Ep. 738 Valeria Tenison Interviews Julia Walch | Clubhouse Ambassador's Corner

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 this is the Italian wine club on Clubhouse. Today's call is with Valeria, my Russian friend who lives in Bordeaux, Tennyson, who will be the host Ciao. Ciao. I I saw Valeria, of course, in Aetna. It seems like years and years ago, screens of years ago, and she will be recording she will be interviewing, Julia. I thought it was going to be Carolyn. Hi. Hi, Steven. No. It's me. It's me. I'm Julia here. Are you sure you guys are not playing a trick on her? Switching each other. Okay. What's going on with, your sister? Carolina. Well, well, we she is at home at the moment. Yeah. I know she's married. She has a baby. She has a house on top of the Exactly. So as, Valeria is from Russia, I was, Carolina told me about Valeria. And so I wanted to do the interview as, you know, we have we're a family. I studied. So basically we do everything together, but not everything. And we have separated our markets and, in terms of sales and so as I am doing Russia and exports in general, I am also doing the interviews with, yeah. Great. Well, welcome, Julia. Welcome, Maria. Thanks. How's your mom? Is she still running around with, got any socks? Yeah. Yes. She's, like, running around every day. Like, she cannot sit. I sometimes get really angry at her and say, just can't you just sit down for a second? I thought she retired. She was supposed to have retired. Right? Yeah. She did, actually. But, you know, it's, as I said, it's a family estate. So she usually got your butt. She's still running around. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So, hello, everybody. I see some friends down there. A big shout out to, ah, Valeria. I see Anne, your colleague, your classmate from Roost, and also another classmate. I had seen Luca for a bit. I I think he's gone already. So today's call is our, I believe, our twenty second installment of the ambassador's corner, I I think. It's hard to believe it's already the twenty seconds. So we've started this new slot because it's kinda getting dark outside. It's 6PM Eastern Standard Time. Laika and Joy, they are killing me tomorrow. It's even a holiday. It's like some Madonna holiday. It's of course, we're in Italy, so it's a religious holiday. And then we did a call yesterday, and they're making me do a call today. And I believe there's even another call, on Thursday. So, yeah, I think she's she says it's the twenty second. Twenty twenty first. Okay. So it's the twenty first installment, not the twenty second. You know the drill by now. Right? What happens is we do this call, and now you can actually replay directly on Clubhouse. It's a new feature, But we will be also replaying on the Italian Wine Podcast so that we can try to get out all this lovely conversation out to many people as possible. You must know that what we do here at Italian Wine Podcast is it's just labor of love from me, Joy and Laika, and the entire gang, including the entire, Italian wine ambassadors. And today, speaking of which, it's Valeria Tennyson. She is the smartest, one of the smartest, woman I know, as a student, and she is a high achieving type of very competitive woman. And she's now living in Bordeaux, but she is also, of course, our Italian wine ambassador. She's actually from Russia and she has lived and worked in many, many countries throughout Europe and Asia. She is a psalm, I believe. She won some kind of I I remember the best female song or something. Right? Right? Valletta, do you wanna open your mic? Yeah. What what was that? Best female song here in Russia 2018. In Russia, we have we are very sexist, so we have female and mixed competition. So I want honestly. Well, it's still going on? It's still going on, and, actually, it works really well because the latest competition we had in Russia, there were three goals in the final. So I think that's also due to the fact that once we started the female competition, and that gave, really the the girls the push to to compete better and compete more. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure, like, if you had a, blind tasting with also the male winner that at the time, you would definitely win. I would bet all my money on you. Well, it's not only about the blind tasting. It's also about the nerves, about how you perform on the stage. So, I mean Yeah. You're like the ice queen. I'm sure you'll win. Well, I'm very nervous when I perform, so I need to practice that. So listen. I'm pretty excited that you've chosen, Eleanor Walsh as your winery. And in the past, couple months back, I had actually done a call with Carlina and, also Diego Bozzoni, but I don't know where that recording went. So I'm really, really excited that you've, invited them back. But why did you choose Elena Valj as your favorite producer? Well, I did several harvests in Europe, in different parts of Europe, and I know how difficult it is to work in the vineyards, in the winery. And I really admire people who especially women who really choose this, profession. So I think, that everyone knows Yelena Vargas, the state that is run by women. So I would literally love people to to know about their their courage and about their dedication. When was the first time you had tasted or, you found out about Cantina Elena Valj? Actually, I worked with the wines in Russia when I was a sommelier. I had a Gewurztraminer from Elena Valj in my wine list. Honestly, Gewurztraminer is not my favorite variety, but I had two Gewurztraminer in the wine list. One was from Yelena Wahl, and another one was from Trimbach in Alsace. And I think these are both very good examples of this aromatic perfume style of wine that many Russians enjoy, actually. So this is how I first met the the binary. Just out of curiosity, what what are, like, what are the main differences in terms of tasting notes? The one from a Trimbach and the same geworts from Trimbach and also Elena Wach? I think the Italian gerutztraminers are always drier because in Alsace, they really love sugar, and you have a lot of residual sugar sometimes in gerutztraminer. And, well, the acidity levels maybe a little bit higher in Alto Adige because of the, elevation. Yeah. But, I mean, the sugar for me is the main marker. Okay. Very interesting. So, you know, as you know, as the tradition holds here at the Ambassador's Corner, we would like to communicate in advance what our learning objectives are for the call. So what are they for today? So I think the learning objectives for today are to learn more about Alto Adige as a region. I really think it's still under under the radar when we talk about Italian wines, And I'm not sure that everyone here in the room knows that Bolzano, the capital of Balco Adige, is one of the hottest places in Italy. Sometimes it's even hotter than Palermo in summer. So we are going to learn about the grapes and soils, and, of course, about the people of Alto Adige, and I can't I think it's really important to the people for that make wine. Okay. Great. Fantastic. So now, Valeria, you can just take over over to you while I go fetch a drink. Then I'll come back, if there's any time in the end for q and a. Okay? Thank you, Stavie. So thank you, Stevie, for the great introduction and great compliments. I know how generous you are normally with the compliments. So let me introduce Julia Wahl. Hi. The representative of the winery. Hi, Julia. Ciao. Chow. Figates. Come stai. Wow. All the languages. Look at that. Yeah. I I speak several language