Ep. 2268 Giulia Stocchetti interviews Marvella Castaneda | Next Generation

I like to go with the wine pairings. Usually, if I'm at a tasting menu, there are wine pairings available, and the psalms, they've done their work. They've chosen something that is intentional, and I want to experience that. So I will take their recommendation If I'm with a lot of people, we'll probably share a bottle of wine, and I'll try to find something that's very versatile for everybody, but I want the experience of the wine pairings. Ben Venuti welcome to the next generation with me, your host, Julia Stochetti. Join me as I take you on a journey to discover young stars of the Italian food and wine world. Broni and Yamu. Hello. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to a new episode of the next generation on the Italian Wayne podcast. Today, I'm so happy and so pleased to have here with me a special guest from Atlanta, so from the USA. And she is Marvella Castaneda. She is a beautiful young lady She was honored with a prestigious star chef's rising ceremony award in twenty twenty three. Now she's the wine director at Capitol City Club, and she was nominee for twenty twenty four wine educator of the year Welcome Marvella to the show. Ciao Marvella. Ciao. Hi. Thank you so much for inviting me. You're most welcome. It's really my pleasure. How are you today? I'm doing great. I'm about to start my day. So it's two thirty for you. Correct. And it's eight thirty AM for me. Wow. It's a good morning. I guess you're having your morning coffee with us today. Right? Correct. That's beautiful. Well, how is it land these days? It got cold again. It was a little warm for a couple of days, and now it's cold. And I just I I needed to get warm. I need my sunshine. I need my warmth. Originally, where do you come from? Like, where were you before Atlanta? So I've been in the southeast my whole life. I was born in Florida. I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, then I moved back to Georgia, then I moved to Florida for just a tiny bit, and now I'm back in Georgia. Oh, wow. So you got the sun inside, basically, wherever you go, there's sunshine. It's good for Atlanta to have someone like you there warming up the city. I was talking to you on Instagram, and I was like, oh my god. She's amazing. I mean, she started with, like, chalk art, I guess, and then you ended up in the wine world. But what impressed me is the way you share your life experience on social media and, like, on your website and your on your diploma journey, and you're making all these, like, visual arts to remember the maps, the wine places, the wine regions, and I was like, wow, that's amazing. I think it's really, really nice and help full or so for other people. So how's going? How's your diploma journey going? The diploma journey of W said is probably one of the most challenging things that I've ever taken on. I didn't expect for it to take this long. I don't know why I thought that it would be just like a two year thing, one and done. No, especially having a full time job. It's been challenging in trying to stay positive. I did fail one of the modules. I failed the the business one. But I also started a new job when I started the business module and I didn't have time to study. You need time to study. You have to make time. I've missed it, and I'm doing it again, but it's hard. There's a lot of self doubt. There's just a lot of trying to figure out how to balance everything, and then just staying confident in yourself. I'm often getting to the point where am I even smart enough to do this? You will get there. You'll get to allow discouraging parts. You're just like, am I even allowed to do this? You're taking, like, the online WST diploma or you actually go to class? I'm doing the online because the school that I go to is in DC. It's a bit of a flight every single time I do my exam, and nobody offers it here in Georgia. Same happened to me. I'm based in Italy in Verona, but I had to fly to London. So I did the online, and it's even harder, I guess. But you're smart enough for sure, and I'm positive you're gonna make it soon, and you're gonna celebrate, and Well, you were saying that you were switching, you were changing your career. Can you tell me a little bit about your background? Like, what were you doing before? Yeah. I started the wine career. The whole wine thing. I started it, like, in twenty twenty one. I'm actually very new professionally in the wine world. I was doing chalk art in Athens, Georgia when I was there, and I mostly just focused on murals. I was a contract artist. I did signage, but I was still in the restaurant industry. So every now and then I would patch a little bit here and there with wine. It wasn't until I moved into Atlanta. I started at Lazy Betty. It's a Michelin Star restaurant here now, and I was there for two and a half years. And that's how I learned food and wine pairing. It felt natural. It was a lot of fun. It taught me how to get out of my comfort zone, and I I always take risks now with pairings. It's always fun. And then I went to Atlas, another Michelin Star restaurant. And then after that, I opened up a hotel last year. Which is the job that I took, and then I failed one of my exams because it was just so demanding. But I opened up this hotel. There's like nine hundred and seventy six rooms. It was a huge project, and I was there for all of twenty twenty four. And I don't ever wanna open up a hotel ever again, but it was a great experience. I learned a lot, and I feel like that job got me ready for what I'm doing now. So I'm finally settling into the role that I would say is my ideal job. I started in January, and it's been really cool. It's been a lot, but it's been really cool. I am the wine director at Capitol City Club. We have three locations. And I manage the wine, the wine program in all of those three. I work on doing wine pairings. I work on fixing, you know, just working on the menus, including wine entertainment based events for our members is there some of your, like, pieces of art in the place you are working? Like, do you do also some chalk art there, or it's something you do in your free time, like, among your hobbies? Usually, I do get to do some chalk art and some of my jobs in the past I've been able to do signage, but here, I I don't really have a lot of time for that anymore. I actually haven't had time for chalk in a while. I'm really sorry to admit that. I've gotten so busy, and the art element in my life now is the drawn to wine, that little project that I have on side, it's what helps me study. So I get a little bit of that creativity, happiness from studying and drawing my notes, but I haven't been able to do any chalk art in a while. I miss it. Oh, I bet. So how does it work? Like, you start reading and studying, and then you take notes, like, in a visual way. How do you do that? What's the creative process? Yeah. It's I outline I outline an entire chapter and then using that outline, I create images that group certain sections together. For instance, the wind faults. That was the first time I did this, and I listed out all the wine faults and I drew them. So if it was, like, a dirty, you know, cardboard moldy smell, I drew a really dirty wet cardboard, or I drew a rotten egg or a barnyard with a horse next to it. And I realized that visually, when I can see them, I can recall them better. So, like, right now, I can see exactly what I drew for that section, and I can tell you all of them based on the images. It's like a visual recall. I'm better at that than I am at remembering just a bunch of words and reading and internalizing all of that all at once just by looking at it. Wow. So I think like visual learners should reach out to you if they're studying wine or going through the WCT diploma is it could be really helpful for them to remember. And also maybe, you know, you can connect and, like, build a community together, and that will be cool. What do we have to do if we want to see your notes? You would Follow me on drawn to wine. Well, it would be the at symbol drawn to wine on Instagram, but I have a website now and it's drawn to wine official dot com. It's in progress. It's in the work You can only see French wine's scholar material right now, and, I want to do a subscription for the diploma material. It's in the works. Yeah. Like, everything is in the works. Right? We need to stop So you first start as an artist, and then how come you started working in the wine? Actually, how did you fall in love with wine? How was the first experience? I fell in love with wine. When I started to do it professionally and seriously. It was at Lazy Betty when I started experimenting with wine pairings because it was a tasting menu. And I wanted to do pairings that not only went really well or not just safe pairings but something that told the story table side. So it was a fun challenge to do themed wine dinners and themed tasting menus where there was always a dialogue, like a beginning, a middle, and an end And this is why we're finishing with this wine, for example, it was a beautiful experience. It was, like, a stage, and that was a lot of fun. And I realized I wanted to know a lot more about what I was serving. In what I was talking about. And so I started the w set program, and here we are in the diploma program. So what was the first wine that you tasted and that, like, left you speechless, like, wow. I just love wines. Was red wine, a white wine, a sparkling wine? This would be something that I always get really shy about, but it would be port at Lazy Betty, when I started there, there was a lot of different vintages of port available by the glass, especially the Correras. I was trying them. You can just try them. Right? And so I would sit there trying them back to back. I tried the sixty two, the seventy five. And then I was thinking, you know, what is the difference between the nineteen seventy? So I tried the seventy five, the seventy six, seventy seven, seventy eight back to back. And they were so different. And the vintages, they spoke differently in a glass where, you know, the seventy five was just beautiful and round. The seventy six was very tropical. The seventy eight, I remember it tasting like tamarind and banana. They just all had very unique flavors where I would memorize these. And every time something came up with a dessert pairing, I would say, alright, I already have it. We're using the seventy six this time. That was a lot of fun, and that opened up my eyes more into food pairing. So, like, your favorite thing is food and wine pairing. It's just not like wine by itself, but it's this interaction that creates the magic between wine and food. Correct. It is so much fun. It's it's an art and you are the spectator. You're the audience when you eat and drink that art. It's fine. It should be really satisfying, I guess, and also seeing, like, that maybe what you like, sometimes people really appreciate it, and sometimes they're like, oh, what is this? It's quite unconventional, but it's good. So What's an unconventional food and wine pairing? Like a really crazy one? The one that I always like to do is fish and red wine. Everyone's always like, why would you even think about that I just did one this weekend for Valentine's Day at one of the club locations, and they served a Sewed fish. It was a white fish over a risotto with tomatoes in it. And I served Funtory the KNC classical, the two thousand and fourteen Filero de La Malay. One hundred percent San Giovanni. It was absolutely beautiful, and it surprised everybody. And what I always said before pouring, I said make sure You get a bite of that chunky tomato with the risotto and a little bit of the fish at the same time and then finish it with the t I t. Everyone was just so amazed and they were like, I was worried you were giving us a white wine for the last course. I said, absolutely not. Anything's possible. Yeah. I love it. Wow. That's beautiful. And how do you decide how to pair food and wine? Like, you try every combination, every time, or sometimes just picture the interaction knowing the meal and also the wine. I try to get in front of the food and the wine at the same time, but usually when it's a place like where I am at now where there's a lot of events happening at once, a lot of menus and tasting menus, I need to be paired. I just have to go off of what I know. And I eat and drank wine a lot. So I go off of a lot of my own experiences that I've just recorded in my memory. For instance, the fish and the chianti is something that I enjoyed about three years ago. It was a red fish, and I had a with it. And it was excellent. So I've always experimented with something a little softer with fish. It's always been fun. And it's just a lot of, research on my own. And how does your research work? Like, you prefer to cook something or you just go out and eat and discover new places, new restaurants. What do you do? I go out to eat. It is my favorite thing to do. I think earlier you asked me what my hobbies were. I love to go out to eat and experience a tasting menu or something new. The work of chefs it's literally art. Just like I said earlier, and we are the audience and tasting it and finding out what goes well with it, what changes it, what supports it, or what's just nice and safe. I love doing when you go out enjoying some good food with good wine, do you ask for recommendations or you just take the menu and pick whatever sounds good to you? Like, do you like to talk to the Psalm and to the waiters, or you prefer to decide your self? I like to go with the wine pairings. Usually, if I'm on a tasting menu, there are wine pairings available, and the psalms, they've done their work. They've chosen something that is intentional, and I want to experience that. So I will take their recommendation If I'm with a lot of people, we'll probably share a bottle of wine, and I'll try to find something that's very versatile for everybody. But I want the experience of the wine pairings. That's beautiful, because usually in Italy, we are not really used to it. There are just a few places where we can find actually this food and wine pairing experiences. Otherwise, you have to, like, pick the food and then you pick the wine or vice versa. It's becoming more and more popular just these days But, you know, usually there's, like, the food list and the wine list, and maybe you just ask the sum or someone from the restaurant, like, what pairing they recommend. So it's really nice that in Atlanta, people are used to this, food and wine pairing menus. I think it's really helpful also for consumers that are not really into wine to get more and more familiar with wine because I'm sure they really appreciate this. I didn't realize that. That's really cool then because it's so normal to me. It's available everywhere. Have you ever been to Italy? No. But I want to go so bad. Yeah. You should come to visit. We have the same office. You can stay at my place. We can share some good food, some good wine with friends, and you'll see how crazy Italians are. And you will see that we don't have all this much, like, food and wine pairing on the menus. But here, you know, I need to leave there's wine everywhere. And thank god, it's not even too expensive. If you have to come to visit Italy, what place would you like to go first, you think? It's funny that you bring this up. In my new job, one of the goals that I have is to organize a wine trip for my members where I would go and I would lead everybody into a region and talk about it. And the top of my list is Pete Mont. I don't know if any of them are gonna listen to this, but I I don't wanna ruin it for everybody. My goal is just to travel through through Piedmont, Italy, go through Barillo, go through barbaresco, but not just there. You know, go a little bit more more north. I'm still trying to plan on how to do this and how to spread this out. Like, should I go into Lombardi, should I go a little bit more south into Tuscany? But it's something that I have in the works. And I wanna focus on the northern part first. What do you think I should do? Where should I take them? If it's just, like, a week and a half, I think you should take them whatever you prefer first. Like, it's a good idea to divide north, center, and south because, you know, in Italy, you go in every single town and not even every single region or city, but, like, every single town has its own wine, its own wine traditions. It's on, like, local food to pair with it. So, yeah, Italy is a kaleidoscope of flavors as I always say. And it takes more than a lifetime to explore and try everything. So I think just write a list or make a visual list of whatever you'd like to see first and then just go for it. But Piedmont, I think has amazing, not only red wines, because you are unconventional. So, of course, there are Barolo, barbaresco, but I think you should try also some timorazo, some, some, So you got so many options there and also sparklings, like, with Astalanga. So Marvella, you have really good tastes, and starting from Piedmont will be great. So Thank you. I think they would like that. Maybe likely we'll meet on one of your trip if you decide to come to Venice to Venice or somewhere, that will be great. That would be amazing. We have to meet. If I'm there, we have to set up a spot to meet. And you can say, hey to everybody. When do you think you're going to start taking people on these wine trips? This trip would be for next year. So I I started this role in January, and I'm still trying to kind of set up established systems, get into a routine. There hasn't been a wine director here, and in about a year, there's a lot that I am trying to catch up with as far as updating menus and resorting inventories. I've got three different wine inventories, well, two. So I've got three locations and two wine inventories. The one in Brookhaven is a lot bigger. The one in the city location in downtown. It's also extremely beautiful, but I need to organize and spend some time down there. So on your wine lists, what's your main kind of wine? I have been trying to bring in Italian one little by little. There is not a lot of Italian. There's a lot of wonderful burgundy. There are a lot of Napa Valley, Cabernets, a lot of American producers, but not enough of the Italian gems. So I've been bringing those in little by little, but I'm trying to not overwhelm myself with a lot of new work to do. And, Italian wine is my favorite category. I thought it was port. No port is the wine that made me open my eyes to tasting, but Italian wine has always been one of the most interesting regions. The job that I had last year in the hotel, my restaurant was Italian. So I only did Italian wines, a little bit of French, a little bit of American, but I told people, you know, oh, you want that wine? No. You're gonna drink Alianico today. It was very strictly Italian for an entire year. Oh, wow. That's amazing. And you're a fan of Italian wines. So what is the Italian wine that surprised you the most so far or at least style of wine? I would say It would be a variety. I've been enjoying San Giovanni, whether it's Rosor or Chianti or Brunllo or just any blend, like a super tuscan San Giovanni base blend. I've been really, really enjoying San Giovanni I like its earthiness. I like its savoriness. I like when it's very old, when it has great age, how integrated it is, and how soft and gentle it can be, and it's great with food. Yeah. Definitely. You should try it with a nice fiorentina. I know it's a classical pairing and maybe it's boring for you, but I think it's quite cool anyway to try if you come over or if you have the chance in Atlanta. So is it easy to find Italian wines in Atlanta or not? It is. And they're also affordable in comparison to what we have. Maybe not as, price approachable as what you see locally, but they do tend to be the most entry level in price. And it's hard to sell them on the bottle when people see an Italian wine being fifty dollars. Right? People will assume it's bad quality, but that's just how much the wine was. And it's delicious. So you wouldn't see them by the glass. Because you're an artist, I was thinking, is there any label that really impressed you in a positive or in a bad way in terms of, like, artistic design? Yes. There was one recently that I found. I'm about to pull it up because I just remembered this, beautiful label. I was doing inventory, and this is a Spanish one. There was a picture of a person on the front label, and it had the most beautiful romantic message I've ever seen in my life. It says, and it is absolutely beautiful and there's just two eyes drawn in the front and tears coming out. I looked it up. It was a project by a father who made this wine for his daughter, and the message on the label translates to you are more than I dreamed of, and more than I ever thought I would deserve There is only one bottle, so I need someone to buy it so I can try it. Do you have some person that inspires you in your life, in your, like, wine journey, double CT diploma journey? I definitely rely on my best friend that I went to college with. Her name is Meredith. We've known each other for now over twelve years, maybe thirteen. I I can't even count anymore, but she's not even in wine. And the thing that I appreciate about her is every time I'm feeling like I'm behind or I'm not doing enough or, you know, I'm just feeling like I'm not grasping concepts well. She'll call me and we'll talk about it and then she'll put things into perspective. She'll say, do not realize what you've done already? Do not realize that you are already in the middle of the diploma, and you didn't think that you could get into it over a year ago. And here you are, she's very encouraging. But also my wine community here, it's very close, and everyone is equally as supportive and there for each other here. That's amazing. That's beautiful. You have someone to count on. And I guess you would love to share that release link with those fears, taking this journey with you and encouraging you because, yeah, never forget what you've done so far because you're doing great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to talk to you. Time is, like, flying. So just let me ask you three super fast things. If you have to choose between chalk drawing or sipping wine. Sipping wine. Maybe while chalk drawing, you can cheat if you want. I wanna do both. Yes. Your favorite label so far, is that from riesling or you have another one? My favorite label, I would say visually, it would be the one that I showed you. It was a a Spanish wine. Mhmm. I would say that would be my favorite label. So far. Okay. Well, yeah, so far because you never know. And an unconventional wine and food pairing, you would recommend. Super crazy. Get the fish and a red wine. I'm gonna stick with that one. Order the fish and order a red wine. Okay. Cool. Let's do these people. Well, Marvella was really, really nice to talk to you. I'm really happy. I got to see you. I got to meet you, and hopefully we'll be sharing a glass of wine together in the future. I would love that. Thank you so much for this invite. You're most welcome. Thank you so much. Have a great day. I wish you all the best, and good luck on your diploma. Thank you. You too. Thank you. Bye bye. Grazier for being with me today and listening to the next generation on the Italian Mind Podcast.