Ep. 877 Vinitaly 2022 Recap | On The Road With Stevie Kim

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. Let's get this started. Hello, boys, and girls. My name is Stevie Kim. This is the Italian Mind Park cast, and what we're going to do today is to give you a skinny recap for those, well, at the highlights anyways. So for those who were unable to attend Vinitally this year, so we'd like to check kinda give you an idea what it was all about. And I have with me today, my podcast team, namely Joy Livingstead, Hello. Hey, Joe. What's up? I am very well. Thank you, sweetie Kim. How are you? What about that cold? Oh, no. I'm good. It's fine. It wasn't COVID. I didn't catch, like, you know, the dreaded scourge. So Okay. So alright. Excellent. COVID free. And then we have Richard Huff? Yes. Yes. Good morning. Richard. Tell remind the audience who you are. Yeah. I'm Richard, from Glasgow. And now we can't tell. I'm, by your accent. I'm basically a copywriter and translator, I suppose. You're part of our editorial. Part of your editorial staff. Yeah. Yes. You didn't go around. Okay. Excellent. And we have Cynthia Chapelwood. Hello, everybody. How are you, Cynthia? I'm good. So, Cynthia, of course, why don't why don't you introduce yourself? You do it much better than I do. So I'm Cynthia also part of the team here in Verona. I do editorial projects and work with Via, and I'm the host of voices on the podcast, and sort of the person who floats around the office doing all the bits and pieces that come up. Okay. Excellent. And, of course, we have other members at the office, but we kind of here have people who quote, unquote, speak English this morning because I couldn't be bothered recruiting the others because I'm not feeling so nice this morning. I'm not in a bad mood, but just, you know, I want to get this over with. So let's start Vinitally, we'd like to call it the Vinitally marathon because it actually starts on the first of April. It started on first Arabia, April, full state, I know. So I know many people think Vinically, it's only four days. From that this year was from tenth till the thirteenth of April, from Sunday to Wednesday, four days. But for us, Vinically actually starts on the first of April. From the first to the third, it is what we call five star wines and wine without walls. That's three days of wine competition. And then immediately following that from the fourth till the seventh of April, it is the flagship VINital International Academy certification course. And then, of course, we we had a day of quote, quote, pause, but everyone was working, of course. And we, the ninth, which was the Saturday, we had the Upper Wine event, the Premier opening event to the next one. Okay. So let's start from the beginning. Five star ones. Tell us a little bit about, five star ones who the judges were, how many were they, and how many producers participated. Can you give us a little overview of that Cynthia. Of course. So five star wines was, a big selection this year. We had two thousand three hundred wines from seven hundred and forty five producers all across Italy. Our judging panel was composed of seventy two wine professionals, eight of whom are masters of wine. We had a great six member, general chair panel with Carl Mower, the first German m w, female female German m w. And the judging took place over three days. And out of our two thousand three hundred wines, nine hundred and sixty scored ninety and above. Excellent. And can you give us the names of the awardees? I mean, at least the trophies. Sure. Of course. The best wine overall was from Cantina de la Vernacha, and it was Vernacha Deordicase. The best red was from Marquesi De Cantanello, and the wine was Adorno Giustiniani Gabiano, d o c, reserva, Matilda Gistiniani. Wow. You're butchering all of this. Sorry. Put it in giustiniani. Giustiniani. Maybe we needed an Italian after all. Okay. Go ahead. The best white was from Terry Cortezi Moncaro, and it was a Verdicchio de Castale de gonzi, d o c phone d g a. And the best sparkling was Terre Disan Vernaccio Fortinato Valdo Biale, d o c g, superiority, Diquartise, spumante brute. Okay. Excellent. So for those of you who are listening, if you're interested in having the details and the list of all of the awardees of, five star lines and line without walls, you can find, of course, on our website, five star lines. Dot IT, you can get the complete list of the awardees. And you can follow the, there's a huge, of course, social media going on. So that's five star lines. Alright. Number five. Alright. And then, of course, we had Finito International Academy, which Yacopo, Fanchuli man left us. I haven't even seen it. Has anyone seen, man? Him. Yeah. What did he say? Oh, no. I just needed him to help me fix him. I am. Yeah. Waiting. We couldn't care a lot. How would help me fix this? And he's like He's only worked here five years. Now he's forgotten already. You know what he has. Good to keep texting me back, and he says, you should just write to them and complain. I'm like, but Like, in what language? Like, you're not lying. Say it in Mandarin. I'm like, nice. Thanks. This is such one. I had to actually ping him, tap him because my WeChat, when I changed my phone, of course, my WeChat, he had, registered it under his phone number. Okay. So Our Himalaya is also registered under his moment. Yeah. We gotta take care of that, Lynn. I hope you're listening to this episode. We need to have a small chat with you, buddy. Okay. You cannot be hiding out in PMO any longer. We will find you wherever you are. I'm surprised with he that he didn't pop by during Viniktla. Anyways, because he's always around. Anyway, so let's talk a little bit about Vineiktla International Academy, the flagship edition. This was the first the bonafide. We did a flash of edition last year in June, but how is it different this year? Give give me some numbers and contextualize how it went. First of all, we had Sarahback, which was fabulous. Sarah. She is a great, great, great faculty member whom we've missed dearly because she was locked down more or less in Hong Kong. She's moved to Seattle Washington, so we will be seeing her more from states that, for sure, and, of course, Henry Duvard returned. Francesco, who had a small part last year, translating mostly Professor. He is now in Argentina. I don't know what's up with that. I have to try to understand what's going on originally also from Hong Kong. So tell us give give up do the little recap thingy. I'll do the little recap thingy. This year's Via verona was was fantastic, as Stevie said, to have all the faculty back together, Henry, Sarah, and Professor Atilio Shienza, all in person, and thanks to Richard for translating Professorore during during the master classes. We had fifty six students in person, and twenty one of them passed and became Italian wine ambassadors, which is the biggest number of any class we've had to date. I need to correct you, Cynthia, because the twenty one includes actually the two ambassadors who are recalled. They were going for their expert level, Ashley and Esra, but, no one became an expert this year. It's tough. It's tough exam. It it is. It's a hard one. Yeah. So nineteen new ambassadors and and two who are already ambassadors. Yeah. We didn't take their pen back. Yeah. I'm not that cruel. I know that everyone think I'm, like, Crudalia, been into international academy, but So, yeah, that was pretty successful. I said. We also did some master classes with our supporters. Again, thank you very much to our supporters. Do you recall who they were? It was the consortium of Lugana, Sutulia Doc, Monta, Montecorta, Franceacorta, Franceacorta, and that was it. No. It's, like, which is a high end wine signature academy. Mhmm. Okay. And so we've started doing this as of last year, instead of because of COVID, we started doing, master classes for our supporters, which I think, the audience, appreciate better in a way. Right? I think there's a bigger value. Right? So they get to have guided tastings with both, Sarah and Henry as well as some members present often also the producers themselves. This time at Via, the students tasted over one hundred and thirty wines you know, in the three days of classes before the exam. So that's that's really a great opportunity for people to taste Italian wines that maybe they can't get in their home country. And actually, you know, I know, for the Via community listening out there, I know some of you have written to us reached out to us asking, how do I become a judge at five star o'clock? It it is mostly. We have, like, kind of the steady panel chairs and, of course, the super judges We have the six super judges, and the only new super judge was Carol Mauer. The rest, Gabriella Rivera Lee, Robert Joseph, and, of course, Pedro Balestellos were on for from, for them, from the get go. And then Gabriela Daniella joined as of three years ago. So the super judges remain, the same, but the other judges, especially the associate judges We try to give an opportunity for students who are enrolled in Unitell International Academy so that they can get kind of a practice tasting sessions as their their score does not, carry any, weight into the final, gets averaged into the final score. And then, of course, we have the Vineetu International Academy, community members, often experts, ambassadors, and so forth. So Obviously, now that we have, close to three hundred certified Italian wine, ambassadors, we cannot invite every single one of them. But we do rotate, give everybody a little bit of a chance. If you're interested, of course, please reach out to us, and we will take your, candidacy into consideration. Okay. So, of course, if you want more information about Finito International Academy, please go to, Vineito International, dot IT, and you get all the information there as well. I'm actually looking at the events page, which which is kind of the calendar for all of the clinically related, events. All year round. And Phoenix Lane International is very social media heavy. So you can find it on Insta. You can find it on LinkedIn, on Twitter, etcetera, etcetera. Okay. Then let's move on to offer wine. Who's gonna talk about offer wine? I can talk about offer wine. It was on April ninth after our pause day, which wasn't really a pause day as you said. And that's our Grand Galla kickoff event for VIN Italy, in collaboration with wine spectator. And this year, wine spectator chose a hundred and thirty producers to represent the top Italian wines, and fifteen hundred guests attended the event, where we also had Allison Matthews, Tom Matthews, Jeffrey. Linden Bluth. I have a story about him. And, Mariela, What about them? What about them? Okay. This is so embarrassing, and it's actually kinda funny. He's like the the top blind spectator editor guy. Right? Yeah. He's taking over from Tom. Okay. Well, he happened to be coming in the door at some point. In this time. And I was walking in with Margarita, the the podcast producer that preceded me. Yes. And, you know, she just came to visit, you know, we're gonna have lunch, I had no idea who this guy was. I've never seen him before, met him. And I, you know, like, oh, you know, how do I, how do I get out? How do I do this? I'm like, oh, do I get in? And I'm talking and I'm, I'm, like, I'm all in my podcast mode. I'm, like, you know, looking for interviews, and I'm like, I've never seen this guy before. This looks like a great interview. So I like talking to him, like, you know, yeah, you know, we're down and call six, pay eight, and you know, if you ever get tired talking to people, you can come and chill and la la la. And this guy's looking at me like, you know, okay, you know, like, he's super friendly, but then he walks away after we helped him and Margarita loves him. She's like, oh my god. Don't you know who that is? I'm like, no. No. She's like, how can you use the word chill with Jeffrey Linden Lewis. Linden Moose. And I'm like, Who? And she's just she buried her at her hand. She's like, I'll be trying to say hello to that man all day. And like, oops. That part poor, Jeffrey. He has catapulted into his first ventilator, and I think it was traumatizing because first of all, he had just a common, landed on my pins. It came directly to the the conference, the press conference, the opening of Opera Line, and he showed up. And I immediately just gave him a name, Mike, and he started speaking. And so, you know, I don't know if everybody knows our listeners Tom Matthews, from wine spectator, the executive, managing director for wine spectator, who has been, of course, a reference point for us. With Bruce Anderson, senior editor, and also Allison Matthews for the past ten years. This is our eleventh year of, eleventh edition of Upper Line. And so it goes way way back. We have kind of a routine, and it is really a lovely event that we we absolutely adore. So he's kind of an outsider. He's this is his primer, he comes in directly from the airport, and I give him a mic. So then he speaks, and he speaks about how he loves Italy, and he loves in particular two things, ducati, fine. And Verreta, the rifle. But it which is very it departs very radically from Tom Matthews who I call the yoga man, and he hates me because he does meditation. Twice a day in the morning and in the in the evening. So Seriously? Yeah. So, yeah. And I had unveiled that in another press conference, which he wanted to kill me for. So now So he, I think, you know, has come to Italian wine world in a very intense way during offer wine and the days following the next week. So I'm glad he came. I think it was great so that he was able to be introduced to the Italian wine producers, the community. And, I think Thomas doing a bit of the hand holding and introducing him to other producers somewhere. And so, of course, he hangs out. He hung out at a lot, at our office. So glad you made that spark and love connect. I'm sure you will remember me now. Yeah. The the woman who invited him to chill. Chill Jeff. Okay. So let's go on, to the Vinitly. Oh, no. You know what? Excuse me, Richard. You are silent. Yes. But what did you do? What was your role at Vineet to International Academy? Yep, mainly, translating for Shane. So we needed the the master class at the beginning Okay. And apart from that, we we had a little brick stand at the at the back of the auditorium when we were selling our bricks and Okay. But tell us what you did with, Chansa. What was the thing? And so I thought this and joy, is that going out on the podcast? Not the one from Via. The Why not? No one recorded it? Well, it would have been recorded by, Andrea, but I don't think I don't know. We we have, the master class I don't know what was called, the seminars that happened on the tenth and the eleventh. Right. That was during Vinitzilay. That I'm putting out starting this coming, week. This would, you know, the the one that, for Vineitzil International Academy, if you can recoup that, I would love a replay on the podcast because then they can go on the Italian wine essentials as, you know, especially for a course material. Alright. So tell us what was the what was the topic? For this one was the invisible lines of the via Francigina. And it was basically a a program journey along the ancient programs route to exploring the geology, the soil, the climb, the history. Yeah. The usual d k. Very, very d k. And to be honest, I was somewhat out of my depth, I think, on a lot. You are struggling? I was struggling with some of the Welcome to the club. Nobody understands things. I don't have a linguistic point of view. It it was a challenge. But everyone seemed to love it. I mean, all the participants, all the, students, they kept kept came up to me and said, we loved Chances, session. Oh, well, that's that's really fun to hear that. Yeah. So Even I I spoke to one or two people afterwards and I I got that. Impression as well. Yes. So Credit to to Shenza, he delivers complex material, but I'm a compelling way. Yeah. So, listen, can you just explain to our audience what fund she's gonna Yeah. It's it's basically, a program's route that goes from Canterbury in England to, Rome. And this would have been a a route that, the ancient programs would have followed to seek forgiveness for their sins. And along the way, it's incredible really how I, as Shenza explained, some of the the most important and historical centers for wine production in Europe have emerged. So the focus of this one, this session really was those those, wine producing regions in Italy that have established along the routes of their own monasteries, along the way. Okay. Great. So by the way, some of this stuff will be, integrated into the new addition of Italian one unplugged Is that correct? Cynthia said you're coordinating this. So tell us where we are and when are we expecting to have the new edition because the first edition was very, very extremely heavy, and it was two thousand seventeen. So after fast forward five years, and we are now finally ready to release a revised version. Tell us a little bit about that. Sure. Italian wines Unplugged two point o is is getting ready. Yakapo and I have been working on that. We've asked our Italian wine Ambassador community to help us with rewrites of the must know grapes, and that material has all arrived pretty much now. So we're compiling that. We're taking material from Chienza and from previous books that he's written like, Sanjay and Lambrusco and, native wines. And putting together some of the history, putting together some of the soil, which have become important components in our via course. So those will be integrated into the two point o edition of the book. Reorganizing the structure of the book, so it follows the course a bit more, taking some advice and suggestions from Henry and Sarah because this is the book that they need to, use for the students. So, yeah, it should be ready. To be looked at and checked over for corrections, towards the middle of June, middle end of June. So we hope to have two point o out before the end of twenty twenty two. Yeah. Absolutely. Not hope. Yeah. We have to because we've been told by Stevie that we have to. Thank you very much for that clarification. So it will. I just yeah. Because we have to make sure that was the mess Yes. From the record narrative. Yes. Exactly. Yacapo and I wanna keep our jobs. So two point o will be out in twenty twenty two. Excellent. Love it. I love the enthusiasm. Okay. No. I just wanna give a shout out all to the viet community because I know you were saying thirty members, from the viet community have contributed to the revision of the grape entries. Right? Yeah. And you know who you are. I'm very grateful. They worked fast and they work to a template. So all of the entries will be much more, streamlined and and identical getting the same sort of information as well as benchmark producers. Okay. Very good. So moving right on to, Phoenix Lane, which happened. It started on the first at the no, I'm sorry, the tenth of, April for four days, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. So, I mean, of course, so much has happened, eighty eight thousand attendees. It seems a lot and little at the same time because, the past edition in the peak, it went up to even one hundred and fifty. The last edition, I believe, was more like nine ten one twenty. So eighty eight seems like a lot, but in a way much more measured in terms of attendees. This of course has to do with COVID. There is a war going on. There are a lot of nasty things going on. And I was holding my breath. I didn't do my COVID test until it was over. Luckily. I was afraid it was going to be a super spread event, and then I I and then the government was going come with their soldiers and shut down the minutely. I was just really, really scared shit. But finally, we have overcome those four days, and we have come to a close on the thirteenth of April. Who wants to talk about a little bit about what the highlights of Vinitally? So there, financially, there are events. Right? There are tasting events. There are some conferences. In addition to, of course, all of these b to b meetings that are, organized both by the Nixley, each at, which, is now called Italian trade agency. So there's a, big influx of incoming attendees, trade professionals. And of course, B2B meetings organized directly by the producers themselves, which were about four thousand this year. So let's start with, like, some of the wine tasting that we were directly involved or the master classes. So, Richard, you had two classes with, Shang. What were they? Tell us a little. Give give us a Yeah. Quick overview. The first one, was entitled to science and prejudice, and that was on this theme of diversity and fake science and racism. One of one of James's most topical, areas of of argument at the moment. So that that was that was the first one was the underlying message that whether it's why, you know, people, there's no area, or area b as, Shenza likes to say. And Navisia, and our, and our auditorium, and it was it was played by the ten week, and I'm sure I think live streamed as well. So And we will or we're going to replay it off on the podcast? Yeah. The other one was on the origins and structure of the Italian classification system. So looking at DOCs and DOCGs. Of course, being Shenza, I went back to get ancient Greeks and Romans, but brought us right up to date with the great studio regulations, structure of the the national committee that, legislates on these things, and then concluded with some of the the big issues facing the the industry at the moment. Things like climate change and sustainability. Electronic labeling and genetic engineering. So quite a mixture here from Shenza, the the the breadth and the depth and the scope of what he has to say was really, quite incredible to to witness and to try to translate. Yeah. So the first day, it is also based on a book that you're translating currently. Yeah. So let's which and we have also a series of podcasts. Is that correct, Joy? Yep. I how is that organized? That has been coming out. There are ten, actually. There are ten chapters that he recorded. The first episode went out last week, and it's chapters one, two, and three. Sorry. The week before last. Nope. Last week, and this week, chapter four, next week, chapter five, it'll go up to chapter ten. I've I wanted to sort of start it off with a bang. You know, first three chapters all in one go. And, and then we're just gonna they're really short, which is great because there's, like, a lot of information. In each one. And, of course, Richard's fantastic soothing Glasgow accents just makes it all the better. Yeah. We do this book ratings, basically. It's a book. It's a narration. Yeah. For those who don't want to pay for a book. And not support the publishing industry. So all of you are talking to you, you can at least listen free free content on Italian wine broadcast. Okay. Then there were some other tasting, the first day, of course, there were the iconic woman in one. Cynthia, why didn't you talk about that? What was what was that? Why was it? Why was it called the iconic woman? So iconic women in Italian wine was, for me, one of the most exciting and sort of super cool events during being Italy because nothing like this had ever happened before. It was Stevie's brainchild. So it was Alison Matthews from wine spectator and Monica Larner from Robert Parker's wine advocate, and they are two of the top journalists in the world, and, of course, they're both women. Not ever before have those two magazines collaborated on anything. And as Monica said, she felt very smug that her male colleagues would never have pooled their resources to do an event like this, So Monica and Allison, moderated a discussion with seven of the top female, wine producers from Italy. So we had Marlisa Allegrini, Kiara Baskis, We had Albera Antinori, Ellen Fucci, Elizabeth Duordoherty, Ariana Okey Pinty, and they all brought signature wines from vintages that meant something important to them. Dates that were special years that were special, and they discussed how women communicate differently. And, you know, let's not put too fine point on it, but actually better, about wine and and the heritage and and sort of the soulfulness of Italian wine. And they all talked about what they were doing, what was happening in their winery. Some of them are are passing their winery onto their next generation. Some of them are the next generation who just had their winery passed on to them. So very, very interesting. We also had, Priscilla in Chis de La roqueta was there talking about Sashi Kaya. So we had we had a great time sort of going over what women contribute, and it was it was very relevant. Monica had tested positive for COVID the day before and was quarantining in her hotel in in verona. So we zoomed her in because we've all become that flexible and agile and able to pivot and we held the event just as as we had hoped to with a full audience. There were about, I'd say, eighty five people in the room, tasting through these incredible wines and listening to these women banter with each other. It was really exceptional to to see them, you know, talking informally and really from their heart, and having Alison and Monica there to to sort of corral them and and moderate the stories. Yes. So, I mean, I still need a bit of time to process what actually happened, because for me, they're they are my heroes, they're my rock stars personally. And the fact that we were able to pull this up, it's for me, it's a personal milestone. So I I don't really have an opinion about this. Right now, probably only some time or time. I do have a I ever want to thank each each and every one of them. They all got on board, and it and it was they don't need to not just their wines. And their time, but their stories. So it was not so much about, of course, they poured iconic, vintage wines, but it was much more about the stories. And I love the fact that there was absolutely no no mansplaining involved. It was not about that. It was about them and the stories and the wine. So If you want to catch that, all of this, both the Shamsa and iconic woman, we will be replaying it on the Italian wine podcast, but you can also find it on, Vinitly plus form platform. It is available on demand. Yes, Joy. Hello. No. It starts tomorrow. I would start tomorrow. Okay. No. Can you Alright. I would just add that soon. The token mail voice in this conversation? Yeah. You are the token male. The tokenistic male, and I agree a hundred percent with everything you said about the the iconic women session, especially in relation to the superiority of women and communication, but in every department as well, I would Okay. You can get your job. Good job, Richard. Thank you. Okay. So, so those sessions will be coming out soon. So if you are driving and you don't want to search the net for these these events. You can always listen to what, the discussion was all about. Again, you know, it was the first time ever that something like this happened. In wine history. So I hope you guys get a chance to at least to listen in, and we are grateful to be able to replay in collaboration within Italy. Okay. And then what else? Yes, Joy. You are the podcast producer. I'm just, you know, coming in to Well, you you you are doing a good job. I just wanted to say there was also, Joe Bastianich and his his music festival. Yeah. He's yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Tell us about that. I'm okay. No. That was cool. Yeah. I'm a fan. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah, like, first year, you took a photo with him. Right? No. You've never introduced me. He's here, like, every year, I've been hoping that you introduce me. Why didn't you tell me? I thought you'd known him already. I've never met the man. Why don't you please see? I got stabbed with him. Oh my gosh. Even with your husband, I'll be. For my kids, my kids, my kids love him. They watch him on, It's got talent. What is that? It's like the talent or I don't watch television. No. I don't I don't have my kids too. My kids absolutely love it. So when we had the, I I had the joys in the office, they said, daddy, you need to for doing with you all. Oh my god. And I so I did That's hilarious. He was he was a vet. I don't know, unavailable? No. He was available, but Like, who the fuck are you? He didn't find the idea of having a selfie with me. Oh, yeah. I don't know why. Yeah. I don't know either. So Jose Raula was there at at Joe's music bash in our office, and I was so much more interested in talking to Jose Raula. She's like my hero. So I'm like, yeah, Joe. Music was pretty good. And then her music was alright. Yes. He has a good band. His there was somebody. I couldn't see the guy's face, but there was, like, the guy with the beard in the middle of that. I think this is definitely a better fit for him. Yeah. Because I heard because he had other bands before it then. I heard him mention Marano wine festival a couple remember? Yeah. It was that. Well, I wouldn't describe it as that. Joe, I hope you're not I still love you, but, you know, that was just not. No. I I didn't. I didn't. I think it was probably, not the best sound. Yeah. And it was at, like, night. It was gonna attend. Yes. Right? Exactly. Yes. Anyways, I think definitely this I actually enjoyed it. I was just upstairs in my office listening to it. I wanted to put on headphones, but not then I was like, oh, no. I can actually listen to this. He got it right up, actually, at Spectator. So Yeah. I think he did the conference. He did. He did that in Atlanta City, which he has been doing for some time now. So, we should get him back and have live music in the office every now and then? No. I agree. He's not going to do live music, just for the office. I'm you guys, there there's YouTube, you know, just go on YouTube. I really want to mark to interview his mom. Lydia. Lydia. Yeah. Let's make that happen. Okay. Let's name Lydia. Yes. Okay. Okay. Can we get back to minutes late wrap up? Yeah. Okay. And then what else, happened in terms of tape? Super Tuskins. Yeah. That's Supertuscan's with, good idea. I actually posted the photo with all the he seems so fierce with, like, you know, all those, like, super tuscan bottles. He had crazy eyes on that photo. Yeah. You look possessed. It's the real gallegore because he seems like such a sweet nice guy. Kinda reminds me of, like, he's probably a psychokiller. No. He reminds me. Do you remember in the eighties? They had those, like, little trolls with, like, with, like, those great hair. Remember for kids? Yes. Yes. He kinda reminds me of a sweet, middle toy from the eighties. Except he's, like, six foot two. I hope he doesn't hold that against me. But seriously, it's, like, it's I used to collect them when I was a kid, and It was pretty impressive, mine. It was four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, incredibly, old vintages. For this new consortium. So, yeah, he looks possessed. I actually, I I grabbed it yesterday. People seem to love it. He seems to be crazing that. Okay. So then that happened. What else happened? Well, we got we had some networking moments with the via community and, and just bunch a bunch of tastings. So we're going to be I mean, we are going to be replaying some of this stuff. And we had what? Oh my god. Yes. One more thing happened. Sorry. I had the, Vazero wine Oh, yes. Wait. Vazero. Vazero. How can you forget that? You complete I didn't forget that? Yes. Okay. I think we wanted a soft lunch. I'm I'm hanging on soft lunch. No. Maisro wine merchant, which is a portfolio from Gallo, and they came to our office and presented their top seven producers, which was Arjano Rathy from Piamonte, Piro Pan from Swave, tornatorre from Sicilia, Allegrini, also from Veneto, Broncaya, from Tuscany, and Yerman is also in their portfolio, but they were not present at the at the launch. So we had a great tasting of, some vintages from that portfolio that were important to them, tasting sort of their their signature wines as well. And we had Christina Kelly from X X Gallo VP as well as John Erwin and, Our Italian wine Ambassador. Yeah. Our Italian wine Ambassador who is working with him on the launch. And Giovanni from Gallow, who is their global sales rep and and sales director, doing the launch. So fantastic new portfolio, fantastic new new range and and a new delivery method for for the storytelling, the heritage and innovation of those seven producers. So we actually had two additional, tastings, to welcome the judges, the first night, we had Verda, with all the orange ones. They even opened, like, a real I can't remember nineteen sixty, poor. I I were you there? I was there. It was older. It was nineteen fifty two, I think. I have a picture. Anyway, so we have that casing for the judges of our star lines. Then, of course, the tradition as we we've been doing this for the past ten years or so. And, Vottega Delino, the the, Amerona, historic family, historic family. They hosted in Wottega because, of course, they are the actual owners of Wottega, Arvino, the the the mecca the the place, which represents also been Italy in a way. Which was a great event because I have never been able to walk through Bodega Delvino in that sort of fashion. They closed the place down just for that event. And really graciously offered all their wines and you could talk to the producers and and actually see the place itself. It was a very, very, important opportunity to be able to be there. Yeah. And we had the producers for and explain and get in touch with also the Arvilla, candidates. So that was that was one of the highlights as well. So Viasodans loved that. Yeah. They all moved. And we thank the, the family, the historic family of Amarona for that. As well of their generosity. So that is it. That is a wrap for now. We just thought that it would be nice for those who weren't able to attend. This was, of course, a very particular year, for all of us up because of COVID and because of the war. But VINitally did forge ahead. There are a lot of interesting content that you can access for free, both on VINitally plus platform, as well as Italian Mind Podcast in the audio format. So that's it. Signing off now. That's a wrap. So hope hopefully you guys can make it next time. All everything, all information, we're going to try to resume our normal lives now. Getting back to all of the post production, which there are lots of. I'm actually posting some photos every day. Yes, Joy. Living said. Yeah. Just before we go, don't forget to mention that, because, of course, post production includes videos because Mama jumbo shrimp, our sister channel on YouTube. What are you releasing this weekend? Tomorrow will out today. We are releasing a teaser to, the the it's called the Italy tea teaser. Oh, with Dino Bald. Yeah. Exactly. Dino. Be careful. Yes. That's going out tonight. And And what about the cat's cat's video with Steve Boy where he's not I'm not listening to him. I I promise to schedule well, first of all, Dina Bory's interview will be tomorrow on Saturday, Saturday, six PM. I have decided blanket six PM is the golden hour that I will release all videos on the momo jumbo shrimp channel on a Friday or a Saturday or both. But, yeah, next next week, I will I will, I will release that, very hilarious video of you and, Steve. At Kat's Delhi in New York, that is one not to miss everybody who's listening that video is absolutely great. Awesome. Yeah. Sorry. Good to hear. Alright. So, so looking forward to seeing you here or there, we will be launching Vitichoke International Academy, in London. I believe in Germany. We're trying to figure out. We're trying to recoup Hong Kong. There's still a lockdown as well as China. Also, stateside will still be doing something as well. So look out for that. We are still doing the ambassadors corner on clubhouse every Thursday, which gets replayed. Huge, huge, listens. On the and congratulations to all the Italian ambassadors for that. Mama jumbo ship, we are going to now resume our publishing of the, of the the videos. So to we'll do a little bit of catch up on that. We have two new books coming out. Italian one unplug, which will it's the revision two point o, but it's actually a new book. You know, why it's not just a revision. We have many, many contribution from the community. We have Vine and Prejudice, which Richard is, editing at the moment, and that will be coming out, at the same time before the summer. Before the summer. Absolutely. Before the summer. You were talking about end of the year, but before the summer, it will be out both of these things in one way or another. Otherwise, nobody goes on holiday. So That is for it for now. A lot of exciting things happen. We're working on a few special projects as well. But, you know, so stay tuned. Keep in touch. And if you want to get in touch with the Via community, But Cynthia and Yacupa, that's Via at just do the work dot it for Italian wine podcast. It's info at Italian wine podcast dot com. And then what do you do, Richard? Nothing. I think that's it. Don't get into it. We are absolutely yeah. We are absolutely all over. You guys do me a favor. Go on Spotify and, follow us because we got the listed and we had to mentioned. Yes. We need more yet because we have to start all over again. So, anyways, we still love you. Thank you for supporting us. And we will see you next on. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Italian wine podcast, brought to you by Vinitally 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 This is a labor of love and we are committed to bringing you free content every day. 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