Ep. 426 Luiz André Batistello | Italian Wine World

How's everything going in? How's everything going in France with the lockdown COVID? Well, it's very complicated. Now bars and restaurants are closing at ten o'clock at ten PM. In some cities, they are debating about closing completely the restaurants and bars, and this will create a big, you know, just increase the the crisis for the wine distribution because if there's no people to drink in the restaurants, there's no no sales. Yeah. True. Yeah. It's a very difficult situation for everybody. Yeah. Very, very hard. I agree with that. Let me try, between economic, survival and, and actual survival. Italian wine podcast with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast. My name is Monte Gordon. My guest today is Luis Andre Batistello. Luis welcome. Thank you, Monte. Now is it correct that you grew up in Brazil? Yes. It's correct, Bo. First of all, I would like you to thank you for the invitation and say that this is a is a big honor to be part of your podcast. I'm a big fan of the podcast. I follow all the episodes, and I listen quite often whenever I can. Yes. I grew up in the south of Brazil. I was born in which is the the wine the wine region in Brazil, and then I grew up in the three states in the south of Brazil. So how did you end up in, how do you end up where you are now? You're in Paris. Yeah? Yeah. I'm in Paris. Okay. So how did you get from Brazil to Paris and why? Well, I am I I always like to travel, you know, and, when I was in Brazil, I used to be a lawyer. It was my mid previous career. I went to the university to study law, but wine has always been my passion since I was very young. You know, my family is originally from the northeast of Italy from Veneto. My grandfather, they were wine producers. And then after working as a as an attorney for three years, I decided to quit everything. I decided to travel, and then I met my wife in Florence in two thousand and seven. She's from France. And, she's the reason why I came to France. Uh-huh. So how did you two meet? We were both living in Florence for a while. She was spending some, just one month for holiday. For me, it was the same situation. I was there just to know a little bit more about Tuscany. This time, we were going to the same school. And and then five years later, I ended up in France. So, Ben, how did you end up? Why did you end up in France? Was that because of your your, personal life, your wife, or Was it because you just wanted to go and live in France? Well, we were living. Yeah. We were in Sao Paulo in two thousand, two thousand thirteen, two thousand twelve when I was working for this wine importer. She she wanted to come back and then we decided to come back to Europe and then we came to Paris. Did you study wine at any stage? Did you do, master wine, WST, sommelier, that kind of thing? Yes. I I did the the WSTT diploma. I would like to go for the master of wine. This is too, is for the moment is a project. And then I did the Devin Italy International Academy where I became ambassador a bit more than one year ago, and I knew a few days ago that I passed the program for Italian wine educator. I mean, that's a pretty amazing achievement that you've, that you've done that. How did you prepare to get the ambassador qualification? The ambassador qualification was, to be honest, is a pretty hard challenge because, people think that, you know, studying about Italian will be easy. And, when you are introduced to the amount of grapes, regions in a d DOCs and the OCGs, engraves that he never heard before, and, you know, it seemed to start to change. I mean, you realize that it's going to be hard. I prepared approximately seven months for the for the exam studying every day was, was harder than than I than I thought. And and then fortunately I passed. Did you did you think you were gonna pass or were were you surprised that you did? To be honest, was I had no idea. I was just, you know, studying and preparing for the exam, studying very hard, you know, preparing, but I had I I thought it would be easier if my my score was not as high as I I was expecting. But, you know, very challenging. Did you whilst you were studying up in Verona and doing some of the courses there, did you did you manage to track down any of your family members from, because, obviously, you said your family was from quite near, Verona. Did you manage to do that or not? Well, to I think, well, you know, I we don't have any relation for with, in our relatives because my grandfathers, they immigrated to Brazil. They were they were child yet. So what was my grand grandfathers, they went there as adults, I'm I'm the third generation born in Brazil. And that they work from very small places, not exactly verona, but my, like my mother's family, they work from the Bassa verona, by father's family, they weren't they were from the area of, bassano del grappa, and from pretty small village. So, basically, most of the family went together to the new world, and, they never come back. We we still have relatives living in these village, but we don't have any contact with them. But I have a lot of friends in Italy. I lived in Italy for six months. I go very often twice in the year, twice three times per year. Yeah. Apparently, you speak five languages. When when you stayed in Italy, where were you actually staying? I stayed for a while in Barcelona. I lived in Verona too. I was living with some friends. I lived in Florence for a short time. I spend some time in in Emilia, Romaya, and just a little bit from in the in the northern part of Italy. So what were your of the of the regions that you visited? What were your favorite wines? If you had to pick one wine from you know, the Florence one wine from Verona, what would you choose? I'm a big fan of Kianti Glasgow. I think Kiantiolasico is a great wine. The Pianta is one of my favorite regions. It's quite, you know, Barolo is a great wine. I think if I I will have to choose only one, I will go for about all the for sure. But now I'm I'm enjoying a lot of the wines from Sicily from the Aetna region. I think they are great, very good wines. Very interesting. Tuscany has so many wines. And from from Veneto, you know, a marrone is like a very polite cell. I think Balicella Repasso is a great value wine. It's still a lot of people don't know. You know, if you if you talk about Balicella Repasso in France, people never heard before. It's still, you know, a a wine that people should know more. Yeah. I agree. So what other apart from education? What other roles have you had in the wine industry that you haven't told us about yet? I spent three years in the UK, so when I was studying for the WSTT, I worked in the Italian restaurants, French restaurants in London, I spent two years in the southwest of England in in in UK in Coral. I worked in hotels and restaurants too. This was the beginning of my career as a familiar, and then I went back to Brazil and I had a good experience with a wine importer where I was, had so many an ambassador for Italian brands, for French brands, Portuguese, Spanish brands trying to develop this, this market in Brazil. So I stayed for a little bit more than two years with this wine importer. And then I went with since I came to France, I start, I start working with wine education and wine tours. Is there a big difference in terms of wine and food culture in France and Italy both countries claim to be, and probably rightly the sort of the kings or queens of food and wine pairing, you've obviously lived in in both areas. What are the main differences that you see either in terms of presentation or how wine to describe to clients sitting down at the table in the restaurant? Oh, yeah. There's a I think there's considerable differences between the two countries. The cultural one is definitely present, you know, be it on France or Italy. And the culture of food. Like, as you're saying, I think, you know, it's really the interest of the public to to pair the right mind with the right food, the spending, you know, time around around the table speaking and, you know, to about the food and the wine trying to describe trying trying to understand that this is very very similar in a way, but I think I think to be honest, not not offending anyone in Italy or in in France people were a very open mind at this moment. You know, really open to new to new wines and, to novelties, people want to know about other countries' tradition, it's it's pretty, pretty, pretty nice now at the moment to see. In your in your current business, and you got a background in law, has that how has that helped you? I think that helped me to, when when you said it to become a lawyer, you have to memorize thousands of laws and read a lot of books. So I think you prepare your memory for the amount of information you have in the line, you know, when you work, when when you study about wine, you have to to to develop a huge memory. So I think I had this this helped me to retain the information. And and I think that you really understand more about the the social aspect of the wine because when you study you you have to to study a lot about the, you know, the social and the economic in influences of the, you know, of society. And wine is a very social. It's a it's a product of civilization. And, I think it it was this was a big advantage. It we was an advantage to understand better the the wine history and development. So, the experience is that the business wine tours Paris, offer a number of, things. What if if somebody goes on a trip with wine tours Paris to either, I don't know, let's say burgundy or Champaign. What kind of experience is it? What do people get for their money? What people will will learn in this, like in a day tour or more than one day tour is that it will be introduced very deeply to the region you are visiting. For example, if we are going to Burgundy, I will explain you the, the difference in the classification, we will visit the wineries, we will visit two, three producers in that day, and I will go very deep about the the geology, the soil, the climates, the, the best producers, the good value wines, the differences between one area and the other. I think France and Italy are very hard to to understand because it's a wine system based on geography. And, if you don't don't spend if you don't live in these places, it can be very difficult. So when when you come in a wine tour, think the adults you have, you have time to ask and, and understand really the different levels of quality of a wine and produces that probably are difficult to find. Talking about myself when you I'm I'm not a big expert, for example, about American wines. And, if I go there, probably, I will discover about the smaller producers. Something very, you know, produces very goods that, I would like to be introduced So this is will this will be the insight I try to give people, you know, introducing very good producers or trying to to make easier to select a good wine for for less money or for, you know, the the fair amount of money. Mhmm. And you can you speak five languages. So you can explain all of that and you have to do it in five languages sometimes. Yes. Well, but but most of the I'm, but the tours are usually in English because most of the public are, you know, English speakers. And before COVID, I used to have eighty percent of my public from the US, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, from the UK. It happens sometimes to have people from Italy. I do to receive people from Italy from Spain, from Brazil. So, I I speak every every week. I speak at least four languages. I speak Portuguese, French, and Italian every day, and English. So four languages in every week. Spanish is the language I I don't don't use very much, but it's a bit trusted now, but I I can speak a quite fluent Spanish. So how can people get hold of you? Are you what's your online social media presence like? Is is it all, you know, if we book a tour with you, can we do that online, or do we have to give you a call, or how does it work? Yes. You can do online. So my, I have a website called wine tours per thirtieth dot com. And, this is also my Instagram. I'm on Instagram as Louis, what's this level too. So people can can always find me there. It's it's quite easy if you if you type wine tours Paris, you should find me on on Google. Very easy. Okay. And when are you next back when are you next coming back to Italy? I'm going to Italy in the next few weeks because I I represent a champagne brand, so but I'm I'll be going in two weeks to visit some some clients in the North of Italy and Veneto and lombardy the the amount and freely. And then I expect to go back for the Vine Italy this year. You know, from France, we we are not very distant. So it's quite easy to go to Italy. Do you think you'll ever move back to, Brazil? Maybe one day in the future when it's something that, you know, you never forget your home country. I spent more than ten years living abroad more than twelve years living abroad. And, of course, you have your family and, your friends. Maybe one day, why not? I have projects in Brazil. I work with Brazilians. I do wine tastings. I, represent some wine brands. For the moments, you know, I'm I'm very happy in France. I have a project for the next year in Champaign where I spend a lot of time. I know I live between Paris and Champagne. Next year, I I will open a wine school and give wine courses including courses about, Italian wine. So, it's very exciting at the moment. We are working very hard to to make this project happen. Okay. Final question. You have to choose two of your favorite dishes. Actually, let's do three. One French, one Italian, and one Brazilian, and you have to find three Italian wines, just one wine for each dish. And it can be fish meat, anything you'd like. Okay. Well, for Italian Italian dishes, it's very easy. I think my goal, it will be for for I'm a big fan of, of cod. And I will go for a Swave, for sure. A Swave with, Bakala will be a great pairing. Also, Bigoli, La Sadella. Bigoli is a type of pasta that I like to to make at home. I have a a machine that my mother brought me from Brazil. You know, in Brazil, there's a lot of a big Italian influence. Probably people need a they don't know this machine, but it's a very old manual machine that you make the pasta yourself. So you make big of the year at home. Bigly that for those the doesn't know the type of, you know, traditional pasta in vinegar. For a French dish, I think I will go for a beef bourguignon. That's a very nice, you know, a steel meat and I will pair with, why not a language in the biolo of a or with a barbaresco? I think will be a great pairing. And for a Brazilian dish, I will definitely go for, you know, the national dish, which is a barbecue or Chufrasco, you know, big piece of steak and a bear with a brunello de montalcino or with a quaranti. I think will be a very nice pairing. Perfect. Okay. We're all feeling a bit hungry than we were. A couple of minutes ago. So you're quite a carnivore then. I mean, I know you've got the the cod in there, but the two pretty hefty meat dishes in there. Are you, you a big lad? Are you very slim? I think I'm normal. It's a it I've I'm pretty slim, but, I can eat a lot. Well, you're very lucky then. Luis, Luis. I just wanna say thanks to you for coming on the Italian podcast this afternoon. Yeah. Thank you, Mombi. Telling us about your, studies and your educational role. And also, your travels around the world, really, not just France, because you've traveled a lot. And, we wish you and your family wherever you end up, whether you end up in France or in Brazil, every success. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to be with you. Yeah. Thanks for coming on. You have a great night. Thanks. Good day. 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 Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment and publication costs. Until next time.