Ep. 2304 Karla Ravagnolo interviews Margherita Andrenacci | Next Generation

I feel like food and wine is like the traditional couple. Most people kind of perceive wine and food as like a strict marriage, but what the new generations are trying to do is basically, you know, to open the relationship. You know, it's more of an open relation. Yeah. A situation. They can have, like, a little situation on the side. You know? Let's have a situation. Let's open the relationship that wine has with food. And let wine explore other things. You know? Welcome to another episode of the Italian wine podcast, the next generation series, where we aim to answer one simple question. What are the new generations up to when it comes to wine and food? My name is Carla Ravagnolo. Join me as we dive into the latest trends in Italian wine. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Italian wine podcast. My name is Carla Ravagnolo. I'll be your host for this episode of the next generation series. I'm excited to have here with us today. An explosion of energy, art, organism, curiosity, and at least goes on and on. But today, what we want to discuss with her is her journey in wine industry and how she keeps reinventing herself and wine as she explores new settings, stories, and tools. So welcome Margarita. Thank you, Carla. It's so good talking to you. I'm very excited to be here. So let's start by hitting up with the first question that is, who are you? Basically. Yeah. Good question. Well, who am I? I ask myself that question multiple times a day. I have to be honest. But, yeah, I'm Margarita, as you said, and I'm from Trento. And what do I do? I try to keep myself occupied by just doing the things that I like to do the most and to support doing those things. I'm lucky enough to be working in an industry that I really, really enjoy, which is wine. I'm, PR, wine PR specialist, and I've been for a few years now. So, yeah, this basically sums up who I am. Nice. I know you've been traveling a lot. So this, I'm sure, enriched you in so many ways, because as I mentioned, you're an explosion of energy and art and everything. So I just wanna understand with you, why did you feel the need to explore the world abroad, like, besides Italy and how did that enrich your experience and your personality? I am still answering that question. Sometimes I feel like I am maybe running from something. I was counting the other day, and I moved nine times, and I have loved every single time, that I moved. I would say just exploring different cultures and, like, being in a place that it's new for me, it kinda keeps my fire going because it you kinda whenever you move and you're whenever you approach other cultures, you have to put yourself in a discomfort, in a some kind of discomfort. And I realized that that's where I thrive the best because I kinda have to struggle all the time to find a way to get my true self to other people because, of course, there's a language barrier, cultural barrier, and just, like, trying to get the point across it's very hard when you move because even, like, gesture or just the culture is so rich of microspheres that it's really, really hard to to get to be seen. It's kind of funny though, because first of all, I think your story is extremely inspiring, but at the same time as you were talking, I just realized that basically your situation is kind of the same as the wine industry, like, struggling to making a message come across, adapting to different audiences, the language barrier, you know, there's there's a lot of similarities. But nine times, I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot. Would you like to tell us where did you live and where did you have the most fun or like a special member you have? I guess it all started from my exchange year when I was in high school. I did an exchange year in Louisville, Kentucky. Very random. I got assigned to a random state, random family. And when I came back, I just felt like the place that I thought, was my home, Trento, was actually kinda tight to me. It didn't fit anymore. So then I proceed using my studying and university as a way to travel. So, I moved for university in Venice, but then I was studying Russian, Russian culture and English. So I decided that I was gonna move to Moscow Russia. And then, from there, I just fell in love with Eastern Europe. So I just kept on going between, Lithuania, Estonia, and I have to say from Eastern Europe, I have some of the best memories because of the the culture and the different changes that Eastern Europe have to go through in recent history. Moscow Russia, for example, I am in love with the history and the culture, but the thing that really I keep close to my heart are the people. They're very straightforward. They're no bullshit kinda way. They're gonna tell you if you're wrong. They're gonna tell you whenever something they don't like something, but they are gonna be the first one to open their door for you or or to show you love and help you and This is just something that I try to keep, you know, in my everyday experience. I have to say maybe my favorite was Lithuania. I lived in Countas for two years where I, got my master degrees in, business management. And Lithuania is such a badass if you think about it. It has, like, the raw European culture, like, really raw underground. I love the underground raw culture of Lithuania. And if you think about it, I don't wanna get too deep into history, but I'm kind of a history geek. If you think about it, Lithuania was invaded in very recent history. I think it was like nineteen thirty nine or forty after the molotov that he bentrop pact or whatever. I And it was the first Baltic state in nineteen ninety. So, like, very recently, actually, nineteen ninety, nineteen ninety one to declare its own independence. So Like, that's such a bad ass move to be, like, the pioneer to your own independency, and it's it's something that resonates a lot in the culture. And so I've always admired just generally, Lithuania culture. And after that, I guess I came back to Italy and switched between Milan, Verona, which I both loved, and then went back to my hometown, Trento. And then I guess now I'm in San Francisco. I don't know what happened. That's that's I'm I'm very curious actually to know because, like, you've been traveling a lot, and you had a lot of fun. And I I didn't know about Lithuania, which is kinda, like, super cool actually to know about it. But after all of this, How did you end up in wine? Why wine? It's a fun story because actually the wine industry was my first actual job. Before that, I was doing a few I did a few internship here and there, my last one being in verona at Volkswagen. And I, I mean, it was a mutual breakup with Volkswagen. We didn't like each other. And then I was like, okay, I guess I have to go on the hunt for a job again. What but what I learned from, like, all the internship was to kind of tailor, something, like, tailor my research to something that it's okay. Maybe I need to find something that it's not mechanical and very cold thing to work with. But also when you're young, you kinda have the hunger to just like, okay. When I wanna start? I wanna, you know, start having, like, a career and building something. So I remember finding this opening for this wine job at Vineidale International. This very crazy place to work. I'm sure you know something about it. And and I just fell in love with, like, wine and the people, and and that's how my journey began. I feel like, yes. Especially a lot of people I hear, the thing that strikes them the most is the people. Very, very simply because I feel like it's just I don't wanna say that it's an extremely welcoming world, but at the same time, you meet so many different people that are extremely passionate about it, and it's a passion that they kind of make you feel and, like, involves you more into into the world. So, I don't have your CV, but if I have your CV right in front of me, when it comes to wine experience, as you mentioned, you worked at Vineitil International, but you also worked in our winning, world renowned, Ferrari winery. And now as you mentioned, you are in San Francisco working for calendolin partner, which is a PR agency. As I think it's probably the number one PR wine agency in the US. So tell me how did these experiences differ? What did you learn from each experience? Yeah. Sure. I remember when I started working in the wine industry, I always had my eye on Feraritranto because I'm from Trento. I've I was, like, traveling the world, and I was, like, you know what? It feels like a good circle. Like, whenever I'm gonna be ready, I'm gonna go back to Trento, and I'm gonna get that job at Ferrati, which big up turn to Doc. It's probably one of my favorite wines. I finally got that job, and I was very, very lucky to work, in the PR team at Feraritranto, and I've learned so much for from international partnerships with formula to just, like, working very closely with Camilla Ronanelli. I was her right hand, and we would just I would just, like, be amazed by all of the things that all of the parts that are moving constantly, but always focusing on excellence and having a wine that is, like, top tier and never compromising that no matter what. It was it was very, very inspiring. I decided to quit after a couple of years because I realized that maybe, again, I was feeling a little tight in there. I wanted to do more. I wanted to have more creative, possibilities for myself. While, of course, in a well oil machine machine like Feraritrento, it's very it's kinda difficult to, like, be able to make the difference as a one person. And I'm not saying it's impossible, but I would say it was very difficult for me. So I decided to quit. Kinda broke my heart because it was, like, my dream winery and just just the, you know, overall, like, a dream for me. I took a few months off, went for a bike ride, and I came back And I was like, okay, I guess it's time for me to to move again. And so that's how I landed at at calangelo. And I am loving it. I I love the dynamic work It's always a lot to do a lot of moving parts, different, of course, different clients, and, it I am learning so much more about just how wine is perceived in different in different countries, and I'm just loving it. That was one of the question that I had for you because we both worked at the Italy international and calendolin partner. We kinda like switch dog, dog positions and stuff. But I wanna know from you, what is the first thing you notice when moving to the US? Meaning, what is something that now that you're in the US, you're like, oh, well, I wish that people immediately knew about it. You know? Like, this is how it works in the US. Okay. Two things I would say. A lot of tasting rooms, which is a concept that I think in Italy I haven't seen a lot. So you can find, like, a tasting room of a winery that has, I don't know, the winery is out of state, and they have their tasting room downtown in a specific city. So you get the experience without having to actually travel all the way to the winery, which kinda takes away some of the experience, which is, like, maybe visiting the winery. But, like, some people are not interested in that, and they just wanna have a great glass of wine and also breaking the rules. I feel like there are some, tradition things, in wine, especially in Italy. And here, rules are easily broken just like wine being served in nontraditional glasses. And it would be something that you would never, never ever see in Italy. And here, you can just enjoy your wine in a non traditional glass, and it's okay. It's gonna taste great. If the wine is great, if you like the way the the wine, and the attention to the experience that one has towards wine. This is something that I've been really, really amazed to find here. Hundred percent. Do do you think that, especially, especially when it comes to younger consumers, young people in San Francisco slash the US have a different feeling or appreciate wine in the in a different way compared to people in Italy. How do they feel about wine in general? It's a hard question. I guess it's the question. I feel like people younger audience, it's kind of scared of tradition. And because tradition is linked with a lot of things that are not relevant anymore. You can have tradition, but you can also tailor it to a better society or to a society that resonates with you. So I feel like here, a lot of younger people are more attracted to maybe wine brands that distanced themselves from tradition, and I mean tradition not in wine making process. Cause I mean, wine has been there for ever, and there's multiple wine multiple ways to make wine, but basically there's one way to make wine. So younger audience here is very attracted to wine that distance itself from the traditional part, which is probably just like the family owned or, like, very high profile wine and for, like, I have to drink this wine in a certain way. Otherwise, I'm gonna ruin it. And this is something that I feel like younger winemakers are very good at distancing themselves. From and younger, people are attracted to it. And myself included, to be honest. It's a conversation that I have you with many different people now, especially in the podcast. I feel like younger consumers or young people or people in general actually because I don't wanna do some ageism in this case. But, I mean, everybody in the US, I feel like they would or in general in the world, but maybe it's harder in Italy Even when it comes to food pairing, as you mentioned, like, we want innovation. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. Like, oh, like, this wine is made in a very super rare technique and yada yada. No. We just want innovation, but in order to make wine more approachable. You know, if you suggest me a wine with hamburger or fries or kebab, I don't know, like, anything super easy, I would be more than happy to try it. You know what I mean? Yeah. And one last thing about since we're talking about the younger generation, I feel like another maybe thing that it's a very hot topic right now is that consumers are drinking less which I do not think it's the case. I do think that there are very many more options available, which include not just wine beer, or cocktails or liqueur is there are hearts Pritzers now or heart kombucha or just kombucha, I don't know, alcoholic. Like, the the choice of having a drink, it it's not necessarily, like, tailor to just a few categories right now. So people, of course, have the choice to have so many different things. And it's it's just a challenge to have them go back to, no, have that glass of wine instead of, like, the supernatural local kombucha. I mean, to be honest, I've been drinking. I've never I hated kombucha. I moved here, and I'm like, I might choose a kombucha over a super high end wine that everyone wants everyone talks amazingly about because first is local. Second is like something different. And, you know, it's it's it's we have to keep everything, interesting. So it's a hot mess. Yeah. I do get much you're saying, especially, especially because, for example, even spirits are being a little more aggressive in their strategies, meaning that for example, I've heard a lot of, like, spirits and food bearing, you know, back in the days, it used to be just fine. But now, you know, there's cocktails that you can pair with food. There's also sake. A lot of people are getting into sake. There's soju. As you mentioned, there's kombucha. I feel like there's a lot of options out there. So it definitely makes sense, and I totally agree with you. But my question now moving on to the fun part, when you are not sipping wine, what are you doing? I am always making music biking or running. These are my top three things. I try to get at least one done of each every day. I always say that, I feel like everyone can understand if they're on the right track if they're doing the things that they would do if they didn't have a job. And I feel like I am doing all of the things that naturally I'm drawn to. And, my secondary needs, if we want to be specific are, yeah, music, running and biking. I really, really love that for you. And talking about biking, I've stalked your Instagram profile, of course, before this interview. And, one thing that I noticed that I appreciate a lot about the US, and I have been actually seen here in Italy, but you can correct me if I'm wrong. But I noticed that in San Francisco, there are a lot of bike gatherings, meaning that people arrive gatherings. I don't know how they're called, but it's basically people to just meet up altogether to ride their bikes and go around the city. Can you tell me a little bit more about this and what is the goal basically of this project. And what is the part that people enjoy the most about? Like, why people gather just to ride a bike? So, yeah, to to answer your first question. Yeah. I also have not experienced anything like that anywhere else. Where I've lived, actually. Here, it's full of communities with hyper focused interest interests, like biking, and they just enjoy to meet up spend a couple of hours together doing what they do love, which is, in this case, biking. And and they are committed to it enough that they show up every Tuesday, for example, or they show up whenever there's a chance to ride together. And this is something, that I'll connect back to what I love the most about the places that I live. Where I lived. I am loving the community part of San Francisco. And I'm not saying I haven't experienced community anywhere else, but for my wherever I lived before, community is very easily showing up to protests and to make things better and to talk about politics and to talk through problems. And it's it's always kind of, when there's a crisis that you know, community shows up. And that's amazing, but also here I'm discovering that there's no need for community to be in danger to just meet and have fun and spend some time together. And it's it's such a beautiful thing. And, we do meet just because we love biking, and, we all kinda know each other, but we don't hang out after we we don't hang out through the weeks. Like, we hang out because we have that thing in common, and we hang out to do that thing biking around the city and then supporting local businesses, wine bars, brewery because at the end of of of the ride, everyone kinda feels like they're a little bit dehydrated, and we wanna re refuel with a glass of wine or or a beer. Yeah. That was gonna be my next question. I was like, at the end of the ride, are you seeing any trends or any specific things that people look forward to drinking and enjoying, beverage related, but also, like, food wise. Yeah. I would say after a couple of hours of biking up and down the hills of San Francisco, everyone goes for, just a beer and whatever, amazing food they can find next door to the wine bar that we choose or or brewery that we choose. I think the focus here is more on just again, like, community showing up for community. So each week, we decide we go we land on a different brewery or wine bar or club or or just bar. To support. And we show up. It's like seventy of us, seventy bikers, and so everyone gets a little something to eat, a little something to drink so that we can show up for them and show show them love, and It's it's such a nice way also to, like, frost communities, you know, the bikers and then the people who own a small business, and and we just, like, kinda come together. And and have whatever they want. Yesterday, for example, we went to this, bar and their specialty was beef jerky. They had every kind of beef jerky, So I I guess everyone who, eats meat, they enjoy the beef jerky. Probably they are not gonna do it on a daily basis, but it's just supporting the the local community. You mentioned a lot, a keyword that is community. So naturally, my question is gonna be, do you think that the wine industry has a community? Or is there a community for younger wine professionals? And if so, do you feel you belong into it? I have seen a lot of wine communities here of even younger audience doing pop ups in, like, some random backyard. It's such a niche, though, that it's very hard to find. You kind of have to, look for it, scout it, try to get into it. There is a lot there are a lot of wine communities. There are a lot of people that just meet on Sundays to do tastings. It but it's always, like, at someone's house, at at someone's house or, or or just again bringing, bringing people together on a wine loving hyper focused way. So They're not as easy to find, but I would say just doing some research as as at the same way as I did with biking community, I could find also awesome wine communities and just, like, stew study group that just meat and and just taste different wines. That's great. That's really great. Moving on to the other big part of your life that is music. I know you have a solo project. You are actually the mastermind behind our hit for the clubhouse series that is SIPs, whirl, spit. It's it's like in my mind, twenty four seven. Basically, we all vibe to that song. But would you like to tell us a little bit more about your interest in music, your projects? How do you see that evolve? Yes. I have decided actually one year ago. I think it was March, maybe probably exactly one year ago. I decided to release my music I have been making music on just my computer and a midi controller for the last probably ten to fifteen years, but I've never ever studied music. And So my projects were something that I was kind of very vulnerable about because I felt like I never knew enough to actually call it music. But I kept on doing it and the songs kept building up and building up. And I felt like it was a shame that I was the only one listening to it because at least my friends, I wanted to share it with them. And then last year, I guess, I just decided that it was time for me to just be brave and it doesn't matter what music is. It doesn't matter if I don't have, scholar knowledge of of music. It's just like I was I was just gonna do something that felt really true to myself. And it was just I kind of I felt like I kinda owned it to myself to to just share what I was gonna do or and what I was doing, and it was also a push to keep going forward and never stop. So so, yeah, I decided to just release, my tracks. And I am it's a project that it's ongoing. And whenever I feel inspired, I just produce my own music, mix it, sing it, or everything that that I'm still learning to do, I just do and put it out there, and that is my project so far. I one of your biggest fans probably But why am I asking you this? Because for those of you who don't know, this is actually a little spoiler, but Margarita is basically gonna merge all of her passions, so like wine, music, sports, good vibes and everything, as she becomes the new host for the next generation series. So Margarita, how are you fooling about it? I am super excited. I have been thinking about wine and music and how I can bring all these things together. So I am super excited that I will have a space to do that. And I am extremely, extremely, extremely excited about it. So would you like to tell us what the episodes and the blogs will be about? Yes. So, basically, I really think I've been thinking that, wine and food pairings are amazing, but sometimes they don't sum up the way that I look at wine, because I find myself, choosing what wine I wanna drink or just buy based on how I'm feeling in the moment or based on what I'm gonna do with it, which is not necessarily eating. I actually when I eat, I actually don't really like to pair wine with it. But I do love pairing wine with whatever I'm listening to. Or I went to an exhibition, I come home and I have a good feeling about it, then what wine would I pick? Am I very sad? And I just want, like, a glass of something. Am I very bubbly? Because I'm getting ready? I don't know. To hang out with someone I like, am I gonna read a book? What book am I gonna read? Am am I watching a movie and they're sipping on some wine? And I kinda wanna get in there because I'm watching the movie. I wanna what are they drinking? So, so, yeah, I I will be pairing wine with just all of many different things, but food. I love. I love the project. I love the ideas. So, like, of course, as you mentioned, you like this idea of pairing wine with things other than, food, but what do you hope to obtain by doing this? What what is the goal of this series? Just a more approachable way to see wine and just the way that for me, it's kind of also like breaking the tradition because I feel like food and wine is like the traditional couple, but we wanna make it inclusive a little bit. So, it's it's it works fine. It was it works perfect, but there's also many other things. Also, if you think about it, wine, yes, it has the taste, but wine has even color. And color, it's very, very connected to emotions and to how you're feeling. So sometimes I just pick wine based on the color, and the color resonates on what how I'm feeling. Like, a good pink, you know, wine on a sift during, like, a sunset on the beach? Like, yeah, for sure. I'm pairing this wine with the sunset. Look at that. No. I was thinking that most people kind of perceive wine and food as, like, a strict marriage, but what the new generations are trying to do is basically, you know, to open the relationship. You know, it's more of an open relation. Yeah. A situation. They can have, like, a little situation on the side, you know? Let's have a situation. Let's open the relationship that wine has with food and let wine explore other things. You know? I love that. I love that for wine. Hope they find what they Oh my god. What they're looking for and have the time of their life. Yeah. After this parenthesis, would you like to share if you if you can, of course? Would you like to share with us a little sneak peek about the first episode? Well, yeah, the first episode well, actually before the first episode, I have been working on a small video that I am, going to share shortly And I'm just saying that Lady Gaga is releasing mayhem her seventh album, and I have been working hard to find the perfect pairing. So it might be about that. I'm very much looking forward to discover it. Let's see. So drawing basically to our conclusions to we're kinda wrapping up the episode. I have the usual three questions. That are first thing first, what do you think is the biggest misconception that the wine industry has about young people? As mentioned before, the biggest misconception is that the younger audience drinks less. They have we have the world has so many options right now that you can choose from. And so, of course, having more option, do you have to keep the wine interesting? You have to find a way to have the people drawn to it. So people are not drinking less. People have a lot of interesting options to choose from, so we have to keep wine interesting. Yeah. Totally. My other question is, what is the biggest misconception that young people have about wine? I said we owe I think we also touched base on it briefly earlier, but I do think that sometimes when it's when tradition is perceived too much on a wine, then younger audis tend to just distant themselves from it because it's like, I don't I don't want to approach it, not because it's approachable, but because I don't care to approach it. It's not fun. It's not something that resonates with me. One last question before we wrap this up. And is if I had to start approaching Margarita's world, what song of your production should I listen to and what would be the best food and wine pairing? I would say I'm constantly changing. So my last project, my last three songs that I wrote recently since I moved here would be the perfect starting point to see where I am right now. And I would pair it with a wine that I've discovered recently, which is a carbonic carignan. The carignan is a grape that it's known historically for being very productive. So it's never about quality. It's never been a about quality. It's been about quantity. But lately, you know, people have been experimenting with this. So it has seen a growth in just like the way that it has that people have been working with it. So winemakers have been trying to make it more a little less of just like a quant quantity wine, and they've been using maybe, older vines to to produce it so that the the taste is a little more refined and, over time, it just has been elevated, and I feel it kinda resonates with my journey through music where I thought I was just, like, you know, doing whatever and it was not good. But then, actually, no, you learn and you try to take what you have and, and just, like, express try to find, like, the higher higher express expression of what you have. So I would for sure, pair my music as for now with a carbonic carignan, which is, maybe like a liar lighter profile, Simfondello or Merlo, very, very forward, very, nice, light red, I would say, and just, like, so juicy. I love how you also said something, like, you have to find a higher expression of what you have. Like, basically, you have to be the best expression. Like, So give Karignana a chance be the best version of yourself. And I think with this note, we have the perfect conclusion to this beautiful, beautiful episode. So thank you Margarita. I really appreciated having you here with us today. It was lovely. Thank you so much. I had so much fun. Thank you so much for joining us today. Let us know your thoughts on our social media at Italian wine podcast and follow us to keep up with the next generation of Italian wine people, tears.