How can consumers be better educated to recognize the different qualities of Italian wine?
WARNING!WARNING!THIS PODCAST CONTAINS INFORMATION IN ITALIAN LANGUAGE!I REPEAT, THIS PODCAST CONTAINS INFORMATION IN ITALIAN!CHIN CHIN!
Welcome to this special Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza edition of the Italian Wine Podcast.Here's the premise.Benitali International Academy community members send us their questions for Via Chief Scientist Professor Tio Scienza.
We record his answers and Stevie Kim tries to keep him in line.Sometimes it works.Thank you for listening.
Hello, everybody.My name's Stevie Kim, and this is another segment of Everybody Needs a Bit of Shinsa.I have Professor Attilio Shinsa and one member from our Thai & Wine community send us their question.
And today's question comes from Elena Zetta from The Office.She's very keen.She's got lots of questions.Okay.And that's, how can consumer be better educated to recognize the different qualities of Italian wine.
How is it possible to educate the consumer to recognize the different qualities of Italian wine?Great question.
Very great, but with a small answer.Yes, because the fundamental element to create this interest is to stimulate curiosity.
Unfortunately, when we talk about wines, we make a sort of list of characteristics of that territory, of that vineyard, of that producer.We also give an image of the sensory profile.Well, this is a bit of a banal way to talk about wine.
I think that the most important thing, instead, is to start
a little bit mysterious, a little bit particular, anecdotal, because it is only in this way that we induce the curiosity of the consumer, and therefore the desire to go deeper, because it is from there that the whole process of knowledge begins.
If I give everything to everyone, of course this is a technical fact, but it is not a cultural fact. The most important thing to do is to start from the history and culture of a place.If I talk about these two elements, history and culture,
I tell a beautiful story.
Storytelling tells me that the wine was invented by a person who lived in that place, but who had met another person who brought him a strange wine that came from another area and he verified it in a curious way and then brought it to a big exhibition.
a foreigner to Italian wines, I have to invent a story for each wine, a story.
I can then put some technical characteristics in it, such as the sounds, the climates, how the grape is, but this is a very arid thing, it is a rather banal thing, I must say, from the point of view of interest, but if I start from the story,
and culture, and every wine in Italy has a history and a culture behind it.
Through this storytelling, I certainly have the possibility to interest the consumer more, but above all to make it so that he is the one to look for in the bibliography, in the documentation, for more information about that wine.
I agree that the magic word is curiosity.But, Atilio, we have to keep in mind who our audience is, our listeners.
So, clearly, at the Vinitial International Academy, there are people who are quite educated in the world of wine, and so you can also give a more technical part. But I would dare to say that most people are not technical.
Because we are tasting with a different language to describe the wines, the technical part.That's a phase.It's the first phase.
The knowledge of the wine, from a sensory point of view, is the first level.But at that point, The consumer who wants to learn is not enough, he wants to go beyond, he wants to understand why that wine has that taste, why that wine has that color.
In the courses of the sommelier, we make these descriptions of wines that are very boring.The color, the smell, the taste, etc.
I think that beyond this basic description, a kind of encounter with the wine, a kind of knowledge of the wine, we need to go further.We need to make the consumer drink that wine again, but when he drinks it again, curiosity.
He has to look in that wine for something that goes beyond a sensory profile.He has to look for the soul of that place.He has to find the soul of the one who produces it.He really has to discover the most mysterious part of that wine.
And that is curiosity.That is what we have to give to him.But now I ask you a question that was not contemplated.Can you give us some examples
qualche azienda che ti vengono in mente, che sono particolarmente bravi a fare questo racconto.
But I really like, for example, to bring the example of Sassicaia.Sassicaia is a wine that is very good at narration.
Like Mario Icisa arrived in Borgheri, like all his life, how he was developed, lodged in Rome, the things he did for the grain, for the animals, for the horse, and his return to How did he plan to make that wine?What were the inspiring reasons?
Where did he find the seeds to plant them?Where did he plant them?The whole process of winemaking, Peillon, who was the technician for Antinori, who gave him a hand, and then Tacchi.This is a story.
So, when I drink that wine, inside that wine I feel all these emotions.The emotion of who invented it, the emotion of something that is not that of an artificial, industrial drink.
Yes, but Sassicaia is unique, isn't it?No, but there are stories.There are stories of less known, less bragged.
Yes, there are.I must say that every wine, in every area, every producer has a story to tell.Egueriri Gonzaga can tell it, with San Leonardo in Trento.
He can tell it, I don't know, with Ferrari, with his lover Ferrari, with the whole story of Giulio Ferrari, all the things that happened. together with the experience of San Michele in Ladige.
Gaia can tell us, or the producers of the Barolo and Barbaresco area, how they came to these wines, what were the paths they had, the encounters, how Gaia managed in the world to go and talk about his wine, how he did it, with the six bottles in a suitcase, in a bag, he went from bar to bar, from restaurant to restaurant, he tasted them,
I would like to read, for example, the two books of the trip to Italy made by soldiers.Mario Soldati travels through Italy, from north to south, from east to west, and he frequents territories and canteens.
He tells about wine, but he tells everything that is around wine.Mario Soldati explains how the winegrower is made, what kind of spirit he has, how he behaves. Books that would really help us to tell stories, but no one tells stories anymore.
Everyone is limited to chatting, but without going into details.But the soldiers write this book, wine is wine. that I would really recommend to all those who deal with wine in Italy.
In fact, I just opened Amazon and there is wine to wine, then there are Capri letters, dry branches,
Okay, so we have a book recommendation.It's called Vino al Vino.I am uncertain if this was translated into English.It's by Mario Soldati.Vino al Vino.Okay, that is it.I will be signing off with another episode of
Everybody needs a bit of schenza with Professor Atilia Schenza.Don't forget to follow us on social media.Send us your questions, comments, and any suggestions that you may have to help us help you to have a better episode for you.
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Thank you very much for joining us and signing off till next time.Bye-bye.Bye-bye.
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