Ep. 1279 Giancarlo Gariglio | Get US Market Ready With Italian Wine People

By now, you've all heard of Italian wine Unplugged two point o. The latest book published by Mamma jumbo shrimp. It's more than just another wine book. Fully updated second edition was inspired by students of the Vin Italy International Academy and painstakingly reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from across the globe. The book also includes an addition by professor Atilio Shenza. Italy's leading vine geneticist. The benchmark producers feature is a particularly important aspect of this revised edition. The selection makes it easier for our readers to get their hands on a bottle of wine that truly represents a particular grape or region to pick up a copy, just head to Amazon dot com, or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Thanks for tuning in to Get US Market Ready with Italian wine people on the Italian wine podcast. I'm Steve Ray, your host. And this podcast features interviews with the people actually making a difference in the Italian wine market in America, their experiences, challenges, and personal stories. And I'll be adding a crack difficult focus to the conversation based on my thirty years in the business. So if you're interested in not just learning how, but also how else, then this pod is for you. Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Get US Market Ready with Italian wine people. I'm your host Steve Ray, and my guest this week is Jean Carillo from slow food, slow wine. Jean Carlo. Welcome to the show. Hello. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Steve. Yeah. Before we get started, because this is not an esoteric subject, but I I it's something that I think might be new for our listeners. Give us a brief background of of you and how you got into the wine business. Quite strange things because, when I started to work with Zulu food twenty two years ago, I never drink wine because it's not I I I didn't like wine. Before, when I was, twenty, twenty five years. And, because in my family, my parents drink, very bad wines. And so I never want to to taste the, this kind of wines on you. So when I start to work, in slow food, I I discover a new world for the first time. And, when you started there, slow food, did this you had told me, this is the only job you've ever had? Yes. Because, I start to work at Zulu food ten days before, take the degree on economic, science. And after the degree, I I started to work with Zulu food, and And this is my first and last job for the moment. So far, yeah. I mean, that's kind of an unusual thing. I don't think I've ever spoken to anybody who is still at their first job. So we're talking specifically about slow one, but first, let's start with an overview of tell me about what the slow wine, slow food movement is. Give us a kind of a top line. Yes. Slow food was born in, nineteen eighty six in Italy, thanks to carlo Petrini that, that was the founder of slow food. And, was born in eighty six after the opening of a branch of a McDonald in, in the center of, in one most beautiful. Place in Italy in Rome. And, after these things, Alopetriani decided to to say we, we have to, to make something, to save the traditional traditional food and wine of our country. And, in nineteen eighty nine, in Paris, the food decided to be an international association. So to preserve the food in each country in which, operated dissociation and the members. And, Zuwine is, an idea of Zu Food about the wine, and was born, like a guide, an Italian guide in, thirteen years ago. So, like, printed book. Yes. It's a printed book. It's a website. For the moment in Italian, and we have some, project also in other countries also in US. And probably we can spoke. We can speak about after. So the offices, where where are they located and where where do you operate yourself and the organization operates? What are the primary countries that that are involved in this? Yeah. Our headquarter are in InBRA. That is a small town, forty miles from touring in Northwest of Italy, very close to France. And in BRA, there are our headquarter and also an University of gastronomic science that, Zulu founded in two thousand and four. And we are like two hundred people that work for Zulu food. And we have, like, eighty thousand members in, all over the world. And, but, in Italy, we are stronger than in other countries and but we operate in one hundred thirty six countries in, in the world. Oh, cool. For the food, for the wines, we are smaller than when we speak, about the wines. Okay. So how many member, folks on the wineries? Remember wineries are involved in, slow wine? Enterprise. For the guide, we review, like, two thousand wineries in Italy for the Zro wine USA edition. We have, like, three three hundred wineries review in the American guide. Cool. And I would like to give a shout out to, Deborah Parker Wong, a good friend of mine who is who's the editor, of this. Tell me tell me how you and, Deborah got together, and got her as the editor Yeah. We we start to work with Deborah in, four years ago. And the beginning was, a field coordinator for the California. And after we decided to to give her the the role of, chief editor for the American, edition of the guide. And what what has been what do you see as the objective of, slow wine itself, corporately, the the big entity, and then we'll get into the US? I think in my opinion, for for me was very interesting to, to discover the the American wines because, in Italy, usually, we taste only the very famous wines about your country like Oppozuanos or similar. But when, I I started to taste the wine in California and Oregon and finger lakes, for me, it's it's very nice. It was very nice because, for me, I discover a new word, really because usually, the Italian and european, and people think about the American wine's very, a stranger and, not the right idea about this kind of wines. Usually, we, we, we think about only, very full body, very, sometimes we have some different opinion about the quality, but it's a strong it's not the right opinion for me because the the American wines are very, very interesting in my opinion. Yeah. That's a a road. We're not gonna we don't have time to go down. Either. And, you know, particularly, we've seen dramatic evolution in the quality of American wines, and and, certainly, the styles are very different from what's produced in Italy. But talking about the the slow wine guide, what's the primary function of the slow wine guide to identify wines or restaurants where you can buy those wines? How is it structured? The the structure of of Zrowein is, is a a guide that, try to give a lot of information to the reader. So we don't give, scores. We decide to don't give us calls, but we give some indication, some indication and award to the wines, primarily. We we give an award that the name is low wine, like the guide to the wines that, for us is very, that's very good for the, for the first things. But also the, they are produced with sustainability in a and the, when the the wine grower work in the, in the fields, they use, a doctor besides some other things that we we review in the guide. So we we give a lot of information about the the vineyard and some other things also about the the the process in the in the cellar. And after because we visit all the wineries that are review in the guide. We give also, some awards to the the wineries. So the snail that is the symbol of our officer food, we gave, we give the designated to the binaries that, produce, for us, the wise, good king and fair. So good for the quality that for the quality of the testing, clean for the sustainability and, fair for the relationship between the producer and also the the people that work in the in the in the wineries. And also the relationship between the the winery and the the people live, close to the winery. So the social for us is very important. Also, the the social and cultural role of the wineries. In the community in which they operate. In the community. Yes. In the community. Yes. Italian wine podcast, part of the momo jumbo shrimp family. So who's the target audience for the book? Who would buy the book? We'd like that the book It will be by, to the wine lovers, the consumer. But, with the slow wine, we organize also a a tour in US with five different events. And when we organize these events, are open only to the wine industry. So we'd like that also the the wine industry can read the the our guide to choose when they create the wine list of the restaurant or some other things to when they buy the wines for a retail shop or a wine bar or something like that. They can use also some other suggestion that we we try to give. Yeah. So it's a it's a reference source also for the trade so that they can pick those wines that adhere to the Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because, with the idea to to give a lot of information, not only the scores, about the history, about the way in which, producer, work in the fields, So we we try to give a lot of information also for, the the people that, buy the the wines for, for for job. Okay. If somebody wanted to order, the book, wherever they go, how would they do that? Let's be commercial there. Tell us how people could buy it. Now, we we are working on the new addition of the American wine, American's law, the wine guide edition, and, is available, maybe from, the first part of January in, also on Amazon, Amazon, and, on, in the, online book, bookstore, and maybe also in, in some other, in some wineries that, by the, the guide to for the for the wine shop of the wineries. I know I know that there there are some wineries that buy for the for the wine shop. Okay. If somebody wanted to start their investigation, Tesla Wine. What's your website? Address. I think the the best way to discover in this moment is, the, as roine coalition dot com. Slow wine coalition dot com. Because it's the, a new project, it's a network. That we are working on. And, it's a network that formed by the wineries, the wine lovers and the wine industry. So we we are creating a network between free three different subject of the that are the the people that love our the wines, the the wines that we review. Tell us, more about the slow wine tour. I have attended a couple of them. And I thought it was very interesting, but it was hard for me to understand exactly what slow wine was because it was held in conjunction with another or other, related wine fairs. So Tell us what you're doing in the US and when you have them planned for twenty twenty three. The tour of Zrowein, was born eleven years ago when we start with the guide eleven or twelve years ago. And, US was, one of the first place in which we decided to, to make our, our tour. And at the beginning, was, open only to the Italian wineries that took an award on our guide. And when we start with a slow wine USA guide, we open also to the American wineries. So in this moment, you only winners that that can participate in our events are the the wineries that are awarded in our guide in Italian. Or in a US. We organize usually five different events in five different cities. Always, we organize the, the tour in New York and San Francisco. And we decide, sometimes to change the other cities, in two thousand twenty three. On the sixth of March, it will be our tour in, San Francisco. The seven in Seattle. The nine in Dallas, Texas, the thirteen in, Miami. And, we we closed the tour, the fifteen in New York. So this is a it will be our our next tour. The tour is open to only to the wine industry. Only the event in New York, it will be open to the wine lover. But, we we open for four hours to the wine industry. We close for one hour and we restart the the event for the for the puppy for the, yes, wine lovers in the in the evening. Okay. And you're also internationally doing one in Munich and two in Asia. Where where are those gonna be and when? Yes. In a in Munich, it will be in the twenty three of January. Of two thousand twenty three. And, in Asia, we we don't have, at the moment, the right dates, but it will be in November. Okay. So for these events, what what are your objective? Let's take the one in New York because it's the one I'm most familiar with. When you have this event, what what are the metrics that you use? What are you measuring, and and how do you define a successful show? For us, the the events, the metrics, to defend this six of our events are when we have, a good public. Thanks to the people that, love, not only the wines, but, particular wines that, for us, is the wines that, we try to to award in our guide. So wines that are very close to the terwar the concept of the terroir, very close to the, also, you know, artisanal way to produce this kind of wine. So, when we have a some people that can understand and also can sell this kind of wines in US and they also talk about with the the the people and the consumer people about these wines. For us, it's very it's very important to to have this kind of people that are curious and, love this kind of wines. And I think in the last year, this kind of people in US are growing hello. And for this reason, also the the numbers of the wineries that, come in our tour, American, and Italian are growing year by year. You've created a document called the manifesto, the ten points of the manifesto, if you will. Tell us about that. Yes. We we create, this manifesto to deviate better the wines that we call wood clean and fail. You can, you can find our manifesto on the, on the on the web. It's very easy to, to find. And the the the most important points are related to three big arguments. One is the sustainability. So we give some, some rules about, according to the food about the sustainability. And, this is one argument. The second argument is, related to the to the role that, the whiners can be, to the to the defense of, the landscape and also the place in which the winery are, are working because in Italy, but also when I visit the the the wineries in the US, a lot of times, the the wineries, work on hills, when the the terrain is very dangerous in Italy. We have a lot of problems with the heavy rains or, sometimes, with the fires. And I know that in California, the fires are terrible. So the the presence of the the wineries and the the work of the wineries in the in the fields on the in the in the in the country, help also to preserve the the landscape and the the the terrain in which the the the winners are working. So the role, this role for us is very important. And the last one is the social role of the wineries with the that I I spoke before. They're all that, the wineries have a with the the people that work in the wineries and also with the people that, live in the in the village near the the wineries. So the social the social role of the the wineries. So, Sean Carlo, thank you very much for being a guest. We've been speaking with Jean Carlo from slow wine. And, thank you for being a guest, and, it seems like we meet each other at varying places, in in Italy. And maybe the next time we see you, it'll be in New York. Thanks, Steve. I'm very happy to to speak with you. And, thanks a lot for the interview. I'm sorry for my English. It's it's terrible, but I try to try to improve my English in the future because I I love your account. Yeah. Well, it's a lot better than my Italian. So, anyway, that's it for this week. This is Steve Ray, another edition of Get US Market Ready with Italian wine people. Thanks again for listening. This is Steve Ray with Get US Market Ready with Italian wine people on the Italian wine podcast.