine lists and Italian wine in particular, if any. Yeah. It was my, part of my pre negotiation at every, position I accepted that I had a hundred percent control over wine. I enjoyed going on the floor from time to time, at least one, two days a week and working the floor because that's something that kinda gets under your skin. You like to be able to really make experiences for people and for it to open up their eyes and to have something new. Try something new. Yeah. So what was your tactic? Try something new. Go on. Well, you know, first, you have to read the the situation, the table. So you read the situation, read the table. So Yeah. You wouldn't want to geek out on them. You find out their comfort level. You ask what they're usually accustomed to drinking with, drinking, and they'll normally say merlot, cabernet, an international variety. And then from there, I find the easiest segue into Italian wine for me. One of my go tos was always going to be a Dolceto or Barbera or La Graine. They're really a great segue. People think they're big. And it's really just the acidity. So for within the American community a lot of times. So and they have it and they love it. And they realize how great it is with food and how well balanced it is. It's a perfect marriage. Instead of maybe an overwrite California. Like a big murder or something. Right. Right. Okay. Very much so. So you were successful, in this particular business Right. Consultant. What was the next day? Next step, I went to Dallas. I was hired to come to Dallas, because I'd been doing so many high end private clubs and resorts. I accepted that. That was a new venture for me in Dallas. And when I got to Dallas, I I realized that wow, Italian was just starting to explode there. There's only eighteen Italian restaurants in the entire DFW roughly metroplex. DFW? Dallas Fort Worth. Sorry. And I saw an opportunity to really make a mark because Dallas was quite behind in comparison to some other major metropolitan cities like New York or Chicago. So I did that. And then, started launching, my own thing. After that, my own website. I do tours. I take people from America to Italy, to experience an authentic Italian experience, put out content, collaborate with different wineries. So, yeah. Really, really, blessed in life. So where are your favorite regions when you're going on a or taking people on a tour? Sure. Piamonte, Tuscany, obviously, and Cecilia, for me, those That that's the easiest segue, maybe bread and butter to help get people from America to Italy. Tuscany is the easiest, but Piamante is really where my heart is. And I think that, you know, when you analyze the amount of American tourists in Tuscany, about seventy, eighty percent of the tourists are here in Tuscany, our American versus in Pimonte, it's about fifteen to twenty percent are American. It it's very, very minuscule. And it's unfortunate, because it's such a wonderful region, rich in land culture and magnificent, and it's, landscape, which, really gets under your skin and, and, and, Yeah. That's right. That's right. All the fog. Yeah. Just very. Well, why is that you think that, Tuscany is is the well, there are obvious reasons why Tuscany is the go to Mhmm. As films, you know, with the word Tuscany in there. Right. Piamante may be seen as more of a sort of connoisseurs or an insider's. And was it? Would you go along with that? You know, it I think maybe to Europeans, it's more of an insider connoisseur. To most Americans though, they they have zero idea, or a very minuscule idea that Piamante exists. So it it's not really quite I I don't think they see it as, highfalutin or, insider, maybe. Is that part of, like, the movies? I mean, if you, you know, movie going, US is a movie going country, right? And so if you're gonna see a sort of movie with an Italian link, it's gonna be revolving around Sicily probably for various reasons. So that is one that Sicily is talking about. Obviously, Tuscany mainstream movies, love stories. They met in, you know, Tuscany comes up. And I can't think of a single movie where this had a really sort of has a PM Monte theme. So maybe that is one of the reasons of why Right. One. And then, also, I think one needs to examine this strong, history historical ties between Sicily, Southern Italy, and America. I really think that, you know, late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, the majority of the immigrants that immigrated to Italy, as you know, there was Southern Italian and sicilian, and for this is actually one of my favorite actual historical notations, because I think when you analyze Italian food in America, it was very much influenced by this Southern Italian sicilian roots. So with that, people are trying to reconnect three, four, five generations later, six, in some cases. Reconnect with their southern Italian roots. So Sicily bears some sort of, historical nostalgia for a lot of Americans. Yeah. Gravitational pull. Right. Absolutely. So how long do you do you plan to spend in Italy on this particular trip? I know you're, doing some work with a winery Montachino at the moment, which is why, we we managed to make as my partner does the books for that particular winery, which is organic. It's called Delamo. Jenna Nelly in in Montagino. And, we just had a little taste in this morning. I thought, yeah, let's just do it. Oh, gosh. So what's your next step? How are you gonna be in Italy for? I'll be in Italy until November. So, and I'm going to I plan on, making the most of it. And what have you learned so far? What thing is what what, preconception has been demolished since you spent time here and what is, what has surprised you the most? Nothing really recently, as of yet, except as it relates to the times we're living in. That's the only thing. In terms of preconceived notions about culture, people, sociological, not there. There hasn't been. I've been to Tuscany before. But I'm absolutely certain. I'm gonna learn a a ton of new things when I venture into Compania and Marque. So is that your net those are your next stops, are they? Yes. After I leave Tuscin, I'm gonna go to umbria for a little bit, then I I want to head down to Compania. And then over to Marque. So, I'm really excited, to go there. I've been there maybe once. I've never been to Compania. I've done so many studies on it, and I happen to love their wines and culture. It's very rich. Huge huge amount of native grape varieties there. So it's a fun of you to get your teeth into. Right. And, Marque, what are your preconceptions about the le Marque? It's interesting because, you know, I always try to cross reference in America since my target demographic for my clients are Americans trying to, educate and expose them to something new, Marake when it first entered United States entered with, some cheaper, very affordable wine, that so my preconceived notions is is that I want to try a lot of the wine in local cuisine, which never makes it to the states. I really want to get involved and sink my teeth into, local food. And Institute of vintage grassy course then. Okay. I think that there's going to be a lot of, as you know, Italy is so regionally focused. It it's such such a pleasure every time to discover something new and really sink your teeth into their food, wine history because Italy has it in abundance. So Are you a great speaker? Why don't you write a book about your, your journey? Were you doing that already? I've been asked too many times. I didn't know that wasn't listening. No. No. Many times I've been asked to because I've had an interesting life being a adopted born in Italy coming here, living in different countries. I I guess what it really boils down to is laziness on my part, not having the, maybe the time. There's always been other things that have been a priority. Raising a family or, work, actual work, and that writing seems to take a, back seat, many, many times. So It it will will happen in the next five years, probably. Okay. We're gonna hold you to that in five years, time if I'm if I'm being fired, then we can, redo this conversation, CFIG over the book. It's, great to to, to meet you, Roger, especially I don't know what your health condition is, and I don't need to know. Yeah. But apparently it's quite serious. So we do wish you, all the best. And I think what you're doing is right. You're, you're, you're a man with great intelligence and curiosity. And, Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. Nice. Thank you so much. It's really, I really appreciate it. Yeah. I'm a little bit moved. Alright. What? Well, how do you get emotional, you know, sir? Just to let everybody know my survival, my father does does the accounts at, Janet Nany's, Natachino estate, and Jenna asked, Savannah, if Savannah could ask me to do to come and see you this morning and have a little testing with Jenna, which we which is very nice. And then, we just saw, hey, listen, got the recording equipment just down the road. Let's do a podcast. So that's how this came about. So, hope you've already enjoyed listening to it. And it just shows that, there's no excuse for sitting on your arse. Yeah. There you go. Thank you so much. Life life is short and, I made the most of it. Anyway, those it's a real pleasure. Thank you. Thank thank you, Mathew. I appreciate the time. Listen to the Italian wine podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italianline podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.