Ep. 1868 Livin' The Dolce Vita with Jeff Porter Pt. 5 | 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. Hello, everybody. My name's Stevie Kim. Welcome back. I'm looking for Jeff here. Hey, Jess. Hey. Finally. How are you? Hi. It's been a great day. So as you know, you guys, this is funny. No. It's been great. Three weeks since we talked. I can't remember. Yeah. It's been good. I mean, you're good. How's how do you feel? Yeah. Look, look at this. Look where I am. Right? The duomo, for me. Oh, okay. It's beautiful. It's absolutely gorgeous. Have you been inside the church? I was there today. Yeah. I'm here on a, like, a research trip about Umbria, and I had a private tour, and I learned all about the really famous artists who painted the last judgment Right. That kind of inspired my financial. And then I got to go into their archives, which start in the twelve hundreds. I have a video of touching vellum that pope Nicholas the sixth in twelve ninety two, basically commissioned the building. So are you doing this for wine enthusiasts? Are you doing it for yourself? What are you doing? I'm doing it for myself. Okay. Where can we follow you with this? I'm gonna put this content up on Instagram and TikTok. And then in the fall, I'll be doing a a five city tour of Umbrian education. Okay. We're gonna go to Houston, Nashville, New York, Boston, and somewhere else I forgot. I can't remember. What does that mean? Like, you will have a group of Umberan produces? Mhmm. Yeah. So We're kind of Many. Nine. Okay. And it's pan umbria. So it's it's gonna be producers from or vieto Transimino, lungarothi, which is their own appalachian, and then multi Okay. Since they're nine, can you tell us who they are? I guess I'm gonna switches depending in each city. Okay. So not necessarily the same produces. Right. The same thing, the same idea, because they asked me to kind of think about umbria as a place. Like, you know, it's a really beautiful region for those that haven't been here, and the food is killer. Mhmm. For those that don't know, they have a lot of truffles here too. Black and white. I think mostly black though. Right? They actually have a five percentage of white truff that get turned into, something else when they leaveumbria. They they, yeah, they asked me to come down and kind of explore the region and kind of put together a story to draw people in. I mean, they have a story. It's just to kind of put it all, you know, stitch it together into a quilt about Bumbria. Why it's important? So I'm excited to check it out. Okay. I just got here. I flew here this morning. From where? From Torino? Okay. You're in New York. Yeah. I'm in New York. I'm actually now out in Long Island. In Northport. Yeah, like all the way out near the orient between the orient Greenport, basically. Do you know this area at all? It's so beautiful above it. Yeah. It's it's it's beautiful. It's a little bit cold, colder than Italy. So I'll probably go back out, like, Wednesday or Thursday, something like, back into the city, but, you know, I'm working from here. And it's been actually pretty nice. So listen, Jeff, you know, what I would like to do is, you know, besides your Italian course, of course, I just want to remind everyone who's joining us now. This is the Italian wine podcast special edition. It's called Levin, the Dolce Vita. With Jeff Porter. And, basically, it's been three episodes, like three insta lives. Right? And then we took a break for a little bit grande Jeff JB waiter. JB waiter. And then we had some scheduling issues. So we used to do at one o'clock on Tuesdays or Thursdays, Thursdays, I think. But now we're going to try to do six PM, italian time, so that we get a little more Americans, if you will. And then as you know, we replay this, like, who's our clubhouse manager, Tynewine podcast producer, she will post produce this and put it in a smaller version on the replay on Italian wine podcast or everyone who can't join us, of course, that's our strength. I was just reading on, you know, there's this, like, classification from Buzzfeed or something like that. And I never understood why we were always, like, on the very tail end of the classification. And today, I discover we're the fifth, you know, after wine enthusiasts, so I'm pretty happy about that. So slowly yeah. So slowly, we're making our way up. On this category. Yes. So, Jeff, what I wanted you to do Tell you. Yeah. Tell me what you've been up to the past three weeks. Okay. Quick objects. Yeah. No. Living with Dolce Vita. I went with my whole family last Monday, we had to go for our first promessive disorder. So when you apply for your visa here, you have to go to a post office and get the stamp, and then they give you an appointment at the questura, which is the police office to validate your residency. So we did that. We had to drive an hour to bra from Tarino, and we got our fingers printed. And then in the middle of it, the internet went down in the police office. So we have to go back. A foot You're kidding. No. Dick fix him, like, hot spot hit or anything? No. I I told her, I I saw that my phone was like, I I have I have five g with with team. Do you wanna do it? Right. I'm like, oh, we can't do that. You know, security issues. I was like, They're like, we'll SMS you for your next appointment. I haven't gotten anything. I have no idea. So, you know. 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. That was your first brush with questura. Exactly. Super nice. They were super, super, super nice. It brought us a very small village. The reason that we were in draws because when we did the paperwork at the post office, it was in Alba. And so I guess that length is the bronze, instead of Tarino, and I've heard Tarino from there. Yeah. Yeah. I think Broad is a smaller city. So Right. Okay. And then what else did you do? Yeah. I think I had posted this in my stories a bit ago, but I had like what I've been dying for. I had the market visit at the green market that just blew me away. It was like every chicory radicchio was in Bloom and I bought them. And made a great salad and then went to this this pastaficio that's open in the smallest window of time. I don't know how they stay in business, but I made them. Right. And I got their homemade anulotti and Sugo, and it was just a great food experience. And then last night, I had friends over Lorenzo Pacheen from Grifalco. He and his wife came over, and I cooked them dinner, and we used too much energy in the the lights went out again. There you have some issues with power supply in Italy and we see We fee I've got now. We fee is good, but, I I was using the oven, the air fryer, and the kids were playing music all at the same time. Right. And then you also went to Paris, right? Because I knew Yeah. Oh, right? That you were in Paris. I didn't see you. I was in Paris. I was not there for wine. I was there for my family. Oh, you weren't there for wine. No. Oh, okay. I was just there coincidentally there on vacation. Oh, had break for Carneballe. We decided to take a trip to Paris. So we drove from Paris to Leon, and we stopped at a producer for Colin Grayo, which is a producer in Croiss Hermitage, which in was one of my the most informative wines of my career, and it was great. That's the first time I'd ever been to the estate, and they showed me around. We drank some great wine. Spend the night Leon, which was an awesome restaurant and then took the TgV to Paris. Saving Paris for a week went to Disneyland Paris, which was awesome. Oh. I didn't recommend it. It was so much fun. I I went through the one. My kids were a little. They serve alcohol there, which makes it even better. And then, then, yeah, we just it was our daughter's first I mean, this is so Busy. Our first time to Paris. I'm assuming it won't be her last time, but we trumped her around, you know, you know, dragged her around on the Paris. We walked Fifty five miles in five days. Wow. According to my walking app. Oh, it's like Complimenting. Yeah. You mean, like, you're super fit. Yeah. So that was it. And then just in between all of that. I've been tasting lots of wine for the magazine and then doing my Italian class. Excellent. So you've been very busy. Now I'm in Bumbria this week, and then next week I'll be in, Modena, to be with the Bambrozco group. To taste a bunch of wine in, Emilia Romagna and then head back for more Italian classes. Yeah. Joseferozati said, welcome to umbria. Listen. Okay. So what I would like to do with you, Jeff, if you're a case that Yes. We talked about kind of how you're being adapting to the Italian, but I would like to also talk about some some wine trends with you, you know. And I read an article and I actually sent you the link an article, by felicity Carter. Do you know felicity? I met her once or twice. Yeah. She's so brilliant, and I'm sure you'll get a chance to meet her at Vititulate this year. And she wrote an article in January. It's right in front of me. It's called the seven line trends in two thousand twenty four. And she outlined seven, which are she talks about boundaries, how they're increasingly blurring the lines between drink categories like wine being cocktails. Then she talks about cans as a trend because of the convenience. Because when we think of cans, of course, we think of just beer and cocktails, but now there's gaining traction, especially stateside, full wines as well. Then, of course, the no low alcohol, Then she predicts, and I think she's correct about white wines taking over, you know, becoming much more prominent of red wines. She still thinks that the big bull red wines are where it is in terms, especially the premium market, then she talks about the wine tourism and health. So I want to understand what your thoughts were on some of these wind trends that she had predicted. If you want, we can start with the first one, which is about collapse of boundaries. So what are your thoughts on that? I mean, I I think I think I cmat across across everything is that, you know, nothing is sacrosent to anyone. There's no just like I do this. It's I I drink this way. Right? I don't just drink wine. I don't just I do it all. Not just because I'm an alcohol professional, but it's because I I want variation in my my life, including coffee, tea. You know, it's it's not just for alcohol. And and it is. It's interesting to see that people aren't brand specific anymore. They're kind of wanting experiential, and they're they're willing to change and and move the needle. I think there's there's a lot kind of the unpack and the collapse of boundaries. Maybe we hope to do a whole one just on that because I think it's, it's an interesting talking point to really, to kind of explore where wine fits in with that because every place I'm talking to with producers, they're kind of worried I think people see this as something to worry about. I see this as an opportunity. Not necessarily a worrisome thing. If you make great wine, you're gonna you're gonna be fine. Well, that's Make sure you Yeah. That's You know, shitty wines Your thoughts. Yes. I mean, you're that's such an American thing. Right? Like, you know, every battle, every problematic areas we try to think of, you know, slice out a bit of heaven or opportunities if you will. So I would like to understand better the spectrum in a way, and I hope we can expand on this topic because I think it is very interesting. And I think I absolutely agree with you. The only thing is, like, I'm struggling having a dialogue with the younger generation. I I don't know about you because I sometimes I feel like we're preaching to the choir, right, like, talking amongst ourselves, but we really do need to think of some younger people out there. I had a a taste thing with for Coldolcha. I don't know if you know these guys. I love. Yes. So, of course, the father is Francesco Marona Chinsano, you know, the Chinsano family. He looks like Ernest Hemingway. I feel like it's Yeah. Isn't it crazy. I always look at him like furnace anyway. So handsome. Yeah. He's he's terribly handsome and incredibly charismatic. Mhmm. And his son, Santiago, he's I think he's twenty six, maybe a bit younger. And he I think he's really on it because he's trying to bring that young energy, you know, the from the younger generation into his wine communication now. I think it's interesting. You know? And I think I think there's a lot, you know, it's specifically here in Italy. And and even when I was in Australia late last year, a lot of the younger, you know, I would say, like, sub thirty who are involved in the wine industry are doing a really good job. I'm thinking, like, there's a candy glass producer named Chiliana Vasra. So it's, Mateo and Madelena. Yeah. Both young kids who are making banger wines. And when you talk to them, they're so passionate. I think what just needs to be put out there if we can find a platform for all of these young people who are either starting the wine industry or their families have been in and they're starting to take over is just allow them to tell their stories to that younger generation, I think that's gonna capture more people because when you listen to them, you're just like, wow, this is so cool. When I do, like, the Keani Glasgow boot camp and I bring young small a's around Keani Glasgow and I introduce them to Madalina Matteo, they're throul because they're the same age. Right? They're like, wow. How are these kids doing this? They weren't a legacy wine estate. This is something that was started. I think you're a hundred percent right. We just gotta give them the platform and and let them lose. Yeah. And they they need to we need to build their confidence because I think they need to get out more into talk. Yeah. We should think about, you know, I created, like, a special session for them at Phoenixley, but definitely we need to be more inclusive so that they can also tell us and explain to us what they like, what they don't like what their thoughts are on wine consumptions, etcetera. When I was in South Africa, I don't know if we had supposed about this at all. There's an incredible energy in the winemaking because there are so many young winemakers and they in South Africa, the rules are very loose. So there are no rules about what kind of grapes and and what kind of territory where you should make it. You know, it's less regulated. So which brings them lot more opportunities. Right. So a lot of the young winemakers, they have acquired experiences abroad and in other important winers in South Africa. They start their own winery. They don't have their own container. They don't have their own land. So they just, you know, rent it or they buy their grapes, and they don't have their bottling equipment. They will do everything just, you know, vary, you know, from shared economy. You know, generation. It's like the, like, garage, the garage. Yeah. And they are making some serious interesting wines. So, you know, I think they are tapping into also this, you know, young young way of not just producing wine, but also approaching the market. So I think the only only thing that I wasn't that keen about is that they tend to like use the wax for their closures all the time, and it noise the shit out of me. But, yeah, I mean, that's kinda what they do. And, as long as they use the pliable wax, I'm cool there. I I hate the hard wax. Yeah. No. No. It's very, very easy to strip up. But, you know, still the idea of, like, why do you need it? Right? Because Right. I see some other wineries, they just have, like, a little, like, tape over it. Have you seen that? Yeah. I I I like them when they don't have anything. They don't have any yet. They don't have the capsules. They don't have anything. So going from that to, like, doing the serious wax up again, I thought it was a bit odd, but anyway, so That brings us to cans different vehicles for for drinking, I think. I'm a huge believer in canned wine. I like it when I had my brief stint as an importer, I signed up a Bojoulet producer that had a Bojoulet in a can. A Fluuree. It was an actual crew, Bojoulet in a can, and I just I love them. I think I think they're great, and I think people need to just not be I like bagging a box. I like canned wine. I like, you name as long as it's good. It doesn't matter what the vessel is if it's for immediate consumption. So I have a question Jim for you. What is what is the best that you can recall back in the box? It's high and wide? Like, in terms of quality. I think the best one that I've had recently is the Sandy Giovanni from Amy Esrin. Oh, yes. Yes. Amy is actually our ambassador as well. She's our Italian Line Ambassador Lodge. Her wine. I gave, like, ninety points in the magazine. I and we blind taste it. Right? I had no idea what it was. But it was fresh. It was delicious. It was everything that you want a wine like that to be. It had some nuance to it. It wasn't just Right. Like fruity tutti. It it had some structure to it. So I that's one of the best wines I've tried in a box. I've tried more French wine influenced that I have Italian one. I I I think the French are a little more on the forefront with that. And the Austrians, there's some good Austrian bag in the box. There's a few importers in the States that have kind of cajoled producers, like a biodynamic producer to put it in a bag in a box, and I love that wine. It's just felt like belt leader, still here. What about cans, canned wines? I think canned wines are awesome. I think there's, Have you tried Italian canned wines? You know what? I'm trying to think. Again, I think Italy's behind the the trend on this. I don't I can't, to be honest, I have a a former sommelier that worked for me. He's launching a new canned wine that I'll put up somewhere for people to see, but I haven't tried it yet, but, yeah, Italy's behind the trend. Do you know what Italian can wise? Yeah. I mean, I know because there was a group, a bunch of group. They do special pie packaging. They're kind of the foreigners in packaging. They're called, or something like that. And it's just a group. It's more like a I don't think they own any vineyards, but it's the bottle and their focused on the marketing and the packaging side. So there were always four runners in canned wines, but I don't really know any others, to be quite honest. Why do you think the Italians are behind. They're not so keen about can lines. It's go back to, like, Sullivan. Right? Yeah. The screw cap closures, Italy was way behind on that. They were way behind on Nom Accord on DM. And now Now you're seeing people do all three. But I I think the the double edged sword of Italy is its adherence towards tradition, which is good and bad. Just like you said, in South Africa, they don't have any rules. Right? There's a lot of rules here. So, you know, I know for prossecco, no prossecco can be in a can, which is stupid, and be called prossecco, from my understanding. Because that is like the most accessible, right, like the first type of wines if you think about it. Yeah. Like, imagine how cool it would be to have. I was looking at this project a few years ago to put, like, per second on a can. I just couldn't figure it out because I was afraid of getting sued because I, I came up with this idea to, like, spell it phonetically. So if it said Prosecco. Yeah. Yeah. You'll get it. It doesn't have as much money. DOC Prosecco does. But you can't call it Prosecco because of the Bishop fee not it. Right? So how can you you know, commit to prosseco to can call it that. Well, you can get glare and still have it, you know, for Zante, but and just like call it something different. But you you need that name. I think for mass market appeal, you just you need it to say. I agree. Right? Because if you go to Brazil, you order champagne and they'll bring you out for seco. I mean, it's like, you know, they're positioned in a very incredible way and all over the place. Right? So Yeah. I mean, I would love to see Italian wine in cans. I think you think about, like, oh, you know what? I think there's a Lambrusco on a can. I don't know. I'm gonna have to get back to you on that, but I think Limbrusco on a can would be great. Bobby Stuck, he makes one. It's called Frico. Taking American who's putting the together. You know, what we should do is we should organize a kind of like a blind tasting with canned wines. One day. It's my favorite. I love canned. I'll come to verona. Yeah. We should do that. You know, we'll, film it and everything. We'll do, like, you know, not a l live, but we'll we'll do a whole post production and everything. I think we should and we should invite some of our clients to do blind mistakes. As long as I can shotgun a can. Okay. But, yeah, we we need to come out with a can driven, I think it's high in wine. But, you know, it has to be quality because if it's crap, then it's not going it's it's like, you know, there's a group called Viktati. Do you know this group? It's led by Vulture, Vulture Moss. Oh, I just saw him the other day. Yeah. So, like, what they've done is with the Sullivan, it's been some time. They have been doing, you know, bottles in Sullivan and in cork. Because like different markets, you know, they require different packaging. And in Italy, they could just not sell, you know, in a selvin. So with screw caps, so what they've done is they did a kind of a you know, a review of all of their wines, vertically speaking. And we did a blind tasting of some of the older vintages with Selvin as versus cork. And I would say more than six out of seven times, the Stelvin was a better quality. Yeah. You know? I mean, Stelvin's I mean, when when I was in Australia, I had wines that were twenty five years old under Stelvin, and, like, they've been doing it forever. You talked to the best producers in Australia, and they're like, yeah, it's stupid to even think about using a quirk. And we saw there was a comment here that, you know, that says in New England folks are not interested in canned wine. You know, I think there's hesitancy, but I I think the younger generation is kinda leading the chart because I see across the states when I travel there, the can wine, specifically, obviously, during the the summertime, really, really popping. Like, literally popping. And then Giuseppe says, I I like this. He says, you know, this is what we mentioned earlier that Italy has such a strong tradition. He said wait ten years and love cans. Well, the problem is time is moving too fast. I was talking about this with some producers here in in Umbria today. That Italy can't wait ten years. Right? I know. It's the things are moving too quickly, and they've gotta just, you know, execute. So listen, Jeff. I'm gonna close-up this live for now, because we're hitting the half an hour, thirty minutes mark. But let's talk about the low and no alcohol next time as well, and white wines, the upper trending of white wines. But I would also like, as we are approaching Vinitzley, I have the schedule right in front of me, all the different tastings, and you will also be doing a tasting at Vinitzley. So we won't unveil that now. I will. But let's discuss what you'll will be doing Next week. We'll try to hook up again Monday. I'll still be stateside, but and I will be running an event, but I'll just make a quick break away for half an hour. Perfect. So we can have a install live again. Alright? Awesome. I'll be Lambrusco strong next week. So Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Steve. Okay. And I gotta see. 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.