Ep. 985 Cedric Izri Interviews Frank Cornelissen | Clubhouse Ambassador's Corner

Welcome to the Italian Wine Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitili International Academy announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong from the twenty seventh to the July 29. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you wanna be the next Italian wine ambassador? Learn more and apply now at vinitiliinternational.com. Welcome to this special Italian wine podcast broadcast. This 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 you tune in. Welcome to Ambassador's Corner. I'm Joy Livingston standing in for Stevie Kim. Stevie is in Tuscany, right now, hopefully having a wonderful day. It is so warm up here, so I can't imagine what it's like down there. So, anyway, here we are. It is 6PM in Verona, Italy. And, today on Ambassador's Corner, we have Cedric Isri interviewing Frank Cornelison. So, let's see here. Cedric, are you there? I am, Joy. I am. Hi. How are you today? Very, very good. It's a pleasure to be here, and to have the opportunity to to interview Frank. Wonderful. I I wanted to ask you a couple questions first before we started because, of course, as Stevie usually does, she's very big on the Mhmm. On the learning objectives. And, of course, my question first would be, how did you discover Frank Cornelison and his wines? In fact, that was, some years there five, six years ago. I discovered the wine. I have to say that I knew the name far before that, of course. I mean, I was, I was usually, following what what was happening in the, biodynamic, organic wine, wine world. And, I was following a lot, some groups in Facebook and in some other places where of the Hong Kong medicine and his wine were debated discussed, a number of time. But at the time, I had a I had a lot of wines to to discover already. So I put that on my on my testing list, and I say, okay. I will I will test when when I have a little bit of time. But it it came so, so often in the group that I say, alright. Six six, seven years ago, I said, okay. I decide to to to start tasting first as a one of Frank's. So I I bought some some wine. I started with, Susukaru and, Munje Vergoso, at the time, and I said, woah. It it looks to be very interesting. And then I continued to test, so I I I went to some of the, to some of the and, and cigar. And in fact, at the time, I was feeling and I am from from Burgundy, originally. And I was feeling that kind of, earthy elegance, a little bit of austerities that we can find in Burgundy. I'm not I'm not saying here that, we would confuse the wines of frank with wines of burgundy, but there is something which, to me was reminding me something, about burgundy. And I said, okay. That's interesting. And this is where where I started to really, to really go to, to test, the ones from it now. But, in fact, at the end of the day, I always come back to, to the ones from Frank because they have their own personality. And, I mean, the main the biggest producer and the main, producers of, of quality ones in on the Montana have also a great a great personality. But I find something which is a little bit in in the ones from Frank, and I always come back to these wines, to be to be honest. And, and also, not not too far too far away from from now, it was few years ago. I made a diploma in at the University of Strasbourg, and it was, it was dedicated to, discovering terroir through one specific tasting technique, which is called, geosensorial, tasting. And I made my paper work because paper work at the end of the studies, and I made that on the, specific. And then I I could continue to to to test, Frank's wife, but not not only also others. And I always found this kind of a personality that that is a little bit one step, a little bit more to to some other side. This is how I I discovered the wine, and this is why I'm still drinking the wine. And currently, I have it on my desk, a glass of, 2,016, which is very difficult to find this, But but I have that on my, on my desk. Alright. Actually, you I didn't really introduce you, and you gave us a little bit of a an introduction on you because, you would just mentioned, a a tasting diploma just a moment ago, the sensory tasting diploma. I mean, you've done so many things. You've been in finance and, you you've done, you know, your family isn't in wine even though you're from a very wine a big wine region, but you got really heavily into wine. And, yeah, you've done a lot of different certifications. But can you tell us a little bit more about that that sensorial tasting diploma that you took, like the characteristics, the physical characteristics and movement of the wine in your mouth and things like that. It's I've never heard of that before. Yeah. And in fact, maybe, Frank Frank is, knows pretty well Burgundy. And in fact, in the old time right? The old times in Burgundy, I speak about the middle age. In Burgundy, that was an a kind of a official charge, for some people to to recognize the wines of the region. So for instance, people were in charge to recognize if a wine would be coming from or from from another place. And in fact, that was for tax reason because tax was, tax was at the time applied on, on specific specific villages. And some of the people were specialized in recognizing these these ones. And in fact, their, their testing technique at the time was not the the sensors that we know today, starting with the nose and the color and everything. It was starting with the texture. So what, what the wine is telling you on the palate. And here we speak about, the dynamic of the wine. Yes. We speak about, perceived minerality even if if minerality is not something that we we we usually use, but how the wine, is perceived on the palate. And texture of the wine, the grain, so so all of the elements which are more on the physical, physical side. And and the guys at the time, they were able to recognize it for one who was coming from or from or from, anyone else. And guess what the, so when they were testing, they were using a specific cup, which is called, in Burgundy. And if you have ever tried the in Burgundy, if you put the nose on it, you you smell nothing. Right? It's very, it's very neutral. So everything in, in was at the time based on what what is happening on the pallet. I'm not saying that I am an expert into that because, I mean, these guys have been probably spending years and years and years in learning. And knowing the terroir, specific terroir of Burgundy. But at least I have a a kind of a preliminary approach to that, and then we are developing into that. Well, I'm sure you will get even more in the know because you're also doing, you just started your master of, wine program as well. So you're, you're a wine student, master of wine student. So that that's going to you're going to get into it and even more in the next couple years, I'm sure. Alright. So, I will, now, move on to, introduce Frank. Frank, are you there? Yep. Hi there. How are you? I'm good. Thanks. Great. So why don't I, I'm gonna mute myself so that, you and Cedric can go ahead and and start your discussion. And at the end, I will, I'll butt butt in again, and and, if we have time for questions, we'll do that. Otherwise, we can, yeah, let's just continue on now and see how it goes. Sergei, shoot. Ask the questions. I will shoot. So thanks thanks for for being here today. That's a a great pleasure for me. And, I guess for for some of our audience, I think that, that's that's a very good day. Maybe I will give some, some words about, abou