Ep. 1359 Emilia Chunju | The Next Generation

By now, you've all heard of Italian wine Unplugged two point o. The latest book published by Mamma jumbo shrimp. It's more than just another wine book. Fully updated second edition was inspired by students of the Vin Italy International Academy and painstakingly reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from across the globe. The book also includes an addition by professor Atilio Shenza. Italy's leading vine geneticist. The benchmark producers feature is a particularly important aspect of this revised edition. The selection makes it easier for our readers to get their hands on a bottle of wine that truly represents a particular grape or region to pick up a copy, just head to Amazon dot com, or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to the next generation. I'm Victoria Chacha, join me as we chat with young Italian wine people shaking up the wine scene. We're going to geek out on a grape or grape fam and then hear about all the wild wine things are destined up to. From vineyard experiments to their favorite wine bars. Hello to wherever you are in in the world. Welcome to another installment of the next generation. So we are still in the Van Italy craziness doing some wonderful interviews. All the wonderful noise chaos around. It's great time to be alive in Vadona. So I'm so excited today because we're gonna dive more into the Greco group, and then we're gonna bring on a very lovely guest. Actually, if she's from Taiwan, but she used to live in Italy, which is super, super cool. Excited to have her. But before that, we, like I said, we're gonna do a little Greco dance. So Greco, as you hopefully remember, but I will give you the opportunity now to go back to the previous podcast if you haven't listened to it and learn about Greco group. It's a little confusing. I hope I did an okay job. If I did a terrible job, well, I'm gonna reexplain a little bit now because you kinda have to. So today, I'm going to talk about Greco the grape. So as we recall from the last episode, The graco group has a few different grapes in it, all with the word graco. And there is one that is just graco, which we're gonna talk about today. But then there's graco Bianco. And then there's different grapes that aren't part of the group but have a formula of the name because it was a brand. Right? Remember, like, at a time, it was fashionable to name something Greco, whether it came for Greece or not. And so, you know, Moving back to Greco, the great loan Greco on some vodka boat. We see that the easiest Greco to remember is without color or town or origin, Jessica Greco, responsible for one of Italy's great wines. And you know what that is? Greco Ditufo. Sorry. A tour. Greco is the name of the grape variety, and then Greco Ditufo is the name of the denomination in Compania that produces wine using the Greco variety. So there are also many different varieties named Greco Bianco and Calabria and Most of these are unrelated. Again, group, not family, group, group, group, they're not related. Got it. Cool. So like I said, the associated doc through GOCGs you need to know is mostly of all Greco Ditup folk. EOCG. There are some plantings in Tuscany and Apulia, but nothing like huge. You may find it when you do. You go, Hey, that's Greco. Solo. Got it? So In the vineyard, Greco is a late ripening grape, has low vigor and productivity, and it's sensitive to disease. So it's really important to make site selection for the healthiest grapes. So if you're hedging towards Viticulture, know that. Greco is a little pain in the butt. But makes great wine when you treat it right to find the right site. In the glass, Greco is a truly great Italian wine. Shows depth and impressive structure. Common threads running through all Greco wines include a deep lemon hue heading towards golden, high alcohol, rich palette, oily mouth feel, and marked acidity. And their aromas can go between flowers, peaches, and honey. Oh, sounds wonderful right now. We're in, like, spring some. Oh. So, and then the lines drink well young. Yet have potential to age. And when it comes to specific styles, dependent upon sight, Greco produces many styles of wine and twofold on the higher steeper sites, wines can show elegant and mineral focus elements. And Montefusco at lower elevations, wine, demonstrate more structure and weight. That makes complete sense, of course. And that is what you need to know about Craco, the great, not the group. Now Amelia is in the studio. Let's welcome Amelia. Welcome, Amelia. How are you? Hi. Bye. I'm good. Okay. Victoria. Yes, Victoria. With the cheese, with the c Okay. Not two ts. Okay. Nice to meet you. Oh, nice to meet you too. So we're on a little trend here. We're talking some people post via exam post the Vinitzley Academy exam, which is a very intense. Yes. And so I see you're still coming down. I have my brand all blank. I I don't know what's the exam. You don't need to think about it. Yes. It's done with submitted. You know, I'm gonna save you the pain of having to reflect on the emotions you're experiencing blank page. I need a prosecco. Oh, yes. You will be getting lots of bubbles very shortly. So where are you traveling from? I come from Taiwan. Oh, really. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. I get really excited, and I probably said this on the podcast before. But my good family friend, she's like an auntie to me. She's Taiwan. Oh, okay. Yes. So I grew up and she'd always, like, teach me things like, because we meet together. So I always get really excited. Have you ever been Taiwan? No. I'm gonna go. Okay. Yeah. You're welcome. We're come to Taiwan. Oh, that's one trip I have to do. Yeah. Yes. Quite longer. But the best, like, the food I mean, I've never been there, but from what I know and have eaten back home in New York and New Jersey. Yes. It's just fantastic. Like, this free food and the Also in Taiwan, you can find all the Chinese food. Mhmm. But you don't have to travel a lot. So you can find in Taipei in a small town and can find all you want to eat. It's just a dream. It's They are all divisions. I'm just I I love and also a fun fact that a lot of people don't know despite its popularity is Boba like bubble tea. Bumblebee. Is Taiwan. Yes. Taiwanese. I know. Nobody know like, not nobody. A lot of people don't know that because it's so popular. Yes. They, like, you know, you forget the roots. Yeah. And I'm always like, it's Taiwan. Boblete. Yes. I love bubble tea. I don't drink it as much as when I was little, like not that little, but yeah. Now, I don't know. There must be bubble tea in Vadona. I haven't looked for it. There probably is. Do you like bubble tea? Oh, when I was young. Yeah. It's it's it's it's it's a weird it depends on the flavor too. Yeah. I used to like this one that was like a green tea yogurt bubble tea. Wow. Yeah. This one place made it by my high school when I was young. Yeah. A teen. And I I would walk there. It was so good. Cool. Well, so how did you begin? Yeah. Get into Italian wine. Okay. That's what that will be a long story, but I'm sure that. I come to Italy almost almost twenty years ago. Yeah. So I I used to live live in Italy for more than almost ten years. Wow. So I was studying here and I work in Milano for many years. And from then, I I eat a lot of Italian food drink a lot of Italian wine. I think my first wine in my life is is in Italy. So, but after ten years, I go back to Taiwan, and then suddenly I don't have more Italian wine. So I missed it. I I missed a lot Italian wine Italian food. And then I start to find in Taiwan where are the white people in Taiwan and I start to to go to the course with diversity and some testing dinner. And then I do also some how to say the translation for Italian and Chinese. And by that, I I used to work with ita. Mhmm. Okay. When they invite some Italian, my maker or the wine winery owner come to Taiwan, I do translation for them. Oh, so far, man, I heard a lot of Italian white story, and then I think, wow, that's a very interesting word. And I so miss Italy. So from them, I start to learn about more Italian wine. That's it. That's fantastic. Yeah. So most I think ten years ago, I started to study Italian wine and I come back very very often before before COVID, I come to Italy very often. Maybe the highest rate is seven times per year. Wow. Just go to visit widely, we need to leave other my testing to learn more italian wine. So it's like you never left Italy. I think only the three years in COVID times, three years. I I didn't come to oh my gosh. I cannot come back to Italy. So so that I'm so exciting this time to Valona. It's after three years I come back. So Were you stocked up on enough Italian wine for three years? Yeah. Did you have enough Italian wine in Taiwan? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I I stopped my my company for import Italian wine from eight years ago. So I have a own company. I import almost more than hundred articles Italian wine. Wow. Yeah. From all over Italy. Yeah, the majority. That's amazing. And, oh, hell, that got you through co good thing you had your business because if you didn't have I mean, I know we had delays with shipping, of course. You don't need to talk about that nightmare in COVID. But you had access to Italian wine. Yeah. At least you have that. Yeah. Yeah. And, in these three years, I we do a lot of things also in Taiwan, to promote Italian wine. In in that three years, I see also Italian wine in Taiwan market has increased a lot. Really? Very. Yeah. Really? And and is that mostly, you see restaurants serving it more? Or Yeah. And people know know a little bit more in Italian wine. And I, when we do the my testing, my dinner, the customer, they, they like how how I, talk to them, the Italian white stories, they they like to dissamine. Oh, that's and how do you see do you find that, young people in Taiwan or drinking wine, or is it a little harder It's still very few, but I think it's now it's a trendy to to go to introduce the young people to to limo wine, not just Italian wine. I think this will be the next step for my business. We want to do more wine education. I think I will focus also in Italian wine. For more, dharma education in Taiwan Market for young people. Yeah. That's my next step for my business. 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 food, and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. It's it's I mean, it's a really important, especially because I don't know about in Taiwan, but in America, in the in in the world, we see that a lot of people are drinking less wine from people, which is sometimes we don't realize it because we're in communities of wine drinkers. Yeah. So we're like, people are drinking less wine. You're like, all my friends would wine. But you you forget there's like a couple extra billion people on this planet. Yeah. Besides your five wine friends. So Going back to food because I love talking about food. Yeah. But do you find that well, is there like an Italian wine and a Taiwanese food pairing that comes to mind for you, or is that kinda tricky? A lot of. There's a lot. A lot of. Yes. Because the wine dinner, I I I don't many, many wine dinner. Most thing I like, not pair Italian wine with Italian cushion. That's that's too easy. So I like to pair Italian wine with all the Taiwan food. Also, seafood. We have a lot of seafood. Also, I would say, hot pot. Oh, yes. Yeah, hot pot. And also a spicy hot pot. Yeah. And I think also the street food, we, we try to combine. I I don't know if you know, the street food fry Campula. Oh, yeah, tempura. Yeah. Yeah. Tampa fried. Well, we tried with pros prosecco. That was very, very good. Oh, yeah. Very good. And also, fried, fried chicken. Mhmm. That is also very Oh, yes. There are many. I think Italian, why why is so gold, how to say increase so so fast in this in this last year? I think it's all in Taiwan. I think it's because also Italian wine is very very well with Taiwan's food. It's that of French wine. It's very difficult. It's quite difficult to to pair with street food or you have all seafood. It's it's it's too difficult. But in Taiwan, we we eat a lot. Every day, we eat seafood, the street food, or all the all the Chinese food. Very few people, they can eat everyday Italian food or French food. So I think it's people like Italian wine because it's easier to to pair with what what we eat. And is that because of Italian wine's versatility? Because there's so many different kinds? Yes. Yes. Yes. So we we just learn the course. There are so many kind of wine Italy. If we we know how to choose, we can really find very good quality and good price. Yeah. And Good test. Absolutely. I think even just given like you're talking about like all the fried goodness in in Taiwan street food. Yeah. Yeah. It's like we in Italy have not even just the main, you know, sparkling wine producing zones that we know, you know, we also have other, regions and areas producing sparkling. Right. I mean, we all know, like, a good dry, like, sparkling tastes great with fried food. Yeah. And I think that's such a a good actually, this is such a great way to market Italian wine because who doesn't like fried food? Right? They're just like I can even put fried chicken or, you know, for the vegans out there, fried tofu. Well, which I love. I do love fried tofu. I'm not trying to be mean about that. I actually like friendly one. Yeah. I have stinky, you know, I've never tried the stinky one. Okay. I wanna try it one day. Okay. Yes. I I eat all the weird stuff. I do. Okay. Yeah. Like, so when I come to Taiwan, you can put me through it all. I will eat it all. It's thinking for toefl, we can also try one on why to pay it. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, as we're starting to wrap up our discussion slowly. I have a good this is actually me being a little selfish on this podcast. Yeah. While you were living in Italy, did you find any good places to eat for Taiwan's food or Chinese food, or was it hard? One or two Taiwan is Chinese food. So it it's a little bit different. Taiwan is food and yes. Very different. Yes. So so yeah, there are there there were some, but when I was in in Italy, I ate more Italian food because also in Italy there. Many, many delicious food. So Oh, yes. I'm not I'm not eat a lot of Chinese food when Taiwanese food when when I was email. Absolutely. No. That makes that makes complete sense because it's like something you know. And you also cook at home, you know, a lot of things. Yes. But, yeah, that was just me trying to be like, where can I go eat? I know you're absolutely right. There's a major difference in and, you know, different. Obviously, Italy is different, but, there is a similarity in that, you know, Taiwan being its own sovereignty, its own island has a completely different history and culture. And like, you know, look at somewhere like Sicily. Yeah. You know, it's like Sicily is the same in that respect of the food and and the drinking and the culture and, at least so diverse, you know. And so yeah, a lot of people like to group things together and just and I like, I'm always I'm always trying to educate the best I can too. You know what I mean? It's so important. And I think food and wine is one of the best ways to do that. Yes. Yes. It makes everyone happy. Yes. When y is good friend, they are good friends. They're best friends. Yes. They're best friends. Later I have to take some drink. Oh, yes. No. You have bubbles coming your way. I I I know because I did the via Chorus and I remembered after the pinning ceremony when they started opening bottles and after all that anxiety, you're like, give it to me. But it's also wonderful because everyone's like together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I really enjoyed this this course because I I already done the via course twenty eighteen in Chengdu, and I already certificate, Ambassador. Oh, I just repass again because I know the the course already changed and we we knew a lot of new things. So I would like to to pass again. And I'm very enjoy this this five days. Now I feel a little bit sad that the the the the course is finished because I think in in this course, I, we learn I know a lot of things, and I am in a place. I don't have to worry about my my my company. I just do what what I really love to do. Yeah. I I really love to learn Italian wine and I I liked the census story. That was very fantastic. So I'm very happy in in in this five days. Absolutely. I and I always say I think one of the best things about Via is the community environment and like that not like the education you receive in that environment and you feel really enriched and very excited. And I remember at when we finished the last day of Via. I was so sad it ended. Like, I was like, I can be here for like a month. Can we do camp? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I I know. I feel a little bit sad because the the course is finishing, but I think maybe we can see each other at the time. Absolutely. And you're always welcome, like, I get to come back to the the the jesus Velastikas. Oh, yes. Highly recommend. I ran I was a coordinator on two of the trips. I I once I went to Aetna. Two thousand and nineteen. Oh, awesome. Yeah. That was my last travel in Italy. I mean, that's a beautiful, at least. No. At least that's I was on the Aetna trip this past year. Oh, okay. It's amazing, the Chita Scolasica's, which for anyone listening in, if you are part of the via community, which means you've taken the exam and you passed it or failed it, you don't have to be an ambassador. You can applied to go on the Jita Skolasticas, which are educational trips to various wine regions. They do change every year, but the one to Aetna usually stays the same because of the, which happened some really fun events. I guess, you remember all that good food and the sunshine. So if you're thinking about Via or have done via, I highly suggest. Yes. The Jeep does are the greatest part. Oh, no. One of the greatest parts. Well, thank you so much, Amelia. Okay. I'm so happy. Yes. To talk with you. I'm so happy to talk with you too. And, I'm gonna let you go and enjoy your free time before pinning ceremony. Okay. Oh, thank you very much. Tower one. As always, a big good option for hanging out with me today, remember you can catch me every Sunday on the Italian wine podcast. Available anywhere, you can get your pops.