Ep. 672 Alberto Interiano Interviews Christoph Künzli | Ambassadors Corner On Clubhouse

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. This episode is proudly sponsored by Vivino, the world's largest online wine marketplace. The Vivino app makes it easy to choose wine. Enjoy expert team support, door to door delivery, and honest wine reviews to help you choose the perfect wine for every occasion. Vivino. Download the app on Apple or Android and discover an easier way to choose wine. Say hello, everybody. My name's Stevie Kim, and this is the Italian wine club on the clubhouse. Today's call is, wow, can't believe this, but our eleventh, installment of the ambassador's corner. For the benefit of the of the ambassador's corner. For the benefit of the newbies out there, ambassador's corner is where Italian wine ambassadors like Alberto and the mod squad, also known as others, you know, from the Italian wine ambassadors community, get a chance to nominate and interview their favorite Italian wine producers on clubhouse. And if anyone would like to nominate and interview your personal favorite Italian wine producer, please get in touch with us. This room is indeed, as you know, will be recorded and maybe replayed on the Italian wine podcast. Sometimes there are some technical issues as you'll you'll find out, but, I bought my Rodecaster today. I it's I've been kind of we've been doing the marathon, so we've been going to bed really, really late this week, midnight the past three days. But so I'm doing this for from home today. So the quality of the recording should be decent as I love to share today's call with many listeners as possible. Also, there are, you know, as you know, there are different time zones. It's it becomes a little bit problematic. So as usual, I've got a small ask. You know that what we do here at the Italian Wine Podcast and Italian Wine Club at the clubhouse is absolutely a labor of love for me, Joy, Laika, and the entire gang, including the Italian wine ambassadors. So if you give a thumbs up to the Italian wine podcast and rate us our podcast wherever you get your pots, we'd really appreciate that. And if you'd like to make a small donation, we would really appreciate that as well. I'd like to now introduce the host ambassador, Alberto Martinez Interiano today who will be interviewing Kristoff Quencelli. I I hope I didn't re butcher that name, today. So let me just give you just a small information about Alberto man Martinez in Cariano. Alberto. How are you? Hi, everybody. How are you? Are you you're not Italian. Right? No. No. I'm actually, Latin American. Salvadoran. Okay then. So Alberto is a wine educator and writer based in Seattle. That's Seattle, Washington. We just had our Via agile edition there with Haley Black from from the Vinnitale International Academy. She's our Italian wine expert, and she was a local tasting center at Seattle. And we just finished last night. We wrapped it up. Do you know Haley? I do. So, actually, Haley and I were classmates. We made the trek to Vancouver Oh, great. Once every month. So, yeah, we know we know each other very well. It it's such a small world. So Alberto currently works as an instructor at the Cellar Muse Wine School in Seattle with, of course, Tanya morning darling morning star darling. That's a real name. And the wine and spirits archive in Portland, Oregon where he teaches WSET and Italian and Spanish wine certification courses. He also has a blog. It's vinointeriano.com. He also blogs for VITNA project and and many others. So his passions of retirement started when he lived in Tuscany as a student. When was that? How many years ago? Where whereabouts in Tuscany? It's very wild. So I, lived in the small town called Prato, which is outside of, of Florence, and then a little bit in Scanteci, which is now basically a suburb about thirty, thirty five minutes west of the city. Yeah. Prato is actually not so small. That's where all the all the the the actually, all the factories of the the fashion industries. Yeah. Yeah. All the fabrics. Yeah. There's a huge Chinese community. They make Chanel and, Celine bags. I know that for because they also disubbed Isekai in China. Anyways, that's another story for another another room, I suppose. And I guess that's where he fell in love with Italian wine, Italian food, Italian culture. He's also a diploma, holder. He's a WSET diploma. And the most important thing about Alberto is that he has become a certified Italian wine ambassador, the flagship class of 2021. Congratulations, Alberto. You're now one of us. Yeah. Thanks, David. And not only that, he was actually the, the top of the graduating class. So he's definitely one of the, the the kind of the sharper ones from the pack. Let let's just say that. So, Alberto, as you know, we start with learning objectives from your favorite producer, but tell us why you chose Christophe Quensili. And and correct my pronunciation. How do you say that? Kunstli. Kunstli. Okay. Kunstli. Totally messed that up. Okay. And why did you why did you choose Christophe? Yeah. So I actually met Christophe, Berkeley, in a couple years ago. He was visiting Seattle in in a, actually, in a tasting. And so I'm really I'm a super fan of Nebbiolo and all Nebbiolo related wines. And, that was the first time that I actually got to try, you know, his beautiful, elegant expressions or more, you know, alpine Naviolos from Alto Piemonte. And through that, I also learned about this just fascinating story. He sort of led or he pioneered the rescue of a region that historically was super important a few years ago and basically brought it back from, you know, a place that it was kind of nearly forgotten, in the last, twenty, twenty five years. So they both and I love the wines and love the the story behind it. Fantastic. So we're looking really looking forward to that. And now it's time for the learning objectives. Yeah. So I think that there the main objectives for today would be, one, just learn, a little bit more Nebbiolo and specifically how the the style in this, Alto Pia Monte in in in the Boca DOC. Also how it relates in terms of how it compares similarities and differences versus kind of what most people know about, which is the Negolo from further south, from the Langa. Also, we get a a closer look at, Vespolina, which is a traditional, grape variety from the area and its role in the blends, in the sort of Alta Piedmont, the Boca blends. Also, another objective is, learning about majorina, which is a traditional training system that is unique to the region. And finally, yeah, we just learn and get the inside scoop from Christophe on this, rescue work to, bring back a lot of the historical vineyards from the area. So Fantastic. That seems pretty ambitious. So I'm going to hand it over to you, and I'm going to shut up now. This is my favorite part where I can just drink and listen to you guys. And I'll come back when you're ready to take some questions from the audience. Perfect. Take it away, Alberto. Hey. It's Christophe Grinsley. He's the owner of Lipiani Winery, which is the leading producer in the Voca DOC interior of Northern, you know, Alto Chiavonte. Christophe is originally from Switzerland, and he worked initially as an importer of Italian wine. And in one of his travels, he fell in love with the region and so much so that, later on, he decided to relocate there, purchase land, and, he's been making wine in the area since 1998. So hello, Christophe, and thanks for joining us. Welcome to the MASTER's quarter. Hello, Alberto,