Ep. 1717 Christmas Special Edition With IWP Team Pt. 2 | On The Road With Stevie Kim

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, my Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at italian wine podcast dot com, or wherever you get your pots. Welcome to another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, she travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities talking about wines, the foods, as well as the incredible travel destinations. Okay. Let's move on to our in house. Denmother, we'd like to call her. She seems like she's the mom of everybody besides her six children, Cynthia. Chao Cynthia. Chao Stivey. I love being the Den mother. Yeah. Exactly. She takes care of, you know, everyone goes to her. She does like psychotherapy with everybody. So, Cynthia, tell us about your top I suppose episodes, interviews, interviewees. Well, like Mark, I had a really great year. So many people were open to coming on the show and sharing things. And so because my topic is deI, I can kind of approach it from all different ways. So one of the ones that I really loved was with Kimberly Betts, and she is, the director of global diversity at Deloitte Consulting. So Yeah. That was also a tough tough. Right? You worked on it for a few months to get her on the show. Yeah. To get her. And she was fantastic. She has been in DEAI you know, for over twenty five years before it was even really a thing. So it was great to hear her take on, you know, sort of making space for grace and and finding a lens of equity. And she had a lot to say about creating nonprofit organizations and networks for executive women. So she's worked with wine companies, but her just her perspective really grounded the conversation and really sort of gave gravitas to how important DEA is in business that was a really fun one. I suppose your segments are the products out of all the podcasts here that we have. Yeah. I can go off the wall. Another fun one I did was with a woman called Beth Brickendon. Yeah. In the UK and her company is called Drag and wine. So she does wine nights with drag queens. Yeah. That was a fun one. It was super cool. She's very well educated. She knows a lot about wine. She's a diploma student at the moment, but she wanted to make wine accessible and fun. So her events have really taken off, and she had a lot to say about making them inclusive, keeping rigid language out of it, but still giving people a chance taste good wines and and learn stuff in a fun atmosphere. So that was great. You know, Cynthia often will do also other types of episodes because she's in house, but we are going to try for two thousand twenty four. We've spoken about this. Right? We want to really, really double down on your specific philosophy and and the interviewee's possible guest to focus on diversity inclusion only. I'm really happy about this for for twenty twenty four because I yeah. Because I'm in house and I'm the dead mother and I like people and I can pretty much talk to anyone, he'll stand still long enough to listen to me. I do sort of fill in the gaps when we need to do some interviews for producers or at our events, like like I was saying, slow wine and wine to wine. And I love that, but the point of voices for me, what really brought me to it, you know, when I asked you, could I take over from Rebecca when she was leaving? Is the DEA aspect. So getting to talk to, you know, people doing interesting things. Another fun one this year was with a guy called Kean O'Hairn in the US, and he is doing sort of wine packaging where he's encouraging people to bring their own bottles that he has already given them and refill their wines, and then he collects them and recycles them. So he's being really sustainable in an entrepreneurial way and encouraging people he's in Oregon. So encouraging people in Oregon to get on forward with this and getting wineries behind him. So I do get to talk to this really sort of eclectic group of people with all different kinds of perspectives. It's good fun. Are there some special potential interviewees on your radar for two thousand twenty four? Well, I've got two very interesting ones coming up in January to start the year off. One is with Tahira Habibi, who's founded the Hue Society. She's been interviewed. I think couple of times already. Right? Yep. But she's not gonna talk about Hugh Society. This time, she's talking about starting Hugh Society in Italy, which is, pretty cool. Yeah. I remember she had contacted me about that. Exactly. And another one with Martha Cisneros, the wine diva who started Latina's wine club in the States, but, you were asking people who's who's their sort of Christmas wish list guest. And I have such a Christmas wish list. So I don't think this will ever happen, but I'm putting it out there in the universe. I would really love to talk to Nicki Minaj because well, it's it's not just because I'd love to talk. Does she make wine? She does. And she makes pink satin rose, so everybody knows that I am writing a book on Italian Rose, and she makes it with Barbara grapes in the north of Italy. Wow. So she is my wish list. If Santa is listening, I want an interview with Nicki Minaj for Christmas. I think you need to put damn her on her insta. How do you get your guests? Like, where do you I know sometimes we send it your way, but how else do you procure your guests? All of my voices' guests, you have taught me your stocking skills, Stevie. I have become the worst stalker. I I stalk through articles, wine enthusiasts, forty, under forty, and top forty wine tastemakers. I stalk through all kinds of things to find people who have something interesting to say for all different reasons. So that takes up a lot of time just finding interesting people, but it's so worth it because I have come across people that I never would have come across if I hadn't gone really looking, you know, for that needle in the haystack. Yeah. And we would never have the opportunity to hear their voices. Exactly. Exactly. So it's it's a lot of fun. The research for me is fascinating. And then when I actually managed to corral these people onto my show, I do generally tend to have a very good time just listening to to their stories. Their stories are fascinating. Yeah. Okay. So I suppose now I am going to go to the next generation, the three musketeers. I see Makenna has joined. Hey, Makenna. Hi, Stevie. Hi. You got lost in New Jersey. What happened there? Yeah. I was I was actually selling Italian wine to someone, and I got caught up. So I'm sorry about that. No. It's okay. What were you selling? Allegrini and Tonatori. Okay. Well, two of my favorite companies? North in South. Yeah? Yes. Excellent. Listen. So, let's bring on Victoria, Julia and Makenna together. Hello. Here we are. Hello. Victoria, of course, she's the original. She's the o g. What's up this place? She is. We fall in her footsteps. So, Victoria, you know, when we started, I mean, we had this crazy idea. The format was different. Right? And then and then you did that. You started when did you start? I can't remember, like, January or something? Yeah. It was we kicked off in January. And then you did bunch of interviews at Venetalay. Yes. Yes. Which wasn't really the next generation necessarily. No. I mean, well, there were still a good chunk that were. Yeah. And then, we kinda regroup, our thoughts together because be before you are reading a great variety, because My crazy idea was to kind of, you know, spread the gospel about the geeky stuff, you know, through a younger voice such as yourself with a little bit of humor that that was always great, but also then go into the interview. Right? And now, the format has changed. Do you wanna tell us what the format is? Well, now, I mean, for for my piece, my my third, I tend to focus on both food and wine now, so I get to kinda hone in on an area where my interview is from or a restaurant of that and kinda just dive into the nitty gritty details on what they're eating and drinking, which has been kinda fun because I interview people from both the wine space and the food space and the coffee space, all the spaces, and been able to find out some really fun facts and also find a lot of synergy between beverage and food and and within different beverages, thinking of how I just had a really fun, interview with, Nino Asaro, which, his family is Haspartana, very famous olive oil company from Sicily. And, we are we got into, like, the concept of olive oil tasting and how and he's very into wine and very young. Also, I thought he was only, like, twenty I thought he was twenty nine, and he's only twenty four. And I think it's because he skipped grades in school. But anyways, that's not the point. So, yeah, no. It's been great. So, I mean, I love the fact that you're going into more the food area. Right? Because we need to engage the younger generation, the next generation. And maybe also, I don't know, maybe Mark can chime in on this. We are so desperate to, you know, have the next generation become more interested in wine. Right? Because, I mean, I would leave or at least the data says all the time that the younger generation, they're not drinking wine. Can I just chip in on as far as Victoria's show? Yes. I'm a big, big fan, and I just love the way Victoria has such outrageous enthusiasm to eat absolutely anything. Yeah. And the joy that you have when you eat something absolutely wonderful. You you convey that joy, and I think it's really wonderful. I understand what Stevie's saying about the need to engage younger people with wine. But I think that the way that, the show, is going with, all of you is a really good way to because you're making it exciting Italian wine, exciting, the world of food, exciting, and just, you know, just being alive and enjoying things. And I think that sense of joy comes through, and it's really, really important. Yeah. Because the next generation is a big question mark for the wine industry. I'm I'm actually really worried, you know, that the next generation will not be drinking. Definitely not much as us, but I'll give you an answer. I wrote an article on Corire de Lacero about this. I attended I mean, I always attend one spectator event, they're big tasting, And there are one thousand people participating in this, and it's three thousand dollars per head for two days. So clearly it's quite, you know, expensive. It's And in the room, there's this one room. One thousand it's incredible. It's it's so impressive. The top wines, you have the best wines in the world, and you do these master classes. So if one speaker went up there in us, he was just serving, like, how many people were under forty out of one thousand people about a dozen hands went up out of one thousand. Then he said, how about under thirty? It got really quiet, really quickly. Right? So, I mean, this is kind of where we're at, and that makes me very, very scared as to where we're going. Of course, this is a different, you know, type of wine, the different scale in terms of positioning, etcetera. But I am not that, you know, I think these three muscateas, Victoria's been doing the longest. They're the nostradamus of their generation, but I'm hoping to have a little bit more insight into, you know, if there is a any way that we can try to engage a conversation or or have the younger generation become more interested. So let me see. Let's go to Mckenna. Have you done some interviews already? Yes. And I do have to say I learned quite a bit after doing the interview marathon podcast marathon at wine to wine was really illuminating because I did seven interviews in a row of people who were under thirty two, who were either running wineries, owning wineries, or specifically intricately related to the marketing of wineries that were both young and old. And the moral of the story that I gathered was a very cool returning to tradition is the way to move forward. That was kind of the thesis of what we learned. So, for example, with simone Fotte and the way that they're using the Palmetto on this is a famous producer, Evineri on the northeast side of Sicily. And how he and his younger brothers were mostly engaged in preserving and using the tradition of their winemaking practices to move forward. That's what was actually attracting and interesting him and his peers into wine. Similarly with, Juliana Fjourin, she's a Brazilian influencer, and I had a great conversation with her yesterday. And our conversation routed to the same thesis. Of tradition and embracing it is actually cool to do for the youth, and it makes wine relevant again. So this is just a fascinating trend that I've had in my many interviews of late I'm really excited to see where they continue to go as I keep interviewing under thirty. So, I mean, I have no clue where we're going to be quite honest. It's very experimental. We wanted to get a little bit different views, also Julia. Tell Julia. Hey, Stevy. She's Italian, of course. She is actually double digit at diploma. She's more qualified than all of us, in terms of the technical side to things. Julie, have you interviewed already some kids already? Oh, yes. I've interviewed a couple really interesting people from the wine industry. And what I can say is that Pietro Sartori told me that Basically, the young generation is gathering together at least in his Valpolice to be stronger to promote the Valpolice and to be together on this really, really difficult market. And I've learned from Jill Coffee de Bull. He is basically African, but he lives in Italy, and he teaches some classes in high school in, instituto, Alberto. And he reassured me telling me that there are young people interested in wines. There are young people that are actually are in love with wine. And also, they're starting using wine in mixology just to, you know, start to spread the word. And one cool thing also I got from an interview, actually was, like, this morning with Simone E. Cotto from Belisero winery is that he's, like, only twenty four years old. Yeah. He's super little. From Phoebe, right? The family we met. We met his mom. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. His mom is like one woman for real. Like, he started to take over the winery in a men's world, and she did a great job, I guess. But I'm so eager to try their wines. But anyways, quite cool to see how Simone is twenty four years old. Well, he's the winemaker and he also works in the vineyards, but he told me that young people are looking for traditional wines. Oh, really? Yeah. Really? Like, I was like, are you kidding me? Because he made his own label named after him because his mom, Ornela, was like, okay. You wanted to do this stainless steel Barbaresco fresh style. Okay. I'm gonna blame on you if something goes wrong, and so you must put the name on the label. And it seems like, older generations are mostly appreciating this kind of wine instead of younger generations that are asking for the traditional Napiolo and traditional barbaresco wine style. So it's quite interesting, but I think, I mean, I'm not but, I think that, there will always be someone who's gonna enjoy the wines and drink the wines. It's just that nowadays there are more and more wine producers, more and more wine countries. And so, of course, it's completely different from the past. So everything is changing basically. But in an exciting way, if we can just follow the flow, I mean Yeah. You can see why we bought Julia onto the team because she's always liked it. She's so sunny. Her disposition is so sunny. And positive about life in general. Hopefully, she can infect us with her sunny disposition. I think I'm gonna close-up the room, but let's do a round of just the last thing that you would like to anything you'd like to say before we close-up. Let's start with Cynthia. Yeah. I loved listening to what the three Musketeers had to say about the next generation because a lot of what I've found this year in interviews for voices has been about language being a barrier, the use of really rigid language in how we teach, Italian wine and wine in general. And I I'm really excited about exploring that, you know, as you were saying, you were at an event that it cost three thousand dollars to get in the door. So there were no young people there. I think the language that we traditionally use to talk about wine has kept young people out too intimidating. So I think there's a lot to do in the next coming year. It's gonna be fun. Yeah. We have to also address, of course, the packaging, the way it's presented, the way it's positioned, you know. There's there's a lot of things that I think we can talk about in two thousand. Yep. Sustainability, all of that. Yeah. And we often forget that sustainability, when you talk about that, it also has to be economically sustainable. Of course, I'm an entrepreneur, so, like, that's where my head's at. But you can't, unless you, you know, factor in the economics, Nothing is sustainable. Exactly. And we're looking at, you know, really interesting things happening in the market. Like, two supermodels in the UK, Kara, and Delavin, and her sister just started a prosecco line, and it's vegan. Mhmm. So, you know, this is something that young people are looking for. So all of these things are things that we probably didn't think about ten years ago, and we have to think about them now to attract a new audience. Mikina or Julia, you should go get this twins or whatever. Yeah. They're they're supermodels in the UK. They're awesome. Julia, let's go let's go find them. Or Mark. Mark, you should go find them. What about you, Mark? Well, I think that what's really interesting, you know, I've as you know, Steve, I've been around a very long time. So I've seen how Italian wine has evolved over the course of the last four decades. How this renaissance of Italian wine you know, in one hand, Italy is a country of great antiquity of wines that have been made for two thousand years. But how recent this renaissance of quality Italian wines, the story of Italian wine, you know, we're really going about thirty, forty years. To see how Italian wine really reinvented itself. And some of those, you know, the people behind that story, I've interviewed over the last year, Sandra Boscagini, and Pyramaster Oberdino, and I and, of course, the Agris in in that story and the Antinorries and so many great personalities who have within a generation have have really put Italian wine on the world, wine map. And so I'm very hopeful now about this next generation. And I'll be really interested to follow the three musketeers as they find stories because there's so many, families now were that younger generation. People in the twenties now are taking over these wineries. Some of which are world famous and some of which are not yet well known at all. But young people who are excited to be entering this world of Italian wine, the world that they were born into or have come into. And so I think that although, yes, finding Italian wine, young Italian wine drinkers is a challenge finding young wine drinkers everywhere. The here in the UK too. I think it's still an exciting time. Yeah. You know, we should kind of do, like, an annual, I don't know, retreat or something with the podcast all the mods. Yes. That would be fun. Yeah. That would be wonderful. That would be fantastic. Let's go somewhere. Great. Let me work on that. Like, you have to put me, you know, on my radar so we can do something. Because I really, really appreciate all every one of you because this is definitely a labor of love. I keep on saying it. I mean, we have a team that works tirelessly, but it's also because of your unwavering support. And I just probably don't say it enough or I don't say it at all, but I really want to take this opportunity to say thank you. Thank you to everybody. Is Juliana Bach? I'm back. Yes. I'm here. Okay. What about you, Juliana, before we close? You went and you came back. You can't get enough of us. No. I missed you guys. One thing I'm thinking about top of mind for for the next year. I mean, I think change is a big word. We're we're seeing a lot of changes in the industry we've been talking about them, but He also like some things are finally starting to change. Right? Change takes a while. We're seeing this next generation. As we talked about with the three musketeers coming to their own and their ownership and leadership positions, I think we're seeing the demographics in the US changed substantially too. And just in terms of the population age wise, demographic wise, so we're seeing a change and and as a result, we have to change how we're selling and marketing wine too. It can be scary to change, but I think on that note, there's a lot of opportunity for Italian wine for for wine in general. So, yeah, that's kinda what for me is is top of mind and change change for me as well professionally engaging in a new career and leaving Colangelo for for some time. So, yeah, I think that's that's what's top of mind for me right now. Yeah. I'm we are very curious as to where you're going next. Yeah. So am I? Still working on that. Yeah. But you cannot abandon Italian wine podcast. I'll come hunting you down. I won't. Okay. Alright. And what about Mckenna and Julia? Mckenna, you go first. I wanted to say how excited and hopefully I am about storytelling. I think that the youngest generation will have their own flavor and nuance to the way they story tell about wine. And I think it'll be wildly attractive to wine drinkers, young and old. And I was saying earlier CV returning to tradition and embracing it is something that everyone's fascinated by, especially the youngest generation. So I'm excited about storytelling and how that'll be embraced. And I can't wait to keep learning about that with our interviews. That is actually interesting because we keep on saying, like, everyone say, every single producer says, you know, embracing the tradition and going forward with innovation. Like, those two words, they go hand in hand. And I'm actually kind of tired of hearing that, but it is an interesting take from your side that you're you're enthusiastic about that, and the younger generation is actually embracing tradition. So I'm excited to hear about that as well. Great. Me too. Okay. And what about Julia? The newbie? I think you're gonna hear a lot of interesting, stories from young people, from the wine world, being winemakers or just vine growers or whatever. And I think there is this great passion for wines and also young people, but we don't have to be afraid or to get scared if you don't see the results immediately because it's always like a process, but we will hear so many interesting stuff about food and wine pairing about, like, new style of wines made with Kiwi, and all these trends that are taking over more and more. But I really want to say thank you Cynthia for your muffin today at lunch. You saved my life. And thanks Juliana for inspiring me. Thanks, Mark, for your beautiful voice. And, I mean, you are gifted because wrapping up all that history in just one book. I think it's a big book though. Oh my god. I want to meet you and it's it's amazing. I mean, the book is gonna be like, I don't know, like, a Bible, but congrats, and I I'm really eager to read that. And I wanna thank, Laika for being here with me. And being such a great producer and Victoria McKennaana for being, like, you know, my partners in crime in these interviews, and especially thank you, Stevie, for making the team such a great and lovely team, your great grads. Welcome aboard. I just want to remind everybody that there's a team. Of course, now it's like, Giovanni is in Ecuador now who's supporting with the social media. Gabriela was on board for some time to help edit not all the podcast, but some other podcast. And most importantly, I did want to shout out for the ambassadors corner, all the Italian wine ambassadors at large. Because, of course, like, and the team, they organize everything, but the Italian wine ambassadors, they're all volunteers, and they're committed, and they make those episodes every single week. So and we've been doing that for more than two and a half years. So it is also on them that the success of the podcast is community generated. So I just wanted to thank everyone for that. And not lastly, but also professor Roshainzak, because I do not know a more generous person in the Italian wine world. He is so generous with his knowledge, with his expertise, and his time. And it is a monumental inspiration for all of us at Italian Mind Podcast. So that's it. I think it's it's more than an hour, and I think we're going to I want to wish everybody happy holidays. We will be continuing to go live with every single episode during the holidays, but I just wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Thank you, Stevy, and happy holidays to you. Thank you. Alrighty. Hotel. Thank you for joining us on another installment of On The Road Edition. Hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content in the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods. You can also check out our YouTube channel. Mama jumbo shrimp to watch these interviews and the footage captured of each location.