Ep. 1847 Livin' The Dolce Vita with Jeff Porter Pt. 4 | 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. Hello. My name is Stevie Kim, and we're a bit late today because I was traveling in South Africa with some of my women in wine friends. Let me see if Jeff is on. Jeff sorry about that. I just couldn't get my ship together for half past one today. Where are you, Jeff? Here we go. There you go. Hi. Howdy. Hey. How are you? I'm well. How are you? How's South Africa? Yeah. I am here with some ladies too here that you can see. You guys wanna say hello to Jeff, Monica, and Piana? Hey. How's it going? Hey. This is just a bonus. Just a bonus. Okay. This is like the the Italian collective coming into, to the South Africa? Actually, it's not just Italian. It's actually mostly other people, but there is a big Italian delegation. It's called the Magnum Club, and it was supposed be kind of a secret club, but it's no longer a secret. They're about forty of us. And we're all, women in wine, and we gather once in a while to go on a trip together last year with Piamonte, and guy and Monica, myself, we host it, and then this street, it's South Africa, because one of the members is, Andrea Moulina. I don't know if you know. Yeah. She's actually originally from California, but she's in the middle of the harbor. So can't really join us right now, but she'll be joining us for dinner. It's like a full program for three, four days. And then Monica, myself, Kata, and also Darlie Moore. Do you know her? She's an Austrian producer. She's also part of this group. We'll be seeing on a couple of more days. So yeah. Oh, it's cool. I love South Africa. Have you been? Yeah. I've spent a few times. I've been very Oh, this actually, this is my first time. So we got here yesterday, and we went to see just Darlene and I, we went to see Richard Curshaw shot. Do you know him? He's an MW. He makes wine. Crazy dude, bit of an ADD, m w kinda crazy geeky dude about clones. And then we went this morning to kind of an urban winery Al Savage. His name is Oh, I suppose wine before they're super delicious. Yeah. And then, of course, just now, we're coming back with huge huge traffic from Haincostancia. Right. Oh, that's super cool historic wine. Yeah. It's been a whirlwind, and then we have to So and then it's the same thing over again tomorrow, the day after, etcetera. Yeah. It's pretty. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Whatever you've been up to. I most recently, on the fun world, I went to Rome for a few days with my family. My daughter had Monday off from school. So we hopped the fetch a roast down from Tarino to Rome. You know, when you're in Rome, all you can do is just hurt your feet because the pavement is, you know, that's all you do is just walk. We walked, like, every day was, like, thirty thousand steps. It was amazing. We went to the Vatican. I thought of you. I I watched your your pope picture and I was like, well, I wonder where wonder where Steve was and we went to the Sistine Chapel and Right. And then we ate really well and drank well because, Roman pasta is pretty delicious. That's a wide record for Have actually an Italian word for you to learn. Okay. It's called, you know, those, like, the stones from Rome. They're called San Petrini. Oh, little hard stones of Yes. San Petrini. And those are terrible. In fact, I have a huge scab on my knee, and it got it deflected because I was, like, just, like, you know, swiping through my phone and I fell, but I hadn't realized this was on Monday. And then I I have one husband in theory. He's a doctor. And he told me, like, Listen. It's completely infected. So We're gonna have to take it off. Yes. So I've been pretty excited to be in South Africa because of course, you know, this is summer. Right. So I can be wearing shorts and let's get some air oxygenation to get this cured, but Right. Those are really hard to walk on. There's a worse, like Yeah. I, like, here in Tarino, it's interesting. And same in Verona, like, I don't know how y'all do it Verona because there's no, like, we have the porticos here. There's, like, miles of all the archways that are covered. Right. With the marble as the floor. But verona, you've just got the marble everywhere. I've been there when it's raining. And, like, I don't know how anybody stays upright. I was, like, holding on to buildings. Yeah. You need, like, shoes with trucks. Yeah. It can get quite dangerous actually. You know? On your So what did you do in what did you do in Rome? Just like touristy things? Yeah. It was my daughter's first time there. Right. First time, the family taking the Fecharosa. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah, we hired a a guy that specializes in kind of like keeping children kind of engaged when you're in the Vatican and at the coliseum in the forum. And that was a pretty cool experience to find a guy that creates tours and room for children. Right. And then because I'm a big kid, so I I like to do that. And then we stayed right and I had an amazing apartment right on the campo de fiori. So the morning we woke up, like, we were on the first floor. We opened the windows. The whole campo fiori was full of the vendors. So you know, just kind of experience the roman life life side went to Roshioli and Yeah. Sure. And then this pizza area that's or this pizza, Roman pizza place near the Vatican called that's pretty famous. And we got that really early before the line started. And Yeah. So you know where to go. Yeah. Yeah. It was so good. What is the story with Erocholi? Like, they opened it in New York, but they told me that's not really the best. Do do you know the story? So the the story from how I understand, obviously, like Monica just looked at. I mean, I think she has kind of been inside. Monica, Monica, better than, like, my my friends like Ariel, Ariel Arce, and, who's the owner of that group. And then Kenneth Crum, who's kind of the wine director, in the New York became friends with Alejandro who used to be, like, the sommelier at Roshioli Sala Maria, and then he opened this thing called Roshioli REMx. Right. It's a partnership, and there's an Italian crew, along with the American crew, the Americans before they opened in New York, they came and worked at, Roche, and re Rimesa, and then the Italian crew went there, and they set up shop. Before we came, we we went to the restaurant. It's like true to Roman, you know, ideals when they fly in product, and the wine was just killer. But, like, when you go to Roshioli, Sala Maria, the first time I went there was in two thousand six, and it's just a place every time I go to Rome, I go back. Yeah. It's an experience. Right. It's just so Yeah. Good. And they're so nice and generous, and the wine list is ridiculous. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel. Mama jumbo shrimp for fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local foods, and taking in the scenery. Now back to the show. And we just had the the San Lorenzo, Il San Lorenzo, the Marquay I GTT from the producer from the Marquay. It's one of my favorite wines in all of Italy. And it's always, you know, super late. What is it? What is it called? Can you recall the wine? So it's fattoria. Fattoria. And it's called El San Lorenzo Bianco. Oh, okay. It's an IGT, but it's still a hundred percent. Right. The newest release is the o nine. It's a wine of experience. Like, it just it cat like, the moment you see it poured in the glass, it's like an elixir of gold and then it it, like, kind of vibrates with intertwined. It's not quite quite crazy. Two things. I have to say about that. Do you think Verdicchio is undervalued white wine, Italian white wine? Honey. And I think it's one of the best white grapes in the world. Yeah. I agree. But it's not, I think, as well known as the other ones. The other thing is, and I'm Monica's sitting right here. Did you find Rome is so much cheaper than the northern part of Italy in terms of just, you know, eating out and the dining and even the hotels, I thought. Well, maybe not the hotels, but some of the, like, guest houses, I stayed at this guest house near the Vatican, and it was beautiful, and it was so inexpensive. And the food, Well, I don't know if this counts, but Monica and I had went to a trattoria. We spent, the two of us, like, seventy euros. I mean, that just doesn't happen, like, in Milan. You it's, like, seven years for a A burger. A pizza. You know? Yeah. I mean, Tarino is pretty inexpensive. I'd say Torino's probably a little less expensive than Rome. Yeah. Even less expensive than Rome. Wow. From what I experienced with you know, we went to the other restaurant we went to because we were there only there for two dinners. We went to La Tavarnaca, which is like really old school Roman Tracheria and that was delicious. And that we had three or four plates between the three of us and two bottles of wine. And, yeah, it was like a hundred and twenty euro. It was awesome. Yeah. So listen. We don't have very much time today, but because I know you're running you have to do your phone stuff. Yeah. I gotcha. What I did want to talk about with you is that on the next one. I should be back in Italy next Thursday. And I would like to talk to you about some of the wine trends. There are a bunch of articles being written up about that. And, Melissa Decata, my friend, she wrote something interesting and she spoke about the boundaries, the cans, the low end, of course, no alcohol. All of those topics, I think I would like to maybe talk about with you on our next slide. Yeah. No. What do you think? I'm super excited to talk about wine trends and no out trends. And I think it's all about balance. I think at the end of the day, everyone's search searching for balance. I'm definitely pro drinking, but in my current state now is, I I just think a little devil do you hear a little devil do you there and you know, one bottle should be good, and, six bottles sometimes my head hurts too much. Yes. And before we close, how was your Barbarresco tasting? How did that go? It was awesome. The twenty one vintage is just smokin. It's so beautiful. I've got a few more wine. I gotta go back next Friday to taste some more. Alright. So you haven't finished yet. I'm not done yet. No. I've got, like, a hundred more wines to taste through. And I shit. I was at Grande Longay, which is a big event here in Tarino. Yeah. How was that? How I've never been in. How is that event? It's it's great. Yeah. It's a lot. It's two days. You know, there were three hundred something producers there with their booths, but, you know, it was fun to see friends, but then also I was introduced to a few new producers that I'd never seen before and talked to them and and, you know, I'm on a big Delceto kick. I think more people should drink Delceto. I think if you'd like fun, in vivacious wines, but also they have this serious edge to them. I think Vochettos is another underrepresented wine and a wine that I think more people should take seriously. But is it, like, a B2B or B2C event mostly? It's a B2B. It's it's all Oh, it is. It's all great. I I hadn't realized. Alright. Listen. I'm going to let you go because you have shit to do. I have shit to do, and and then we'll recap also my South African trip next time. Okay? Alright. Sorry about the sorry about the craziness. You know? Okay. Thank you for joining us on another installment of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stev 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.