Ep. 1623 Marzia Varvaglione | The Next Generation

Since two thousand and seventeen, the Italian wine podcast has exploded. Recently hitting six million listens support us by buying a copy of Italian wine unplugged two point o or making a small donation. In return, we'll give you the chance to nominate a guest and even win lunch with Steve Kim and Professor Atilio Shenza. Find out more at Italian One podcast dot com. Welcome to the next generation. I'm Victoria Chache, 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 hear about all the wild wine things we're guessing up to. From vineyard experiments, to their favorite wine bars. And let's dive into it. Today, we have Marcia Varvallione, winery in Pulia. She is the marketing and sales director amongst many other titles because she is a very impressive lady. Good talk, Daria. Nice to talk to you. How are you doing today? Are you in Polia? Yes. I'm doing very great. And I'm in the very onion, very warm. Will you still today? Yes. These temperatures have been insane in Italy. It's, like, we were talking about earlier. We're trapped in the office, but it's a beach day every day. Yes. It's so funny. Well, I'm so glad to be chatting with you today because there's so much to talk about, especially with all the things that you've been up to from becoming the president of a GV, which we will definitely dive into. To being a mom, all these wonderful things. But first, let's just give a little intro to who you are for the folks who don't know you yet. So who are you, Marcia? It's always strange to describe like myself from outside, but I love to start saying that, first of all, I'm a wine lover because, even if I own a company from my family, I started also to study wines after I get my, master's degree in economics, because I fell in love with the wine word, when I was, maybe five years old, or even less, because with my brother and sister, we we have been always, lead the the wine business life. That means, from the harvest time, to the autumn Christmas and all the commercial authorization. We've been always, involved with our parents, and we have so many, remember, good, good, like, remembers about our, childhood. And I am a one businesswoman as well. Because I joined the company, more than ten years ago, officially. I'm the president of Agivi, where Agivi stay for young entrepreneurs that work in the one word. And when I say young, we refer to all the under forty. I would say also one lover because, actually, in our association, You you can, like, belong to our association if you work in wine business in general. And, I'm a mom. My daughter, Karlotta, is, two years and a half. She was born in May, a beautiful mom. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. She's she's my art. She's she's my love. My biggest love, the the the biggest love of my life. And then I'm also a basketball player So I was a basketball player, a professional basketball player when I was younger, but I started to play again basketball, since July, last July, because I don't know, maybe just because I'm crazy. I'm crazy. So I jump in you this this new project of my, own city that basically found again, semi professional team, and they called me. So I couldn't say not. And so here I am. Oh my god. Wow. So you are a marketing sales director. You're a mom. You're a basketball player. You're the president of a G. V. I'd I'm sure I missed a bunch of things that we'll get into later in the interview. But that's amazing. Also, just say my dad would probably just adopt you in five, like, seconds because he always wanted me to be a basketball player, but I chose tennis instead, and he is not over it at all. He He's, like, you're so tall. No. So but that's awesome. Is there a big basketball loving community where you're from in Puyah? And on that note, also where are you from specifically in Puyah? So our company, is based in, Leperano. That's the province of Taranto. It's an amazing place on the beach. So we are from Polian, and it's very easy to identify Pulia in Italy because, it's the hill of the booths of Italy. We are on the west coast because Pulia is a peninsula into the peninsula. So in Pules, the for our company for all our wines is very important, the weather condition, because Pulia, if I I have to describe Pulia, is a sunny, windy, very, very warm region. It's a region that, has been living forever from the city. No. Yeah. Pugia is is gorgeous, and and especially for the international community has become a major vacation hot spot. Yeah. And also wedding hotspot. I know. I haven't seen so many weddings in Puyah in my life. And all the Maseria, it's like but they're beautiful. I'm not. I'm not I would totally do it myself. But, no, it's it's gorgeous. It's a beautiful place to come from. And So do people play basketball there, or was that something that was just a special love of yours? From Toronto, there've been always a very strong culture of basketball since I was very young, but I started doing ballet when it was very, very young. Then when it was eleven, I was the tallest of my class. And, so I watched my parents and said, hey, guys, maybe I'm not like the perfect ballet. A person, why don't we try with basketball? Because at that time, my best friends was playing basketball. So I started, when it was eleven, twelve years old, and then just fell in love with basketball. Wow. Yeah. So cool. And sports are so important, and I feel like that's one of your secrets to balancing all things because one thing sports teaches you is discipline and keeping your head in the game literally. Yeah. Yeah. And then, I think that planning, because a lot of people ask me, how can you do all of these things? But I've I've been doing all these things since I was born. So everything's staying, trying to manage your time, organized and planning everything. So, of course, work is my priority as well as my daughter. But if you try to manage and plan everything, maybe I don't know. I'll let you know in a couple of years. But but maybe, yeah, you you can try to do everything and, it's not only displaying what I can see from my actual team and the oldest, of course. But all the younger that belong to the team, it's a very nice, in Italy. We say, it means they are nice guy, good guys that are growing up because sometimes we hear such as scary, you know, game, scary attitudes. And I think the sports in general keep you away from all the this, distraction because you have to be to to stay focused on your team or your practice and everything. So it's a good also for younger guys. Absolutely. And that's another really important thing that you brought up with is teamwork is, learning how to work with different people and understand what positions people do best at. And, that's a real talent to have because sometimes people and it's natural. Right? We all get caught up in ourselves and things we have to do. But our team is is our strongest, like our community. And on that note, I wanted to bring us back to Baraglione and your community. Could you tell us a bit about the philosophy of Baraglione? Our family has been making wine for more than one hundred years. And, at the very first beginning, my great grandfather, was just working the land for itself, not only grace, but also fruit for self conception, consumption. And, he just started to, you know, like, sell to the friends and stuff. My grandfather instead after the second war started to sell the wines to the navy, and that's how we really, start to develop the business. Then my father was the person who, start to sell the wine abroad, and, my mom start to export, our wines, bottled wines abroad. So the philosophy behind the Vervaliana, our our family is to work constantly on quality. And, sis, I mean, every, everyone can also answer in this way. A hundred percent, maybe ninety percent of the the wine business or family business or where family business in this world where merger and acquisition are to the everyday newspaper. But we try to keep everything very familiar. We love to put our faces in front of, in front of our consumers. I I take care about marketing and sales, but my brother said are also brand ambassadors. So it means to be involved hundred percent, because, our clients are not just clients, but our partner. So we try to establish, long lasting relationship, but with our partners abroad, but also with our, final customer. The philosophy is to be, to pay a lot of attention to the customer needs try to listen very well with the market. It's try to tell you. For instance, we started making a little alcohol wine in twenty twelve. So it was more than ten years ago. Where nobody was talking about local wines. And we came up with a, twelve meds line, where we, basically, we make, indigenous grape variety like Primitivo and negromato that used to be fourteen percentile co op, and we get low to twelve point five percent of alcohol. Why? Because we we got a lot of different requests from the markets that was telling us at Primitivo. High alcohol was very tough to pair with some kind of food. And so, yeah, so listen to the market. It's very important to us, and try to find the right link to communicate with with the final customer. Making the labels and making the wines, certainly kind of wines of verifying that you see and to interact with. Absolutely. And it thank you for sharing your family's story by the way because I didn't know that and it was it it was cool to hear this the part about the navy and, your mom's starting to sell the wine abroad. And and on the point of the low alcohol wine, I'm so happy you brought that up because one time one of my wife friends who is a wine professional, she said to me, one of the things I find so ironic about puglia is how a lot of the wines that come out from puglia are these high alcohol you know, full full bodied wines. And then a lot of the dishes from Pulia, of course, if you go more inland, you definitely can have heavier dishes, but the dishes people recognize Pulia for are, you know, seafood and whatnot. And and, of course, you can find the rosatos and stuff like that. But you think, like, oh, what would I be drinking when the average consumer will, like, that knows about who you would think, Pimentivo and Negro Amaro and Nero D'Troia? And so the fact that you guys started to do low alcohol wines and find an opportunity is is so brilliant, not only because, you know, we see people looking for lower alcohol options, but also because and leading to the food, excuse me. I was at, like, schools. Has become so much more popular recently as it should. But, is there a dish that, like, you love in particular, that you're that come like, that comes from your area. You're you're known that used to make? Yeah. Of course. We have the or the pasta. So or the means smokey or so literally. And, we make with the broccoli grape in, in, fall season or with the tomato sauce or mid tomato sauce every single Sunday. Of our work life. So, yes. I know. I'm really jealous. So I'm still learning to make what I get, because it's a kind of pasta that you have to make home. It's very tough to find the supermarket. So It's also tradition because, it's a way to share your time with your entire family, with your nonna, with your zia, and, yeah, it's a lot of fun. Absolutely. Big, and most people don't know that it's a homemade past but it has no eggs. So the dough is so hard to work. Oh, you know. And and to get the consistency. Right? It's it it really does take all those years to master. It's insane. Wine to wine business forum. Everything you need to get ahead in the world of wine, supersize your business network. Share business ideas with the biggest voices in the industry. Join us in Verona on November thirteen to fourteen twenty twenty three. Tickets available now at point wine dot net. Let me ask you this. Has these lunches that you always have with your family inspired any of your wines? Oh, of course. Yes. Because, you have to find the perfect, one in food pairing, because, all the wine lovers, ninety nine percent of the times are also food lovers, especially in Italy. So, yes, for instance, we have a wine called Papale, and, we have two two version of Papale, a red label that is the perfect one to pair with the pasta. Orchetta and tomato sauce, and then we have Papale gold that is more for the meat that we use to cook the tomato sauce, and we eat after the after the the first course. So, yes, we have the two version, the pasta one, and the meat one of Papala. Oh, I love that. And it's so important because having, you know, different courses is so integral to Italian cuisine, like separating the pasta and the meat, especially in Southern Italy. It's something I grew up with too with my, like, if she made any, like, a pot with any kind of meat or whatnot, we'd have macaroni, and then we'd have the meat after. But we didn't have because I'm I'm I'm not I'm very grateful for my nonna's macaroni, but on a chance that I do understand her on another level. But which part do we tell you? So from southern Latsu, so Yeah. So, like, but, so they're very my family is very much closer to, like, the border of Campania. Mhmm. To not believe in Rome. So the cuisine is interesting there because it's kind of a hybrid, but I'm I'm very proud of it. But going into the wines, I think one of the reasons I always bring up food is because, obviously, I love food. You love food. How can you not, like, you know, But we're seeing now that a lot of younger people are not drinking as much, or they're drinking less, or they're opting away from wine. And I always find that, like, getting people to sit at a table, obviously, to share share food not only to get you to drink, which is very easy to do, of course. But, and but to also share and understand each other perfect opportunity to talk about your role as president of a GV. So with that title, what have you seen so far through the trends of young wine drinkers, Italian wine drinkers. Last year during the wine to wine, we brought a very nice talk that was telling about the gen zed and how genset communicate and how genset drink. And actually, it's very interesting because, the millennials are more, let's say, about, food and wine pairing and love to learn, let's say, discover new grape variety. Instead of gen zed, it's all about experience. So if a wine, it's about experience. So, visit sellers, create the content to post on social media, like Instagram or TikTok or whatever. The gen set is more experienced as well as drinking less less wine, but more alcoholic. So I'm sure that the mixology is using also the wine is going to be very, very popular as well as the low alcohol wine, talking about genzed. Even if, millennials are the next, real consumers, and what I can say about millennials is that millennials are super educated because they really love wine because they come from, a generation like our parents, that made the history of the of the wine board. So we grew up in these traditions, and we try to experiment and discover new regional wines, new geographic area, new production area. We start to drink English the new work wines. So we study a lot about wine, the millennials. I mean, when I say weeds, like millennials. But I think that the gen zed is still to it's still to build. I mean, the gen zed is not even thirty years old. So they're coming up. And one of the, while I rule in these three years of my residence is going to be, also try to get in touch with some kind of, social media association tier, try to share also with younger generation, all our knowledge about wine. And I to I totally agree in in your point of how the difference between Millennials and gen z is how the experiences kind of is amplify. And it's didactic in the sense that it's like their fit, their actual experience, and then that social media experience. Through you as a marketing director, can you share with us any different strategies you've tried to implement to market wine to gen z? Sure. In twenty twenty two, so last year, for Vin Italy. We came up with a video game, to launch our, to celebrate our ten years of the twelve Demazo lines. So the twelve Demazo is the low Alco line and the low Alco brand that was mentioning at the beginning of our interview. So to to launch the ten years celebration, the ten years limited edition, we came up with this video game, divided in three different levels. Where the first level was telling people, how we, work in the vineyards. And if this video game was, the reproductive production in our vineyards, and our dog was, like, walking, and, you can choose to harvest, like, grape, sun, and water, like, rain to get points. And you have to avoid the the ice, some bees, and sound like, poo of the dog itself because they were not good for the vineyard itself. So we tried to tell people what happened in what what happened in the vineyards during the year and what you might need and what you might what you might not need. The second level was about bottling. And the the third level instead was, let's say, guiding from the entrance of Italy to our stand to discover the line. It was a mix between online and offline communication because what we find about Jean's debt, as I said before, is Dick's experience. So I got engagement online, and that's where they live, but, they want to touch the final result. So that's why I didn't publish online. The first time the bottle, but, I present them at my stand in verona because it was also, very tactile, texture on the label itself. So So, yeah, this one was one of the of the example we use. And also every single Christmas, we publish, Christmas edition with different experience on the label. That's awesome. Where can we find this video game? I can send you the link because it was published two years ago, to Vin Italy's ago, but I can send you via mail. It's a link, or on our Instagram. You can still find some demo with Vin Italy twenty twenty two. Oh, that's awesome. That's super cool. No any I I mean, video games. I mean, that's something that's never going to leave. I don't think. I think video games are those that one constant. So that's brilliant. I, and I wanna play this I'm curious. But I wanted to ask you before, we get to the end of our interview. What do you drink, Marcia? Oh, nice question. I love to drink, from abroad because I'm also, as I said before, I'm a wine lover, first of all. So I love to drink, from Savignon, from France, to pinot noir in Burgundy, of course, one of my favorite red wines. But, from my company, I really enjoyed, of course, Primitivo de mondoria. One of my favorite is our reserve. Nineteen twenty one. It's very hard to find, but, the current vintage is a twenty thirteen. So it's a reserve, very elegant. I love elegant wine in general. I don't I don't love two powerful wines because I really need to enjoy the food while I'm drinking the one itself. So I'm for the elegance and the balance. Absolutely. And I find it so funny, and Stevie definitely hates me for always bringing this up. Every time, like, not every time, but a lot of times speaking with, you know, amazing folks in the Italian wine world, they it's always like, well, you know, if I'm not drinking my wine, I'm probably gonna be drinking champagne on Burgundy. And it's But it's it's it's rightfully so because it it's not a contrast. It's not to make a comparison. It's just it's like you're appreciating what you don't have every day. And it's the same as somebody, you know, living in. I don't know. Like, I was in Venatal. So anytime I drink, like, chazainese, even though, yeah, it's all in Italy, but, like, it's from a completely different area. It was, like, so special to me because everywhere else had Valpolicella, you can get tons of wines from other places, more the experience going back to the experience. Right? Maybe that's that's my gen z because I'm, like, on the last year of millennial. So I'm one of those, like, cusp kids. Yeah. Let's, because of your age. No. You're young too. What are you talking about? My age is it's it's great. It's weird. It's it's like between twenty five and thirty is is an excellent, but strange time. But yeah. Also, well, thank you so much, Mapps. So before we go, I'm gonna wrap up this interview with, five things in under five minutes. So five quick questions to wrap up and, give a little overview of what we just talked about. Whenever you're ready, I'll get started. Ready. Wonderful. So where are you, Martia? I'm in Pulia. That's a sunny windy region. Beautiful. And what is the philosophy of your winery? Making, high quality wine that can represent very well, the indigenous grape variety and, talk about family tradition. Wonderful. And what was the special dish that you or dishes actually that you eat with your family? Rosie food, if you talk about coastal region and, or, of course, pasta with broccoli rabe or tomato sauce, if we talk about our location. Gosh. I'm so hungry. Okay. Next question. And what are the wines you'd pair with that? Of course, the from the elegant one to the powerful one. Wonderful. And the last question, we're on good time. Can you share with us one trend you see in the future with wine drinking for young people, particularly Italian for Italian wines? I would say that the keywords are simple balance, elegant, and, with a great, experience that can be shared. Wonderful. Oh, Marcia, I'm kinda sad. We have to wrap up your interview now. I enjoyed speaking with you so much. And naturally, there's a helicopter going outside right now. Yes. And I look forward to speaking again and hopefully seeing you at wine to wine if you're coming this year. Yes. Wonderful. And I wish you all the best with all the amazing things you're doing. And one day, I'd love to play basketball with you. And it's really detailed, but I'm also tall. See, like, I have that on my side. That's see. I can wait. Wonderful. Well, have a beautiful day, Marcia. Thank you. You too. Bye bye. Oh. Stop. As always, a big good option for hanging out with me today. Remember, you can catch me every Sunday on the Italian wine podcast. 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