Ep. 2453 Giulia Stocchetti interviews Giorgia Calì from Poggio di Gavi in Piemonte | Next Generation

If it's a family business, it's not always easy. So just to be prepared that sometimes you need to push a bit and to continue with your mindset. But for sure, wine business has lots to give especially with the people that work in this environment. It's really fantastic. The connection that can make, and I mean, you are tasting wines and having, one of the, for me, like, the best moment, drinking and tasting. But for sure, like an advice that I would give is that you need always to be specialized in something. So if it's economic, if it's tourism, if it's hospitality or whatever it is, You always need to bring something with you when you join the business. So you don't need to arrive with empty hands as we say Italian. Welcome to the next generation with me, your host, Julia Stocchi. Join me as I take you on a journey to discover young stars of the Italian food and wine world. Brondi and Yamu. Hello, and welcome back on the next generation in the Italian wine podcast. Today, we are chatting with a young wine producer from Gabby in Piedmont, and she is Georgia Lee, the manager of El Pollo de Gavie. That is basically a family run business that's not just all about wine and vineyards, but also they have an amazing unique B and B. And what's quite cool is that all the rooms are named after the wine labels. So we're also gonna talk about the origin of the wine names. Well, Georgia, she is young, dynamic, and she takes cares, basically, of everything, starting from managing the winery, taking care of export of sales. Also sometimes in the vineyards, I guess, What she loves the most though is hospitality being such an empathetic person. Well, when she's off the clock, actually, she's not always around the winery. She is traveling or she's playing golf maybe. Who knows? That said, I just wanna hear everything about her journey into the world of Italian wines and of Cortes wines, of course. And so it's with huge pleasure that I say Jorda, welcome to the show. Ciao. Thank you. I'm really happy to be here with you. Nice. It's such a treat to have you here. I'm so happy I got to meet such a young lady, so dynamic and so energetic. So I got so many questions for you. We better start But first of all, what I'd really love to know is your background. Like, what were you doing before being involved in a winery? I was born and raised in Gabby, so where my family winery is, but I had the opportunity to travel a lot, especially during my high school period. I studied languages here at the high school. And then for a year, I've been to Chile, and I can exchange student, and it was my first experience abroad. It was really nice. And that opened my mind a lot. And it was just seventeen. So it was it was really young. So I studied languages then after Chile came back, after high school, I studied university where I studied tourism and economics. And then I had some work before studying again because I worked in a golf business for a while because my dad is a golf pro. I was always involved in the gulf as in the line and in the winery. And so after the gulf, I also decided to make a new experience, but not abroad here, and it's an intoxany. And after that, I just came back home. So this is a bit my background, but I also always try to improve myself. So this year, I had a master in marketing and communication on the wine in Florence, and that was really, really nice. So now really connected to all the marketing and communication. So I always want to improve. Wow. That's impressive. I mean, you were in Chile when you were seventeen years old. So I guess you studied Spanish, right, among the languages. Yes. And I also went to Spain for my erasmus during university. Spanish is more like my first language more than Italian. It's beautiful. But if you have to choose between the two, what was the best experience? Like, would you go back to Chile or to Spain? Totally different experiences. The first one, I was really young, and I need to explore, like, life alone. They didn't know anything about it. It was really different, but probably Chile was the experience that changed my life. So if I need to go back, I will go to Chile for sure. But before going back to Chile, you went back to your family run business in, why have you decided to following in your mom's footsteps? I was raised in Gabby, and I always worked at the winery in my free time or weekends So I was always connected to the winery, but there was a moment when I really decided that this was my place because in Tuscany, when I worked in a winery, this winery is a female winery, and the mother and the daughter are working together. And I saw how the connection is deep and how it's important to understand what your mom did before you and to try to take more you can from her. So I just wanted to see her in act and to join her and just to stare at her sometimes. And so that's really important for me. I just needed to see it right now. This was the right moment. Some experiences, and then you need to come back home. That was your mom who founded the winery? Or So everything started with my grandma in the eighties. When she inhabitates, like, a farm on the top of the hill and vineyards around, but she wasn't into the interior designing awards. So she didn't care that much about the wine production. So my mom was the one that made, like, a big deal of the business. She increased the bottle. We made lots of investments. So we are now a team. So this is our first job, you know. So An amazing female winery founded by your grandmother who was an interior designer, then your mom came. And what's your mom's role? She's more the wine maker. She's really connected with the production. But she's also into hospitality with me because she loves to share moments with clients and guests, and she's also into sales. That's the main thing we do together. So sales abroad and in Italy. Alright. So there are some things you do together and some other things you do separate, let's say. Yes. And you're the one who's managing everything from what I heard. Right? You're like the top manager. You're the one that holds all the situation there. Wow. Yes. It's kind of like we are a whole manager. It's not just one person. I'm more managing myself. It's really a team work. So we are all important. We are not that much people. It's just my mom, me, my father helps us a few times. Then we have a guy, Nicole, who's, also into the winemaking and, more into the vineyards and all the agronomic parts. And that's us. And we we try to do everything, but we try also to keep a role, you know, that's important to have your space, to have your safe space when you know you can act. So what's your favorite thing to do at winery? What's your favorite position? I would say, like, hospitality, like, wine tastings. I love, like, normally, you know, when you're waiting for a wine tasting are always, oh, how long it's gonna last? And then when I start, I never want to stop it. So I really love to enjoy the moment with the guests and clients, but I also love to plan events for us, maybe with other producers or with, members of association that we take part of or maybe just events for our clients, our guests. So I'm really always thinking on new things to do here at the winery. Besides the winery, you also have, bed and breakfast. Right? Yes. Is it close to the winery or people have to drive by car to get to the place? It's altogether. Okay. So can you please, like, drive us through the Pado place in Gabby for who has never seen the place, has never been visiting. So we can picture ourself, the beautiful place you're living in, please. Yes. Sure. So in Pado, is the house we have on the top of the hill, which is surrounded by vineyards. And over there, we have the DMV. Right now, we have six rooms. And, as you were saying before, they are all named after wine, we started with the steel wires, and then we add the red, and then we're going with the sparkling right now. So at the