Ep. 879 Giovan Battista | Get US Market Ready With Italian Wine People

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally international wine and spirits exhibition. The fifty fourth edition of Vinitally was held from ten to the thirteenth of April. If you missed it, don't worry. Go to Vineethly plus dot com for on demand recordings of all the sessions from the exhibition. And remember to save the date, the next edition of Vineethly will be held from the second to the fifth of April two thousand and twenty three. Thanks for tuning into my new show. Get US Market Ready with Italian wine people. I'm Steve Ray, author of the book how to get US Market Ready. And in my previous podcast, I shared some of the lessons I've learned from thirty years in the wine and spirits business helping brands enter and grow in the US market. This series will be dedicated to the personalities who have been working in the Italian wine sector in the US, their experiences, challenges, and personal stories. I'll uncover the roads that they walked, shedding light on current trends, business strategies, and their unique brands. So thanks for listening in. And let's get to the interview. Hi. This is Steve Ray, and welcome to this week's edition of Get US Market Ready. With Italian wine people. I'm pleased to have as a guest this week, Giovanni Batista from the Consurgio Montecucco, and, Giovanni, welcome to the show. Thank you, Steve. I'm pleased to be here. So the big question I asked when somebody had recommended that they interviewed you is, is what's Montecuco and where is it? Montecuco is a small wine region, which is in south west of Tuscany, not far from the tyrrhenian sea, but even close to an old distinguished volcano was called Amiada, and it's actually a mountain that's quite mountain, not dangerous, like other volcanoes. And this is what characterize our region. We are in the middle between the mountain and the sea. This makes our region particular in the climate condition. And, we are just, to better realize where we are. We are just south of, the famous region of Bruno de Montalcino, and there is just a river that is the borderline between Montego region and Bruno region, and the river is the Orchard River, which which is very famous for the Val Dorcha region. So we are at the end of the Valorgia starts our region. And then closer to this year. So my question would be, I think, as a lot of Americans would be, well, if you're that close to the Montalcino area, I've been to Montalcino, and I'm probably a lot of my listeners have as as well. What differentiates you from that region and that clone and the type of wines that you're making in Montecucco. Well, we can speak about similarities, then differences. The the the most important thing that keep us very similar to Brunello is the the grape. San Jose is the same kind of grape that is in Bruno. San Jose grows. So this is the mainly we cultivate it since centuries even if our wine region is a young wine region recognized, but, the cultivation of San Luis in our region comes from the middle age. So it's a very long time. Then the differences can be by the climate because, compared to Bruno, Bruno is more inside Tuscany. We are closer to the sea. You must think that our region, is bigger than Bruno region. It covers seven towns. So that we start from the the real close part of the mountain, until we arrive not so far from the tyranian sea. We don't arrive to tyranian sea, but not so far. So also, the climate condition make difference between, our wines and, brunello's wines. Okay. And you have a you have a history of the region that I think is fascinating. I'm I'm interested in, historic Europe and the idea that it was, originally etruscan You've got these, preserved ancient villages, and it's been settled for a very long time by the etruscans, the Romans, the lombards, and so on and so forth, including the medici. Talk a little bit about the kind of the historic The historical region is very old also in cultivating the vineyards as you were telling the institutions and Romans, consider that I had a personal experience because I wanted to visit, an archaeological local site, which was making studies about, a farm in the region, Roman farm in the region. And they found, a sort of, circular hole, which was, you know, in, culture based. So it was, the typical, way of Romans building, and it was in Premier Billicide. So they didn't understand what was that. And in the truth, visiting that place, I told them, the archaeologist, I told I think that this could be a typical container, wine container where they could ferment, but also where they could, keep the wine. It it was underground and also, like, in Georgia, they used to do, they still do. So and, the funny thing was that after some months, the archaeologist brought me, and they say that they found some, chemical elements that were typically of wine and grape. So we have an old history which, start from there. And then in the middle age, we had a big develop by, you know, very important families like Aldo Brandeski, like, piccolomini who settled down with their castles. So the region is really full of beautiful castles that could be visited by visitors if you come in our region. And then in the modernity, we started, in ninety eight with the the EOC, Montecuco, and so with the modern approach to winemaking, which was, anyway, already done not officially in Montegucco, but there were, like, some binaries that were producing since, years, the the the wines from this region. So the tradition was maintained during the centuries. I think it's interesting that if you go back in history, of course, natural wine was the only way that they made wine. It was long before they understood fermentation and yeast and and really why how wine became alcohol. And now in this modern era, you guys are have made a significant, I'm sure investment, but, a commitment to using sustainable farming practices and some biodynamic and organic producer. So beyond just the historical two thousand years of having produced it that way. Tell us more about why in modern winemaking, you guys are, moving in that direction. First of all, is the, you know, the because the condition of our region is still that is best preserved. So it was not industrialized at all, but also agriculture was typical agriculture from family. So not intensive, not strong agriculture, We still have many, many parts of our region that are covered by boots. So you can find the binaries or you can find farms that are surrounded by boots. These help us to maintain an agriculture which was respectful of the environment. And, this allowed us to be allowed us to start with the organic, which is which represents for us a big production. Consider that eighty five percent of Montecoup, Cassandra, is a bottles. They are certified organic on the back label. Eighty five percent is a big, big Probably it's the biggest, in Tuscany and one of the biggest in Italy. So sustainable because we don't pollute. And, we have, you know, we have respect. We but we also use technologies There was an association of wineries which decided to use eye technology to, understand in which moment we had to spread the vineyards by using the satellites using, you know, the modern system to understand which was the best. And this was a good system also to reduce the quantity of copper that as you know, it's a metal that could give some problems, but that is necessary in organic agriculture. By that, we had a nice and interesting, result. So by that, we had a very good result. I I think that's amazing, you know, when when you think about the whole circle of life in, around two thousand years and for all coming back to the way that they made one way back when in etruscan time. So here you are, a river away or bordered from Bruno, which gets a significant awareness in the US, gets a a a very high retail price wines that are known for aging and and not being released for, you know, five to six years, after they're produced. Give us some of the stats about, Montecucco as the consortium, the number of hectares, bottles, and and so on and so forth. And then the last question of that I'm getting ahead of myself here is where are you in terms of retail pricing? As I told you, Monteguco, it's a big region compared to Bruno, Montarcino, but we have about eight hundred hectares of production, which potentially it's about three millions bottles, but actually produce about one point two millions, one point five millions bottles. Consider also that to make quality, Montecoupco decided that in the Montecoupco DOCG, we we cannot produce more than seventy tons of grapes per hectare. So seven thousand kilos per hectare. This is the maximum, which is the lowest product action in Italy. That's interesting. So this is why we also don't have a big production of bottles because we start from quality. And Montego, Cassandra, as you know, is DOCG is the top quality of Then we also have montego called TOC, which is, different because in in DOCG, we have ninety percent, Andrewese, and ten other grapes, but many of these are one hundred percent, Andrewese. In multiple calls, so DOC, we can also have a minimum of sixty percent of central data. So it can be you can produce different lines in this way. More flexibility, more difference and and changes into what, the super tuscans did. And also the number of members is about seventy members of the consortio Montecucosso. It's a a good number considering the, you know, the the dimension of our denomination and the number of the total producers. So this is also significant for us. And, about the export in United States, I could say that the fifteen to twenty percent of the bottles are exported in United States. And and what markets would people be able to find Montecucal wines reasonably easily? You can find in, in more states. Considering that, there are, there are about I can tell you about the five, six whiners that that's present in, in, United States. The first, the biggest one is called, in Postino or just anti parmoletto. These are the more significant. So you can find naturally, the main market is New York, New Jersey, then you can find it in Illinois, in Florida, in California, in Colorado, in this C, in Georgia, in Virginia, in West Virginia, Washington, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These are the states where you can find, our labels. One of the things that always comes up, and in fact, it's the first question a lot of, export producers get when they talk to somebody in the US is, do you have scores? We can talk about whether scores are good or bad or useful or not useful we're blue in the face, but at the end of the day, you guys have been getting really good scores, and reviews by major entities like Venus, James Suckling, wine enthusiasts, Ambero Russo, trade Bicherry, Do you guys have a philosophy on, you know, what competitions you enter and how relevant those are to the US market? Those are two separate questions. Right. This is very significant and, thanks to Colangelo. We had the opportunity to make taste our wines, which was not easy as, as you know, we should be at least distributed to or in the total United States to to be tasted by the major critics In the truth, we were when we had the opportunity, they really appreciate the other our wines. So this gives us a good, positivity if I can say this. I mean, I'm really I really trust that, we can go on with the with a good job, and also, making taste our wines to the the major critics, which is very important. Not only for United States market, but as you know, also for the monopolies, Canadian Malobodies or North Europe Monobrees, which really four of this kind of information and this kind of, good ratings. Okay. So you had mentioned, Colangelo, Colangelo, for the benefit of, our listeners is a PR agency that specializes in, both consumer and also trade marketing in the US and particularly for Italian consortzy and and also producers. I get the sense that somebody made a decision in management at the consortio that we need to get serious about the US and start spending money in the US and hiring somebody who knows what they're doing to help get visibility in the US. Can you tell us how that all came about? Because there's, you know, I there's so many consorts in in in Italy and many of them doing different things, but not everybody doing the right things in the right place at the right time in the right order. You guys seem to have gotten there. Certainly gotten my attention. Can you talk about how that all came about? Mainly, we made some experience, that were so and so before we met Colangelo because the idea was to come, make an event, and then to, you know, to make our producer meet, the trade, to meet journalists, but it was a spot. It was something that didn't work. The we started to work with calangelo because there was, you know, a project. So a project in which there was communication all the year And it it is for more years, and and since it's going from more years, this is helping us to be known more and more in the United States market. If we know that we are small, we know that it's not easy to to to understand what is Montecucco, who is Montecucco, where we are. But, drop by drop step by step I I think that this partnership with Colangelo is working well because more and more, we find a significant, articles about us, and so the consumer start to know and to understand what is Montegooke. We didn't speak about, I don't know if it's if you want to speak about it, but also Forbes at the beginning of the year, as, in some ways, when there was a question, they did to various critics, and, one critic spoke about Montecucas, the wine to drink in, twenty twenty two. So for us was, you know, very important. A small, a small, population, like, Montecocco was the only Italian, region, Chitata. So a small region as Montecucco was the only the only one Italian mentioned in the Forbes article as the wine to be drink in twenty twenty two. Which is great. Okay. So now I'm gonna I'm gonna ask some US marketing questions If you were to describe or define Montecocco wines to someone who was not familiar with them in the US, a, question is, what would you say? And, b, what would you use as a point of reference? Not so that you can say, you know, we're not Bruno or we're different than over similar to Bernelo, but how would you define your product in a way that Americans would understand and recognize it as something unique, different, and special. It's a it's a different Sanjuveza, because in some ways, when we decided to produce a Montecocco and Montecocco Sanjuvza, we decided to make also two different wines Now one easier to drink, more approachable, drinkable also by the glass. And another one more structured, more more important, also by the aging. We decided to give to the wine, but the I think the big point of Montecuco is also that, you can buy a bottle of Montecuco with a good paying the right price. So there is a good quality price relation with our wines. Which are considered generally, so it's not me telling this. But in general, they're considered good at the right price. So the right price for the American market, most brunellos are gonna be you know, thirty nine dollars and up per bottle. I'm thinking of Caparto, which is probably one of the more prominent ones, one actually we used to import company I used to work for. And it looks to me by looking at wine searcher, you're more in the twenty to twenty five dollar range for the the five or six brands that are are brought in. Is that correct? With with row, so that are the cheaper ones, you can also find about fifteen dollars and then probably the most expensive are the reserve that you can find from thirty to forty dollars more or less Okay. And which I think are absolutely fabulous prices for wines that have that level of structure power. And I'm not saying that, you know, they're super high alcohol, but that, you know, they're they're in that range of wines that make a statement. This is not just easy drinking, you know, Bardolino or, you know, or beaujolais or something like that. There are wines that have a structure, even in Montego Caroso, but they are, you know, easily drinkable. If somebody in the trade wants to find out more about your products, How would they go about doing that? Are you guys attending or exhibiting at any trade shows in the US? You, have a US trade event, I think, coming up in May. I presume you'll be at Vin Italy, but but how could Americans in the trade take these wines and learn more about them. We don't have us consult you trade events in the United States. We have, you know, the Vineidalee, the provine, so normally for, trade, which in imports, not not for Horeka. But, it's also if you speak about consumers, consumers can find the, you know, our whites in restaurants, in wine shops, and, home premise and off premise. And also online, I think many of our this subutors, sell our labels on online on internet, e commerce. If someone were going to be looking them up, would they look them up as Montecucco or would they look them up under the brand name? I mean, how would we know that it's a Montecucah wine? Well, I I I can tell you, my personal my personal experience was, at the beginning was the brand. I'm I I don't know, big brand. I don't own a famous brand. But the beginning was working the brand. But, and more and more, was recognized also the Monte cook region. So it's, it's something that, at the beginning started by the work of the single wineries. But then we see that, you know, the, international market, not only United States is searching for more and more for the region to? And who are the top importers? Who are the primary importers that handle the wines? The primary are, weinberg. You mean, the name of the company which will weinberg, then, there is Golden Ram, and that Because because only you call the massari as a national importer. So the one that are more known are naturally wine gold. But like anything else in the US, when you're trying to find a specialty product, you can look in sources like, seven fifty Seven fifty. Yes. Seven fifty is really used. So you can do seek out who the importer is in in any given market. So we've covered a lot of ground here, both literally and figuratively. We're in Tuscany, which is kind of a wonderful thing to be thinking about. What's the big takeaway that someone listening to this conversation would have about Montecucco and how to think about it, based on some of the things that we talked about? What what I think it's, what what is important to transmit is, just to say that, If you take a bottle of Montecuco, you drink a different to scan. So just if you go to the shop and buy or just if you go to the restaurant, you drink another to scan. And you have another, idea of what is a scam. So don't drink all with the same brands, don't drink always the same regions, drink something different. I think that, drinking Montecucco, people will discover something different. I love that I love that phrase. You know, because when you think of Tuscany, here in America, you know, we have this image of, you know, this beautiful countryside and the wines that come from it, But but even though so much of, tuscan wine is based on sangiovese, the styles, of those wines can vary all the way from everything from Bruno, of course, to, super tuscans, to you know, Marima and Bulgaria and the Sienna area and then Florence, all have different styles, all have different, groups promoting them. And there's a lot to discover within the range of, quote unquote, tuscan wines. Would that be an accurate, description? It's a journey. Right? There's a lot of land and culture and style, that happens in tuscany, and it's more than just one thing. Sorry. I'm putting words in your mouth, but that's kind of the way I think about it. Yeah. No. But you're right. And it's not only toscan. It's Italy that it's a lot of different, styles and and things and and wines. Yeah. Just as a point of reference, I've seen a lot of different numbers, but somewhere around five or six hundred different indigenous varietals in a country makes Italy, I think have have the more indigenous varietals and more diversity in wines and wine styles and certainly wine growing regions from north to south in different, climate conditions and so forth. There's a lot to be discovered. And, this is one of the enjoyable things of of the industry. I was not aware of it, but I look forward to tasting Montecucault wines, and I'll be at the show in verona next month, and I'll be looking forward to exploring your region. So I want a big shout out and thank you to, Giovanni Batista of, Consoto, Thank you for joining us this week. Thank you, Steve. And I wanna say, thank you all for listening, and we'll be back next week with another interesting addition of Get US Market Ready with Italian wine people on the Italian wine podcast. This is Steve Ray signing off for this week, and we hope to see you next week. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Italian wine podcast, brought to you by the Italy international wine and spirits exhibition. The biggest drinks trade fair in the world. Save the date. The next edition of Vineet League will be held the second through the fifth of April two thousand and twenty three. Remember to subscribe to Italian wine podcast and catch us on SoundCloud, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com. Jean chain. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Livingston, and I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. 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