Ep. 1915 Mihoko Schenone | Voices With Cynthia Chaplin

Welcome to the Italian Great Geek podcast. Join us as we explore personal stories of travel and tasting with Italy's must know grape for idols. Chart your own course with my Italian Great Geek journal, your personal tasting companion to accompany the series. Available now on Amazon. With thanks to calendula and partners for their generous support with this project. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm Cynthia Chaplin, 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. This is Cynthia Chaplin, and Italian wine podcast. Is at Via Verona twenty twenty four, our Vinitally International Academy Italian wine Ambassador certification course. And with me today, I have Mihoko Scannone, who is from Tokyo Japan. So welcome Mihoko, and thank you for giving up some time out of your very precious lunch hour to talk to me today. I appreciate it. Thank you very much for inviting me. I is honored to be here, to get interviewed. It's a great pleasure to have you. So, listen, let me ask you a little bit about, what do you do in wine at home? Well, I work for an Italian wine importer. I guess one of the biggest importers in Japan, and I work as, in the marketing department. I work as, brand managers, manager for many, many wineries. Oh, perfect. How is the Italian wine scene in Japan these days? I I go to Japan fairly regularly. I judge sake competitions there and I house Italian wine selling in Japan right now. Well, Italian wines, are loved by Italian lovers? That sounds good. I I I can appreciate that for sure. About sort of how many how many bottles a year do you sell Italian wine? Well, together? Yeah. Rough number. I won't hold you to it. Well, I we we calculated, in cases? Yeah. In cases. Yeah. In cases. Well, I my brands, I I sell like, let's see. Twenty thousand cases. Twenty thousand cases. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's this is nice to hear. Wait, I mean, wait a minute. Oh, could be more. No. Yeah. Well, in our company maybe altogether twenty thousand cases and twelve bottles. That's a very healthy market for Italian wine. That's great to hear. So how did you come to find the Via Course? How did you hear about it? Well, I attended the former, I guess, what's it called? Master. The Maestro Course. Master Course. Yes. It was Japan in that twenty nineteen. Right. It was kind of a neat invitation. Oh, right. So I attended, like this one, for the classes. Right. And then at the end, there was an exam. Right. And I graded the first. Oh, good. And then I, I was invited to come here the next year. Oh, no. We all know what happened then twenty twenty. Yes. So, yeah. And I was kind of, I let it go. Yeah. And this year was the year. And then this year, yes. I I am a friend of Vasami Yashikaba. Yes. Asami is one of our Maestro educators. My my dear friend. And she sent me a link and you should try this one. Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna send her a message and thank her for sending you. This is part of what Via does. So asami took the Via course herself and she became an an Italian wine ambassador. Right. And then she became certified with us to teach the Maestro course, which is our sort of introduction course. In Japan, and she's one of my best teachers. So I'm I'm gonna tell her thank you for sending you along. So 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. So you've been in Verona now for four or five days. Today, the last day of class. Yes. So we have this afternoon, and then it's study up for exam time. So What do you think of it? How how has it been? It was very intense, but very fun. I have to say. Good. And I I love Italy and I love Italian and wines. And I, you know, ended up marrying with an Italian guy. So I am in Italian world every day, but, there are so many things that I didn't know. And, for me, tasting is a weak point for me. Well, we made you taste one hundred and fifty wines. Yeah, I know. So I learned a lot from Sarah. You know, how to taste, how to, you know, decide the quality and, etcetera. Sarah Heller master of wine is our faculty member and she is an amazing taste her and she has wonderful descriptors and she really gets people involved. So I'm glad you enjoyed that. She's she's a scar. Yes. And, for the exam to that tomorrow, I don't know if I'm not, fully prepared. I don't think anyone's ever fully prepared for this exam. So I don't know. I'm just, just going to enjoy. It still makes me nervous and I took it several years ago. I'm so delighted that you came, mihoko, and I really appreciate it. You can go home and you can impress all of your husband's Italian family Yes. With your knowledge and your tasting skills. And we wish you so much luck for the exam tomorrow Thank you. And we hope we see you back on one of our trips very soon. Okay. I what I would like to do when I go home, I mean, in work, at work. I'd like to do a I'm not, certified educator, but I'd like to, educate our staff because our staff don't know much about the wine and Italian wines. And, I'd like to to increase the sales of our company. It's amazing. They need to know, so I'd like to, let, educate. Well, this is exciting for me because I can help you out with that. Okay. Staff training is really important and I think a lot of, buyers and a lot of importers don't really appreciate that. Even some restaurants don't appreciate that. So I do a lot of staff training. Mhmm. And it's amazing how happy staff is. To learn more and they do sell more. So I think that's really smart, and I will help you out with that. Thank you. When you get back home, we will talk. Okay. Alright. Have a great day and good luck for the exam tomorrow. Thank you so 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.