Ep. 229 Francesco Marchio (Vino Veritas) on the Hong Kong wine market

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. This podcast is brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey. Native Grape Odyssey is an educational project financed by the European Union to promote European wine in Canada, Japan, and Russia. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Hello. This is Izzan in wine podcast with me in Montewood. My guest today is Francesco Marquio. Francesco is the managing director of a company called Vino velitas. Aufina Veritas, Asia Limited, and this is based in Hong Kong. Hi, Monte. Hello, everyone. Okay, Francesca. Let's start. Where are you from in Italy? And how did you end up in Hong Kong? Yes. So I'm from Torino from Pemonte, and I ended up in Hong Kong because cause, my career, as a souvenir, brought me to UK. So I was in the UK, doing my job as a song, and, you know, two Mission Star Restaurants in which area. In Oxford. Oh, really? Yeah. In Limon Rockquez is on. So it was a very, you know, great, great, great restaurants where drink a lot of French wine tried to sell some Italian wine, but it was tough. And, I when were you there at the moment? Roughly, what's up period of time? There was, about two thousand nine. It was, yes, two thousand nine. Yeah. Aaron, two thousand nine. Yeah. And then it's the one here. But when I was there, there was my all my life change. And, I met, my mentor, now friend, Michael Paulie, master Wine. He was my teacher for WSTT. And at some point, he asked me, you know, do you want to come and work with me? And, we're looking for a person to look after London, the trade market? I moved to London and then started to work with him. Of course before doing that, I test all his wine because he import, Italian wines the UK. The wine was absolutely beautiful. So I mean, you know, I'm I'm your man, but that's moved to London. But and so from London, how did you end up in Hong Kong? So one day he called me and said, what what are you doing to next week? So I have some meeting. Honestly, I thought he was checking me out. And then he said, no, because, you need to cancel your meeting postpone. And, so what was happen if I we're going to Hong Kong. So what do you mean? We're going to Hong Kong? Oh, don't worry. We'll talk on the plane. Okay. Fair enough. So I called my mom, said, mom, look at things and go to Hong Kong. Oh, you go. What? Japan? So, no, that should not Japan. And, anyway, so we we we took the plane right in Hong Kong said Michael poppy while we're here. So he told me this is project going on in Hong Kong. So we want to open a company there. We're looking for a person to go there and manage. I love the city and they say, yes. I mean, so I moved on Kong. That was two thousand twelve. Two thousand twelve. Yeah. So we are six years ago already. Yeah. On the seventh. So, I mean, do do you have, like, family as well with you, or is it you? No. It was just me, and there I met my wife that she also Italian. And, now I have a family. I have, a little baby, a little baby girl, three months, old. And, you know, we are very happy. Okay. So tell me about what you do in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong market. So we we basically import, Italian wines in Hong Kong, and, we distribute to Italian restaurant, but also private client. So we look after all the market. And, focus is mainly trade, but we are growing with the private client too, especially the last few years, the interest in Italian wine grow a lot. So how are you getting people on board? Are you holding tasting so that they can get familiar with the wines or educational seminars. Yeah. Absolutely. It's it's very important for Italian wine that people has to try the wine because we also we, you know, we don't sell only pinot grisian candy, but we we're focus are indigenous grape variety. We sell in timorasso, we sell in Tinilia. You know, all these wine, they never heard about it. Even the Italians maybe, you know, they never try it. So they must try the wine, they must try with food and the larvae. So we do usually one event per per month, at least, and, wine dinner tasting, it's really depends. We work very close with, our client with the restaurant so that people get the experience from the restaurant and they get also to know the wine with the chance to talk about it, and that's where they they're they're hooked by Italian wines because they love it. Do you do any follow-up tastings? Just say, I don't know, restaurant, whatever comes to your tasting and and takes an Italian wine. Yeah. It sticks it in the restaurant, and it does, quite well. Is that person gonna come back and say, actually, I'd like more knowledge, or just say, you know what, it's telling. I don't really care. No. No. Actually, they they they're coming back. And that they they they might not remember, the grape variety or what drunk, but they have an CTO. The the second why that we have, the first why that we have, you know, I want I want to know more. And that they they they that's our goal to get to onboard and then step by step, but they're going to discover Italian wines. And honestly, what's happening in Hong Kong in the last couple of years is great because, the Italian wine cells are growing because the people are growing the interest Italian wine. So we are working all the importers and, so many together to create the Italian revolution. That's what we are trying to do there. Okay. And, also to thank you here, a great, my friend, JC, is doing a lot for for that, and Marina from Bumbana. It's a it's a great team. We're putting together. Okay. So in terms of the educational side, how deep do you go if you show a wine, just say, I don't know, Fiana Diabellino, for example. Do you do like a little seminar on that, or just, is it just very brief? I think it's it's very brief because, on Congress, very fast city. So the people, they don't, they they come for dinner or they're testing their wine. They don't want to spend a much time on that. They really want to start to know. They need to know the basic thing. So it's from South Italy. It's one DOCG explain a little bit what UCG means and get to know them to know also comparing the the great varieties of something more international. So talking about Fiano, talking about, you know, great wine from from burgundy with that richness or from, you know, South France, So it's really important to let them understand what they can compare with that wine and give an idea what they're going to drink. Okay. So and so in food matching also, then it's important. It's really important. And they are crazy for food match. And Congo is the one of the bet, you know, the best seat in the world to go out for dinner because you can find any kind of restaurant, any kind of foods, and that they are really, really demanding. I mean, the clientele, they're they really want to have a good food, and they get you to get food when they travel there, mainly disappointed because, oh, you know, the best Italian food I had was in Bambana or the best, taco's food. It's it's the chef. So they they really know what they hate. So you can't really play the game. I don't know. That's that's a good food because, no, they know. So it's important to go with the wine and they they like to play around, especially when you come to local cuisine. There is not much of wine and food pairing, but they like to to try and then maybe they they they drink everything together, red first, then white, then white again, but they enjoy it. It's it's very fun. So they're not they have that freedom to do what they always have done, I think, which is our convention is, you know, white before red, dry before sweet, and and you're saying that, you know, they don't necessarily follow those conventions, but you're not telling them all you're being stupid. You just said, well, that's how you do it. That's how you do it. No. Because you think there's a lesson there for for Europe, for the trade additional powerhouses, obviously, for not just France or Germany, but also the UK, for example, the way that wine is taught. Do you think, we could learn something from Hong Kong, Hong Kong? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because, the wine, you need drink what you like. And if you like, you know, light red with fish or you like a white wine with with the your chicken or, you know, I don't know. They it's very important that we we stock too much in what we think it's correct, but the rules then disappear when the markets start to blend in a different culture, and the people just have a lot of fun, you know, they can explore, and we if we can learn something from them that means that our mind can just open more. I'll open more in them. You know? Okay. So I'm I I've I'm an Italian wine producer. Yeah. I've heard of you, and I want you to get my wine into Hong Kong. How do I do that? So, yeah, the first things. I want you to understand that Hong Kong is a market that where you're not gonna sell a volume of wine. You need to be in the right restaurant, in the right place. So position in a y in the right place. Sunproducers talk with Mesa in China. We can sell a lot. You need to order more. So now that's not the right thinking because you want to be in the right places. It's a very small market because most of the people nobody nobody drinks at lunch, lunch time. So most of the people, they drink only for dinner, but there are not many drinkers. And the one drinking for dinner, most of the time, they bring the bottle from home. So it's a very tough market. And, you need to trust the the person you're working with and just start to build your brand step by step. It's not something that happened in in, you know, in six months. We need more time. So that means you have to be careful with the people that you work with on the Italian side, whether they understand that it's a long term game. It's not a an overnight thing. All about long term relationship because it happened to me many times that I asked the producer. I reset it to Hong Kong. I said, oh, yes. I sold a a palette two years ago. I had never heard the back from from this guy anymore. I don't know where my wine is. So most of the time, if you end up with the wrong person. You don't know where the wine's going, maybe it's going to China. Maybe they're not able to sell and they drop the wine and market at a very low price or, you know, they don't put in the right warehouse in the right condition. So there are many things that pack that you're going to play around when you you're selling wine in in Asia generally. Yeah. Okay. I wanna thank today's guest Francesco Marchio from Vina Veritas, which is based in Hong Kong. Some very good tips there. If you're in Italian a wine producer, about how to approach that market. And the message that I've got is, understand it and be really patient. Thank you. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Melody. Thanks for coming in. Thank you. This podcast has been brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey, discovering the true essence of high quality wine from Europe. Find out more on native grape Odyssey dot e u. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Follow Italian White Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.