Ep. 310 Vitaliano Tirrito (Bellavista)

Italian wine podcast. Chincin with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast. My name is Monte Gordon. My guest today is vitaliano Tirito Oterito of the Belavista winery, which is synonymous with sparkling wine. And he's export director. How are you? Oh, good. Thank you. I mean, it's, I feel a little bit static these days, but it's okay. Your your career career wise, you haven't been very static. You work for all the great names in Italy. You work for the Matze family, Fanta Rutli, which is like, like, the birthplace of, Canticlasko. Birth tiny domains as export manager. Correct. And now, Bella Vista. So you just had a bottle of wine in your hand. What have you got? What's inside the bottle? Well, the the wine we're will show show showcase in today, it's a a Rosay, two thousand and fifteen Rosay, Belarista. So it's it's a wine made, mostly, with with chardonnay, a little bit more than pinot noir. Let's say, sixty, sixty chardonnay, forty percent pinot noir. Okay. And is it a so is it a rosato or rosé or is it a white one? A white sparkle? A rosé. It's a sparkling. Yeah. Okay. What do you when you're outselling this, some people ask you, like, you're going to restaurants or even night clubs, I guess. And someone asks about a a good food and wine match. What would you suggest? Oh, with a Rosier is quite a flexible, wine if we have to say. So, For sure, the the first thing you think about, it's it's fish, different kind of fish, good fish, or, but you can use as well some, very good, juicy fish. So, or atalla Broominsale, for example, is, is a very good is a very good dish to match with. Or salmon, for sure, definitely. It's a must. So how is in terms of the market for sparkling wine, in Italy, how is that, how is that developing? And how is it the difference between the Italian market, domestic market, and foreign markets exporting market. Well, you know, we're we're talking we're talking about French a quarter that's, is definitely a niche market compared to all the rest of the Francacorta sorry, of the sparkling big names. So, it's very much focused on domestic sales. So the eighty five percent of the production of Francacorta stays in the domestic market within the within within Italian borders. The rest of fifteen percent, it spread, all around the world. We export in seventy five countries. At the same time, some of those seventy five are very, very small markets. So, Japan, if you take out Japan, as Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and United States, the rest is is really bread crumbs. Okay. It's really Vasille. Yeah. Vasille is important to to be present for sure. Okay. And in terms of demographics, who is who is drinking, friendship court, the sparkling wine abroad, is it Is it is it night clubbers? Is it, business people, families? For sure, we have to we have to think that, most of the time about all of French Belarista can can cost, if not the same, for sure, a little bit above a champagne. I'm not talking, big names, but if you take, for example, We are usually twenty, thirty percent a little bit below those names. But, of many Maison from upper of Champagne, we can position ourselves a little bit a little bit above So this means, it's not very young oriented, as a as a drink. You have to you need to have a, a good, purchasing power to drink, from Chagota. So I would say if we talk about demographic, it's, thirty five, forty years old, above. Okay. But how do you add value to the product? Obviously, you you're you're targeting you know, people who've we've got a solid career that you said they can afford to Well, the the, you know, the the people, the the people that can that can handle, to drink a French a quarter are at the same time, the client of specific places in town. So the very important thing for us to do is a proper segmentation in terms of restaurant. So once we can, you know, highlight where are the the fancy places, the high end restaurant, then we we need to have the right guys to go there and that's it. So, it's more it's more about having having the right importer and being together in the in the right portfolios when it comes to you know, offering, a different kind of wines. So it's very important that Bella Vista in the portfolio is together with, Monteva Tina or together with, Donna Fogata, you know, just to create the right synergy among the the important portfolio, the or the distributor portfolio. Yeah. So it's very strategic, isn't it how you how you operate? Yeah. I mean, we it's really talk it's it's really a matter of positioning. So, we don't have a lot of bottles. All the bottles, especially, especially, the vintage wine, like this Rosay, we work on a location. So each market has got this, precise quantity. And that's it for for the whole year. I mean, maybe for two thousand and twenty, we we're gonna have a little bit more flexibility, but but, usually, we work on a location. So we really need to be sure that every bottle is gonna do his homework. Know, at the end of the day. It's interesting you talk about that. We when we could talk about, sort of iconic, brands, if you'd like, obviously, people, a lot of people would just think immediately of, for example, Brunoo Rino, and, which is a leader, obviously, for Ritzley, but Franca Porter is is right up there with, with, brunello. And, also, you know, do you do comparative tastings with, mister Manuel, things to do comparative tastings with furniture quarter against the champagne or would you just want to focus on furniture quarter? Well, it it depends. It depends on the on the audience, to be honest. Sometimes it's interesting to do, comparison with Champagne. Because for sure, if we think about Champagne, there is this this IS CDD, this fantastic minerality, but then as well, we enjoy a very nice maturation So the the phenolic moderation is there. For us, it's all about primary perfumes, and a little bit on the secondary side. Champagne, it's a lot of tertiary as well. So the it's really different. So it's important. It's important to to to show the difference in between Franca Corta and Champagne. That's one direction. The other thing that we do, to play a little bit more on the Italian ground and to show the the possibility of the Italian sparkling wine, we compare our French a quarter, you know, with the Altaanga Trento doc, Altrepobese. So we do this quite often. And we think it's it's very interesting, especially for the people abroad to to to get, you know, all the different nuances of the of the Italian Metro de Chorusico in a way. So yeah. So they almost become your ambassadors, I guess, don't they? When they when they see these differences. Yeah. Yeah. You, you created following. Yeah. I mean, what what we are experiencing around the world, it's, it's very difficult to get, share of mind You know, it's like it's very different to really, stack into, the possibility of each client, to even consider to buy a bottle from Chacorta instead of Champagne. But once once we do that, once we manage to do that and once the people try from Chacorta, until now, I didn't met anyone that said, I don't like it. You know, the the drink is not pleasant. I'm not enjoying drinking a French award. It's not possible because it's really a pleasant drink straightforward. It's really an Italian style drinking. So it's a it's a that the the until you reach the client is a very difficult road. Once the client takes the wine, we are okay. I mean, we are fine because we know there's gonna be, a second purchase after. Yeah. Final question with, with climate change, temperature's getting a little bit warmer. How how will that affect, the furniture quarter wine style? Will it make it even more juicy? You talk about this fruitiness and juiciness? Well, that could be for sure the effect. Yeah. That's true. We have to think about how to train how to train the vineyards properly properly. So, it's very important to work a lot in the vineyards. Maybe we will have to to anticipate a little bit the harvest, as it's happening at the end of the day in the last five, six years. Yeah, but it it might be that that we need to I mean, that we are going on the on the more juicy side. Yep. Yeah. So you're saying becoming more ripeness, let's say. So with with so you're saying with, picking a little bit earlier, maybe for to maintain that wonderful acidity. Yes. And a little bit more leaf cover so that the grapes don't ripen or over o overall. Correct. Yeah. Okay. I just wanna say thanks very much vitaliano. Thanks very much for telling us a little bit about, Vancha Corta. No problem. My pleasure. Call your all your travels and, wish you a long and happy career at Bella Vista. And, every success to you and to your company and, and fingers crossed for the future. Thank you very much. All the best for you as well. Thank you very much. Yeah. I've got a great I love your CV though. It's like Ronaldo. All he's like he's like he's played for me started off at Real Madrid. That it's not that they look cool. And he played for, Mauricio Dortman or something. Now he's at Yubei or, orienta. Oh, you know, I don't know. There's not really, my my age. Another guy, but but I have I have a soccer player that I like a lot that it's exactly my age that it's Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Oh, yeah. Oh, so so we I've I've been doing what is what he did as well. So jumping from, you know, among good companies. Yeah. Yeah. He's had a successful career and he's coming to the end of his, but you seem like you're still very much in the middle of yours and, very productive time for you to know. Wish you every success. Thanks a lot. Thanks indeed. Thanks for coming in. Ciao. Ciao. Ciao. Ciao. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud Apple Podcasts HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment and publication costs. Until next time.