Ep. 1485 Robert Maggi | Voices With Cynthia Chaplin

Since twenty seventeen, the Italian wine podcast has exploded and expects to hit six million listens by the end of July twenty twenty three. We're celebrating this success by recognizing those who have shared the journey with us. And giving them the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing success of the shows. By buying a paper copy of the Italian wine unplugged two point o or making a donation to help the ongoing running costs, members of the international Italian wine community will be given the chance to nominate future guests and even enter a prize draw to have lunch with Stevie Kim and Professor Atigio Shenza. To find out more, visit us at Italian wine podcast 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'm very happy to have Robert Maji with me. Robert was a recent via student in London last summer in twenty twenty two where he successfully passed our rigorous exam and became an Italian wine ambassador. And this year, in twenty twenty three, at five star wine and wine without walls, Robert was a judge for part of our judging panels. And he is the owner of wines, vines, and Cardiff, where he kindly hosted myself and Stevie Kim and our team for the VINita Lee Road show just in the run up to the months before VINita Lee Wine's exhibition here in verona. So welcome to the show, Robert. It's great to chat with you today. Well, how's it going for you? I know, when I was in cardiff with you, must have been February time. Things were going great as our new Italian wine Ambassador. You've got your shop up and running. I know you're working with a lot of importers. And you were so great at bringing Italian wine to Cardiff. Phil wants in. What are you doing these days? Yeah. It was always busy, which is which is good. We like that. And it it was a pleasure to have you in, back in February. Really happy that we actually made it happen. A lot of the times, I felt you know, these events would stop in London. So it was great to to to actually get you guys coming to Cardiff. And for you to to explore, you know, that the city and, I guess, a new area of the UK. Yeah. There's there's a lot to be done, when it comes to to wine. We're we're really busy with the organization of our big event, the Cartifine Festival to be the second edition. Well, you did a great job. And I think, both Steve and I were so impressed by the quality of the guests that you found. There were educators, journalists, people in the wine trade, people were super enthusiastic. And I think it made us realize, as you said, so many wine events happen in London, people are a little jaded. And going out to other cities in the UK is something that we're really gonna look into, and I think that's something we'll really be doing in the future. So you can consider yourself the driving force for bringing Italian wine to parts of the UK besides London. So thanks for that. No. Amazing. You're welcome. Well, it was really fun to also have you here as a judge And it was your first time judging for five star wines in line without walls. And that was just a couple of weeks ago, right between our Via Verona class and the Vineetalee Wine Spirit Ex of Medicine. How did you find the judging experience go? What did you think of the of the selection and the panel that you worked with. It was an amazing experience. I'm very grateful, obviously, to to see you to invite me. It was intense. It was it was great. I knew, you know, it was going to be kind of intense, but it was an amazing two days. I'm so glad. And I kind of looking forward to to next year already if if if the opportunity is there. The, the whole experience was, was obviously new to me, but at the same time on the table, I was lucky enough to be there with really knowledgeable experts in in in the sector. So, they helped me a lot to kind of, guide me on on on getting my bulletin in general. The the, direction, you know, to go to and and, so I really, really enjoyed it. And, it's hard to put into words, you know, and and when you when you're tasting so many wines in such a short time period, and you always have to be focused in in making sure that, you know, you you do the best that you can, and you you judge a wine, in such a short time as well, can put in all the factors together in, it's, it's not easy. No. It's not. I mean, I've been a wine judge now for ten years, and it's it it doesn't get any easier as you say to limited time. And I don't know if you know, but two thousand two hundred and sixty nine wines were tasted in two days. Yes. Pretty lot. I I I I saw that and yeah. It's quite a lot. And I I felt like a a kind of sense of responsibility as well, you know, in the sense that there's a lot of work that goes behind each and every way. So it's only fair that we we judge the wines the best that we can, you know, where we're called to to do that. Absolutely. It's like trying to judge someone's children. It, it can be very personal. And I think, as you pointed out, the the five star wines sort of format is we do have these panels. So there's the the panel chair and, like yourself, an associate judge, someone who's new to judging. There's an acknowledgement from Italian wines and a couple of other judges with more experience. So You do have a very rounded table. I'm glad you enjoyed that people who can guide new associate judges, the analogist who always has an interesting point of view. We we tend to find our Italian analogist mark all the wines low. So that's always fun for us to deal with. And then a very knowledgeable person is the chair who writes the final notes. And it's nice because everyone gets a say. There's a bit of a conversation and a debate And I don't think that happens in most, judging, which generally tends to play take place on your own. No. It was funny as well to see how the kind of palettes worked in different ways. So on the table, we had obviously people from from the US, from, other countries in in Europe, and You can see how the, the Italianologist pilot always kind of went in the same direction, whereas the other guys, you know, kind of have different views on the line, which I guess is is is good at the same time. Absolutely. And I think it's really good to share those perspectives. We had over seventy judges, and we do take them from all over the world. We want Italian wine to get out into the world even more than it already is. So having an international group of judges is definitely helpful. You yourself have background in Italy. I know your your family history is in Pulia. How did you get to Wales? How did you get into wine? I am. I'm a little bit cheats in here. I I am Italian. I'm half Italian. Half Walsh. I'm very lucky that my mom brought me up with two languages. I'm bilingual, but my heart really is is is Italian. I grew up in in Bari in Pulia, and then I moved, over to Wales for university. This was over ten years ago. And then after traveling the world a little bit, five years ago, I came back to the UK, and I settled in in in Cabic. So I started working in wine when I was still in Italy, decided I wanted to do my own thing when I moved here to the UK. And that's when when it all started with. Well, as I said, we saw a lot of excitement for Italian wine when we did the Venetili roadshow in cardiff with you. What's the wine market like in Wales? You know, I think people tend to forget that Wales is its own country. It's part of the UK. But it doesn't always fall into the, you know, hard numerical data that we get. What's the wine market like in in particular? What's the Italian wine market like in Wales? I feel like there's there's a lot that can be done. Still, historically, I think it's just been invaded with, lower quality wines, looking more at the price on the cheap. I'm talking generally here, obviously, but more, you know, it's more on the cheaper side. It's it's it's a country maybe that drinks a little bit more fear rather than wine. And most importantly, I think we can't compare London with with the rest of the UK. I think London, it's his own bubble. It's it's way ahead in terms of trends in terms of consumptions and and, how much consumers are willing to spend, which is important. So I really think, there there's a lot that can be done, and we're doing as well in terms of educating consumers into tasting different wines, trying new wines, given them the opportunity to try a new item, which I felt when I first arrived in cardiff, the the selection was violence. Well, that's so important pointing out that educational aspect. There is a need to educate consumers especially when we're talking about Italian wine, so many different native grapes that nobody's ever heard of. A lot of different structure, you know, a lot of textural white wines that people aren't used to. So sort of banging that drum and and explaining those things, is so helpful to get the message out there. What what are the top Italian wines that are selling in your shop in your wine bar? 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. Really are the ones that we we decide, you know, what we want to push. It excellent. I like that. You take charge of what's selling. Yeah. Exactly. And I think that's important. You know, you need to have that relationship with your customer and they eventually they'll trust you, and just open the bottles, you know, don't be afraid to to open a bottle and and give a little taste there before they actually commit to a glass. This is this is the way we think it we we like to go just be flexible, as fascinating as the Italian one world is. It's it's a complex one. And it it's a very daunting one, I I guess. So when you put them in front of all these unknown or lesser known varieties, it becomes really, really difficult for the consumer to kind of make a choice and to put them on the spot, in in picking which wine, you know, they want to taste. It's not easy. So they always fall back, you know, into the the usual pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc, which, you know, you can't sell enough here in in the UK. And that's why we we don't have a pinot grigio or sauvignon black in the shop. So we try and kind of look for maybe similar style wines and and try and tempt them to to try something different. That's great. That's I like the element of control. Well, it's important because as you say, people do go for their comfort zone. And if you can lead them a little bit out of there, there's a whole new world to discover, especially when we're talking about Italian wine. So that's that's really exciting to hear about. Yeah. And the key is to get them back to then taste something different again, you know, and and get them curious and get them to to to explore what we're trying to to do here. For sure. Well, let's talk a bit for about the card of wine festival because, again, you were instrumental in getting that going. This will be its second edition. Fill us in. When is it? Tell us what's going on. I know I'll be speaking there, so I know about it. But, let's let everybody else in on the story. So the kind of fine festival was an event that we originally planned for twenty twenty, then, obviously, we all know what happened. So we got to postpone it for a few years. And last year, we did the finally, we did the first edition, which was held at the principality stadium in in cardiff. And it was an opportunity to get the actual producers in contact with the consumers. It is a walk around tasting. We invite all the producers that we obviously work with, and also new producers that are willing to, discover a new market, try something different, and it's a consumer event, mainly a consumer event, guest will grab their glass and walk around and have a chance to taste different wines. This year, we'll have over two hundred and fifty wines available, and have an opportunity to to actually confront themselves with the, with the winemaker. That's fantastic. It's a unique opportunity they get a lot of these people, you know, they've never been to a wine show or if they do go to a wine tasting, you know, it never with the winemaker. I think it's a good option for them to learn. Absolutely. And I I think this really takes your, you know, your point about educating consumers even one step farther or maybe even ten steps farther. If you can get a festival like this going with two hundred and fifty wines available, you know, that's a lot of consumer attention. How many guests are you anticipating this year? So this year, around a thousand guests Amazing. So last year, we had about five hundred. And we've changed location as it was a sellout event last year, so we got to turn a lot of people down. So this year, we've changed location and make sure, you know, we could we could accommodate a few more guests. Well, what's the date? So anybody who's listening who's gonna be in the okay can go? When is it? Twenty fourth of June. It's a Saturday, twenty fourth of June. Perfect. Alright. So anybody who's listening, who's gonna be in the UK, twenty fourth of June, Cardiff Wine Festival, really started and and run by our very own Italian wine investor, Robert Machie. So and there's two sessions, one PM till four PM, and then five PM till eight PM at the Park Gates hotel. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Robert. Thank you. Thank you very much. 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 podcast 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.