Ep. 1426 Jasmeet Rehan | Voices With Cynthia Chaplin

Hey, guys. Check out Italian wine unplugged two point o brought to you by Mama jumbo shrimp, a fully updated second edition, reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from across the globe. The book also includes an addition by professoria Atilushienza. Italy's leading vine geneticist. To pick up a copy today, just head to Amazon dot com or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm Cynthia Chaaplin, and this is voices. Every Wednesday, I will be sharing conversations with international wine industry professionals discussing issues in diversity, equity, and inclusion through their personal experiences working in the field of wine. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and rate our show wherever you get your pods. Hello, and welcome to voices. This is me Cynthia Chaplin. And today, I have Jazz Rayhan with me all the way from Singapore. She was one of our Vini to the International Academy students at our Via Verona flagship course that was held here in verona just the week before we need to leave wine and spirits exhibition. So thank you so much, Jazz, for coming on today. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Cynthia. Let me ask a little bit about you because we want our listeners to understand what Via is doing and where our students come from. So you're from India originally, and you live in Singapore. So what on earth made you want to be a Via student? Well, I've been involved with wine in certain ways. I'm a wine expressionist and a content creator for wine. So, essentially, I curate wine tastings that lead to visual expressions of the wine on canvas. I also create content which revolves around, infotainment around wine. So that's what I've been doing in Singapore The reason what led me to Via was this whole search to do more and to learn more, and that's what brought me to Italy and to Via. I love that name, a wine expressionist, Tell me a little about that. Are you making visual tasting notes? Are you a painter, a sculptor? Tell me a little bit about what a wine expressionist is doing. Right. So this is a very new concept that I've been trying to experiment with. I used to paint a lot, and then I got introduced with my interest in wines got developed further and further. And I thought how do we amalgamate and bring the two together because wine is art and art is fine. And that's what I'm trying to do here, which is to convert the whole experience of tasting into art. So generally what I feel is like when people come for tastings, they do not really understand what they are doing, what they are tasting. So the idea is to kind of lead them lead them through this whole experience of what they are tasting. So to kind of take them on a journey where they experience the feelings, they taste the flavors. They basically experience the wine through all their senses. You know, they taste it, they sense it in their nose, and then they feel certain things what the wine does to them in terms of the tannins or acidity, and then also the softer aspects what does the vine do for you? Does it take you on a happy mood? Does it take you on a, you know, fluid kind of a journey? Does it take you down the memory line? And that's what kind of assists people when they are tasting. I help them on board this journey of fine. And help them decide for what they are actually feeling. So it's like a meditative state where they are feeling every bit of the wine, and then they are eventually converting it into an art. The focus is not really what they create. They may not create like a art masterpiece. But the focus is more on the journey itself and to create something which they can actually relate to and call it as their own. That's so fantastic. I know you're very well aware. One of our faculty members, Sarah Heller, who's a master of wine, She is doing a similar thing creating visual tasting notes, which you got to see while you were here. Did you have a chance to talk to Sarah? Yes. I did have a chance to talk to Sarah, while Sarah is somebody who is, you know, progressed so much ahead in her journey of fine. She's way ahead in her expressions. She's much more expressive. She's also an art scholar. She's learnt art and then she's learnt wine. So she's way ahead, you know, off the learning curve from me. But yes, when I saw her paintings, I Trayleigh was taken aback by the detail in which she had expressed the wine through colors and through the strokes of the brush or through, you know, the way she does it whether it is digitally or with colors. Well, let me ask you a little bit about, the Italian wine market in Singapore. Do you find that your guests and clients are knowledgeable about Italian wine? Are they curious? Are they drinking it? What's happening with Italian wine in Singapore? For? Well, I feel that, you know, the knowledge of Italian wines is very limited. So people are only aware of certain names and certain varieties of wine. So Carullo is one of them, and Roni is one of them. So it's only limited to a few wines. So even when I was preparing for the VIA course, I could not find most of the wines, varieties here in Singapore, which only goes on to show that people are not really aware of this. And I feel that is not just the case the Singapore market because while I was touring Italy and I was touring around, I did speak to a couple of people from our tourists and their knowledge of certain indigenous grapes was also limited. And to be very frank till I did not attend the Vineet lead course and the Winet lead program, I did not really have so much knowledge myself. And it just opened up my eyes because I feel that, in the current scenario, our views of on wine and the varieties that exist are still myopic that we don't know what exists over and beyond what is available to us. That's a really fascinating point. That's so interesting as you learned while you were here, you know, and during your studies before you came to Verona, There are over five hundred native grapes in the Italian register. So a lot of grapes to work with that aren't available outside of it. So a lot to learn and a lot to explain What was it like for you coming to Verona to the Via Course? I know, as you said, you're at the beginning of your wine studies. Was it overwhelming? Was it exciting, inspiring? What did you get from it? At the beginning, I didn't know what I was getting to do. I finished off my at level three, but then I thought it would be something similar, if not, way ahead. Until I actually got the course material, and then I thought that this was like a rigorous course where one really had to go in deep and to understand not more than just the names of certain writers and just where they exist. So it was a lot more intensive. And I felt that I had signed up for a really a course which had a lot of gravitas. I felt that it would definitely enrich my knowledge from wine learning to them. I I feel that it was not just related to just Italian wines. Yes, definitely. I learned a lot more about Italian grapes and Italian writers, but at the same time, there were certain things like topography, climate, etcetera, which I did not cover so much in so much detail, as far as the thermostat was concerned. But then when I went through this whole via journey, I realized that there was so much more to learn, and there is a never an end tool, you know, learning about wine. That's so true. And I think especially in Italy, but all over the world, you know, as you said, things like soil and and climate location are also important to what ends up being in our glass, and we're lucky here in Italy know, people forget Italy is very small. It's smaller than the state of California, but we're one of the leading wine producing countries in the world, often producing more wine than France does year in and year out. So a lot of winemaking is going on, and a lot of different microclimates, a lot of different pockets of soil, different locations. So we do have this very interesting wealth of, as you say, endless impossible to know it all, Italian wines going on. I'm so glad that that spiked your interest. We're lucky to have Professor, she and Sah come and talk to us about those very technical topics, which we also covered in the new book Italian wine Unplugged two point o. That you used to study for the course. How did you find the book? I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the book. I thought it was very beneficial in combination with the online lectures that were given to us by Sarah and Henry. The book was really, really helpful in getting into the finer details. And also it not just talks about, wines per se, but also the history and that's the beauty of the course where you learn so much beyond just fine. Learning a lot more about culture and about how wine was brought into Italy and how we are actually now experiencing it the way it is. So it's like legacy which has been passed from generations and from multitude of cultures. That's what was, I found very fast in the meeting as far as the book has been sent. 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 foods, and taking in the scenery. Now back to the show. I'm so happy to hear that. I do think that history and those stories are so important to the Via journey, as you called it, and to everyone who's interested in Italian wine. So I know that you didn't pass this time, which is not unusual. We have many, many people who don't pass the first or the second or even the third time. So I just wanna ask you. I know it's disappointing, but you were such an engaged member of the class. You were working with your video group. You you were really engaged in the coursework and in our live sessions, our tastings, and asking questions, So from your point of view, will you carry on with your via journey? You know, you're part of our via community now because you've taken the course with us. How do you feel about via going forward? My journey after actually began after the course was completed. So after the completion of the five day intensive program and after giving the exam, I actually started with so the learning part, which was the book part and rasping off certain concerts was over, but then, came the time where I could actually, learn it on campus, which, as an on-site, and that's where my journey began in Italy. I spent a lot many days visiting vineyards, weinries, interacting with people with winemakers across regions. So I visited Taseko. I visited Tanchupota. I visited Yanti, and I kind of visited each multitude of my meters there and tried to understand what they were doing, why they were doing, and how the soil was linked, it's part, how the temperature, what what are the different methods that they were adopting. So I felt that the course was like a laying foundation for me. And that's where when I kind of went into the onto the side and onto the field, it kind of helped me understand all those concepts and dare myself better for maybe like a next week, yeah, maybe this year or next year whenever it happens. Excellent. I'm so happy to hear that we really want you to come back and have another go at the exam, but it is so exciting that you took the opportunity while you were here in Italy. It's not a short journey from Singapore to Italy. I know that. It's think that you took the chance to travel and to visit vineyards, and we hope that Via can keep supporting you in that and connecting you with more and more people to visit every time you're here. No. In fact, Avia did help me. Like, my visit to Praseco was organized by the consortium. And they kind of helped me. And while my request was pretty last minute, and it was during the time when most of the wineries were participating in medically, but they still managed to organize my visit, a thorough visit to, you know, couples of wineries they even gifted me at the second. So, I was really amazed by the kind of help that I've got. I think that's a good point to make. We do encourage our Via students and we try to support them, and we try to get the consortiums to understand the philosophy behind educating people to become an Italian wine ambassador. So consortiums and producers here in Italy want to get to know our students and want to have them visit. And I'm really glad that you got support and that help and that we were able to, you know, point you in the right direction. I know we shared some emails and and got you ready to go on trips, but I think that's a really, you know, important point about being in the via community. There's so much more to it than just a difficult exam you know, you have all year long to to do other things. And I truly don't feel like I have I truly don't feel the pain of not having to, you know, win the the pain this time. Because I feel that the learning that I have bought, I'm sure I can put to you so much of that, in a day to day basis. I can and with the whole view trips, etcetera, that have happened. I feel that it has given me so much more than I could have just gotten through beyond and above a pin. So definitely a pin is something which is more coveted, but at the same time, I don't wanna negate the fact that the stuff that I learned during this whole five, ten day period, and also during post, the minute leave, which was my travels. Is something I have I have now a wealth of knowledge, and obviously content to kind of share with people here in Singapore. So that's really helpful. That makes me so happy. That's exactly what we want our students and our ambassadors to do. So So you're back home now. How are you planning to spread the Italian wine blove in Singapore? Well, there are a couple of things that I plan to do. Number one is I got a lot of indigenous grape varietal wines here. As much as I could get from Italy, the ones that I truly liked, during the Vineet leaf where I visited a couple of tasted a couple of wines, and I got four of those bottles, and I got them. And now I plan to do some tastings here, the wine expressions, or the art of wine as I call it. I'll be conducting certain tasting sessions. While the bottles are limited, but then, I think it'll be instrumental in in helping people know and discover those wines. At the same time, I have got a lot of content to my visits to wineries. I'll be generating that content and helping spread the knowledge on various wines and varietals, making it entertaining at the same time, not so intensive for a normal merida or, And then the third is that I do plan to promote certain winemakers with the importers here in Singapore. I do plan to reach out to a couple of importers so that they may be able to introduce those wines that I especially liked most maybe, you know, a few months down the line. Singapore might be facing some wines that I liked. I'm excited about this, and and I'm coming to visit you in Singapore in June. So I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon and catching up on everything you're doing. So Thank you so much for giving us your time today. I really appreciate it, Jazz. And thank you for being such a committed member to the community. I know you'll be back for that exam. I know I know you're a hard worker, but I'm very grateful to have such an engaged person now in our via community who's in Singapore and spreading the word out there. That's important to us. Like, thank you so much for everything. Oh, yes. Thank you so much. No. Thank you so much, and my pleasure is mine. Take care. Ciao ciao. Ciao. Bye. Thank you for listening. And remember to tune in next Wednesday when I'll be chatting with another fascinating guest. Italian wine podcast is among the leading wine podcasts in the world, and the only one with a daily show tune in every day and discover all our different shows. You can find us at Italian wine podcast dot com, SoundCloud, Spotify, Himalaya, or wherever you get your pods.