December 21, 2023 • 51 mins
Stevie Kim is Managing Director of Vinitaly International, the world’s largest wine expo held in Verona where she's based. A self-proclaimed Italian Wine Evangelist, her impact spreading the gospel of Italian wine is widespread. Stevie has helped evolve Vinitaly from a trade fair to a global brand spearheading the Vinitaly International Academy, Wine2Wine Business Forum, Italian Wine Podcast and Opera Wine. Her many wine publishing projects include The Jumbo Shrimp Guide to Italian Wine.
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET.
The Connected Table Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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FOURCY Radio. Welcome to the ConnectedTable Live where your hosts, Melanie Young
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and David Ransome. You're insatiably curiousculinary couple. We travel the world to
bring you our listeners stories of theamazing people who shape the wine, foods,
spirits and hospitality industry. We bringyou what they eat, eat,
what they drink, why you shouldbe eating and drinking where they are and
visiting those countries. And if youfollow us, you know that we go
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to Italy a lot, right,David, Absolutely, Melanie, And in
fact we just returned in November fromtwo weeks in Italy and it was a
great trip. Yes, and weattended a couple of conferences as well well
were there, so it wasn't justvisiting wineries this time. Yeah, most
people think we're always there on vacation, but it's work and it's work we
enjoy, as do the people wemeet and the guests. Today. We've
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been ships passing in the night foryears and we're so honored to have her
because she really is a force thatwe admire and she's really worked hard to
bring Italian wines to the forefront.If you work in the wine business,
and specifically in Italian wines, thename Stevie Kim is a familiar one.
Stevie is a managing director of inItaly, the largest wine exhibition in the
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world, which takes place in eachspring in Verona. We've actually not attended,
believe it or not, but weneed to. Stevie's impact has made
quite an influence globally and has touchedmany lives because the producers get to know
her, and Stevie has really helpedVanillai evolve from just the trade fair as
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we know it and it's massive,to a global brand through several initiatives which
she has spearheaded, which we willdiscuss, including the Italy International Academy,
the Wine to Wine business Forum,which we recently intended and really recommend if
you're in the business, The ItalianWine Cut podcast, which I've been honored
to be a guest on an operawine. Stevie also has several publishing projects,
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including the Jumbo Shrimp Guide to ItalianWine. It's part of a bigger
publishing initiative. I have the bookhere in front of me. It's kind
of fun and really interesting, andshe is very active in social media and
really helping people evolve in their career. Her career trajectory is probably as diverse
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and fascinating as many grapes produced inItaly, and as I said, our
paths across many times. We're actuallysitting down for the first time to speak
with her on the Connected table.So Stevie Kim welcome, Thank you very
much for having me today. It'svery exciting. I know you've been in
the business way longer than I have. Your a veteran, and I'm excited
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to have our chat today finally,because you know, we see each other
often. Right in many of theevents, we kind of, like you
said, we were just sliding doorsright at the same time. So sometimes
you have to force me to sitdown put on my headphone so we can
have a proper chat. Thank youfor that. Well, you know,
that's what we created this show,is that we just wanted to have that
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vision of sitting down at a tablenormally you were eating and drinking together to
have what we think is important,a conversation. So Stevie, we start
all of our guests the same way. We love to talk about where they
come from and their roots. Let'stake a bit to yours. You were
born in Korea and raised in theUnited States. We're curious about your childhood
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and how old you were when yourfamily came the United States and your family.
I was born in Korea like yousaid, and we immigrated exposed when
I was about six with my folks, so most of my childhood was stateside,
and then I moved to Europe.I would travel to Europe every summer
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since I was sixteen, mostly toItaly. But when you graduate from school,
I think we're kind of the samegeneration where you get the Yeul pass
and you do the whole the entireyou know, two months in Europe,
and I always stopped in Italy becauseI was fascinated with Italy and being from
New York, you have a lotof Italian American friends, so inexorably you
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go back to their origin, right. So I think that's how I got
very, very connected, and Ihave this calivity to be always, you
know, coming back to Italy andItalian culture. I suppose I came to
Italy like I physically moved to Italywhen I was twenty four, so I've
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been here most of my grown uplife now more or less. When you
were young, what did you wantto be when you grew up? And
then what inspired you to get intothe business and the things? You know?
This is what I always say.You know, I look Asian,
so I'm very current. There's thattraditional side of me and the traditional upbringing,
if you will. But then growingup in New York, I have
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that mentality of the New yorka andthen having lived in Europe most of my
life, and you know, havingan Italian family because my original sin is
Italian, is my husband is Italian. That's the reason I'm here, I
think. You know, people alwaysthink like, do you feel more American
or do you feel more Italian?And I always go back to saying that
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when I'm in New York. Ifeel more European definitely, you know,
hands down, But then when I'min Italy, I often feel that I'm
more American in a way the wayI think and approach things, especially when
it comes to perhaps attitude and character, because Italians tend to think that I
am aggressive, especially for a woman, which I would like to think of
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as being asserted. Right, SoI think it's I think it's just a
combination of my upbringing, my culture, and also of course what I'm what
I've been exposed to in my lifetime, and like I said, I've been
now most of my life in Italy. So perhaps I think it's a privilege
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being exposed to so many different culturesand have the privilege of working in Italian
line is also that, right,meeting all these divers people, because if
you come to Italy is yes,one country, but in a way like
all different regions, every little province, as you know, it's like it
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it's a country in itself. Right. So when I was little, going
back to way way back, theKorean culture didn't really give you a lot
of space for I suppose you know, like you know, young kids have
dreams, like you want to becomea fireman or the president of America.
You don't really have a choice.In a way, the Korean tradition gives
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you a certain path. My pathwas being pianist. So I started playing
the piano when I was very,very little, and I think that's practically
where I got my discipline, becauseI was little and I recalled very well.
When I was even I think Iwas three or four or five,
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I started playing immediately. And youwould play the piano in the dog for
like many many hours, right,So those kind of discipline, that's the
tradition. And also even from stateside, our only path was to go to
university. It wasn't the question whetheryou should go to college. It was
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a question of which college, right. So I think that is very you
know you live Melanie and David.You know, New York, there's a
big Kurran community, and I thinkevery crane you meet they have that kind
of you know, discipline in away, and that is absolutely the upbringing
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of the Korean culture. And Isuppose but my brain was wired in a
way that I was very curious fromthe get go, and I wanted to
expand my horizon in terms of theavailability of the culture that I would like
to access, and for me,Europe was the place to go because it
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was so much older than America.And whenever I met Europeans, I was
absolutely enthralled with the way way notjust the way they spoke about their culture,
but you know, not just food, but because when I was little,
it was mostly food and less wine, if you will, And I
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was an ignoramus when it came towine before I started, you know,
in the wine business. And Iwas just really fascinated about the European culture
in general, and in particular Italianculture, because I knew quite a few
Italian American friends. I had friends, and also so many went to Italy
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and they absolutely fell in love withthe Italian culture and this you know,
dolce vita, if you will,the lifestyle. So I suppose I was
conditioned. I was destined to cometo Italy in a way. Well,
and then you also met your husbandwho is Italian, and that probably helped.
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That was that was purely coincidental,because I stopped in Verona because I
had friends. One of my bestfriends was a went out with a girl
from Verona. So I met thisfriend through my friend. My best friend.
Through him, I came to Veronaand I was a guest at my
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friend's extended family. But I stoppedin Verona. But my real goal was
to go sailing in Greece for twomonths with two groups of professional Austrian sailists.
But I had a base in Verona, so it was actually just coincidental.
Then I when I came back fromsailing, I said, okay,
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I'll never sail again. That wasso traumatic experience being part of this crew,
sailing every day, not being youknow, not being landing your feet
to the ground ever. So Iput that away, and then I met
my husband. So it's not veryoriginal story, if you will. So
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I met my husband. It wasmuch easier for, I think, for
me to adapt to Italian culture thanfor him to have come to Stateside.
Also because he's a medical doctor andhis license was not recognized, you know,
so we made that compromise. Youknow, there's so much I'm taking
away from this conversation already. Firstof all, I love I love the
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fact that you went over there togo sailing and met your husband on a
stopover. That's so fun. Andb I love the expat expat thing because
you're kind of expatting on both sidesof the Atlantic, aren't exactly. Absolutely,
it's really great, great, Andyou know, Steve, I'm actually
from New York. I was bornthere and raised there and whatnot. So
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I understand when you say that youthink people in Italy tend to think that
you're aggressive. Yet you have torepurpose it to say it's assertive, because
I feel the same way. WhenI come down South and meet Melanie's friends
and family that you grew up,they think he's like, so new York.
They all think I'm so New Yorkand so so I got to get
it done now, and it's it'sjust me being a New Yorker. Yeah.
You know, it's funny because whenI first came and I used to
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say assertive, like assertiva, itdidn't really exist in the Italian language.
They're like, what what is that? It's just like everyqull I'm saying.
You know, I'm very incredibly resilient. You know, twenty years ago when
you said resilient or assertive, theyhadn't they hadn't a clue. They're like,
that is not a word, youknow in Italian. Now of course,
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you know, it's you know,they're like resilients, you know,
or resiliens. It's very common now. So we've seen you in action and
it reminds me of when I wasproducing major events, and I get the
assertive you've got to be take chargethough, You've got to take charge,
particularly when you're running events in Italyexactly. So how did you end up
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with Italy? I mean you joinedVanilla in two thousand tens. How did
that match up happen and this relationshipbegin again? It's a bit personal in
a way. I stayed in Italybecause of my husband, and he's a
medical doctor. He started the firstinpatient treatment of eating disorders and it's so
amazing. A whole nother discussion.Yeah, so that's the reason why I
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stay. And I started a publishinghouse, produced books, started a master's
program for doctors and psychologists. SoI worked with him because I believed in
what he was doing. But aftera while I needed some space of my
own, so I said, Ido something else in terms of work.
And my idea was at the timeto do like a funds of a fund,
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whine investment fund and launch it atin Italy as an event. That
was how I get in touch withmin Italy, you know, like opera
wine of the situation, but anevent. But then, of course,
this was in two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and in
my misfortune, I was fortunate becauseof course there was the crash and I
hadn't actually launched the fund yet.So then I got recruited. You know,
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they were trying to recruit me todevelop their international business because I am
from Verona, and Verona is quitesmall, so everybody knows each other.
And I got recruited to develop,you know, to kind of see opportunities
internationally for Verona Fierra because, asyou know, in Italy is just a
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brand, it's not a company,and it is owned by it's one of
the affairs that the exhibition company owns, which is called Verona Fiere. So
I was recruited to do some businessdevelopment. And then by chance I discovered,
of course one of the product isin Italy. And I suppose what
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you want, wine professionals call thebug the wine bug. I got the
wine bug because when I saw inItaly, I thought there was so much
potential and I wanted to, youknow, spread the gospel in a different
way. So that's how I started. Well you've spread quite a bit,
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and really, you know, whatI really appreciate and we both do about
you, is that you have thatvision. And there are people who do
and make things happen, and thenthere are the people who envision what can
be and make that happen. AndI belong in that latter school, and
I know you do. So let'stalk about some of the initiatives that you
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have spearheaded and how the impact hasbeen made for Italian wines. When I
first started, because I hadn't aclue about the wine business, right,
I was just coming from the financialside and from the event the execution side.
I had no clue. And Ihad realized that in Italy at the
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time, em was still running theVinitaly events abroad and I just realized when
I took over that just by doingevents abroad, Why what Why does Binicli
work in Varna the flagship Because Viniciis the aggregator and he in aggregates everything
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that has to do with Italian winein terms of the suppliers, the producers,
but also the communication and pr everything, the sextories, et cetera.
So so if you think about it, in New York, for example,
every single day there is something,you know, there's an event about wine,
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especially Italian wine. Whether it's aregional organization, whether it's the you
know, consotium, whether it's aportfolio taste, whether it's this private you
know events, there's always an event. And I said, what is the
value add of in Italy something thatVinicli does that the others can't Because at
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inn Italy she's the aggregator and everyone'slow wine, gum middle everyone is under
this umbrella. But if we goas soon as we go abroad, we're
actually at the same level, right. I mean, there can be vinically
event that can be slow wine,event that can be gum meddle, that
can be you know, the BrunelloConsolsium, et cetera, et cetera.
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So I you know, after awhile, I realized there wasn't really a
great value add or for me toorganize another walk around tasting, Like I
just didn't see that because at thetime I was already doing opera Wine Opera
Wine. I see the value adright because I started that because first of
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all, it's an opening event andall the principles actually participate in an event
and it is absolutely the you knowthis, I call it the Sexy and
Glam event to premier event verve inItaly. There is a purpose, right
But when we do an event,you know, walk around tasting with producers
abroad, I didn't really see agreat value. So I said, what
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can we do which adds value whichthe others cannot do on their own.
And I thought of an Italy InternationalAcademy creating Italian wine ambassador more as an
aggregator. Because I was actually doingthis for my other business. I had
started the Master's program for you know, it's an annual program however, and
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it's only Italian for doctors and psychologists, and it is still still going on
and it is the benchmark you knowprogram master's program for eating disource orders of
cognitive behavioral therapy. So I said, why don't I do something similar so
I can create this community of Italianwine Ambassadors. That's how it started.
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Well it's brilliant because you know,there's so many walk around events. We
were producing the same event over andover and over again for everyone region.
You knew when yeah, when Iclosed M Young Communications for many reasons including
you know, a life change,I had breast cancer, my dad's died,
he was part of the company.Blah blah blah. But one of
the things was we were doing thesame event over and over and over,
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and it was like it wasn't evenfun anymore. It was like that nobody
wanted to do any of the wonderfulnew ideas we had. And you're so
fortunate that you work with an organizationwhere they listened and you could take the
reins and go and creating the Academy, the Italy International Academy, is a
stroke of brilliance because you were creatingambassadors and they spread the gospel. Oh
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sounds religious, but and you didit based on a business model you had
already started, which is a master'sprogram, much like many people do the
certification programs now. But it builds, and it really has built because now
everybody is doing I remember we weredoing Italian Wine Masters and Tuscan Wine Masters,
and every two minutes, everybody wasdoing these master's programs, which I
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think kind of started from the conceptof what you were doing, and people
suddenly all wanted to do those.But it's good because it enhances education and
getting people to speak the language ofwine correctly and accurately about their specific areas
of expertise. Yeah, and youknow, we have a community because we
have people, you know, comingfrom all over the world, and of
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course it's another you know, anotheropportunity to bring them back to in Italy
because it's the flagship is just beforein Italy. So they stay, stay
onward. And we've gone through Ibelieve about thirteen hundred candidates. The pass
rate is quite low, you know, it's twenty five percent, only one
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other four pasts. But because andact, I mean, if you think
about it, what is it,it's really nothing, right, It's not
it's not anything official, right VintelInternational Academy. Yes, you get a
pin, but you are recognized asthe maximum as expert right in the field.
And people some of the candidates,they will take the exam four or
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five times, you know, andthe people, the community is very tight.
So we have you know, weget together even through like what I
call the Chita Scholastica of course throughoutthe year that which we organize and they
come back. We create different opportunitiesfor them. If we create different opportunities
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for them in terms of jobs,because of course there is a network system
and we also bring them back forwine to wine as as you've seen,
a lot of the ambassadors will comeback. That's another opportunity. And not
only that when they come back.My point is not that it's not just
about in Italy the annual wine fat, but that they can actually be true
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ambassadors right and make them come becomeinterested in coming back to the territory,
who do different regions as many timesas possible. Maybe because I was coming
not from the wine world, Ikept everyone kept on saying, you know,
France, you know they're so successful. But I look at Franz and
I said, you know, theydon't really make you know, so much
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better wines, but they're very goodat creating ambassadors. That's how I felt.
Because they were able to bring themback to France and they were hooked
right so and they loved the territoryand the hospitality. And I said to
myself, if we can only getthem back to Italy many times as possible,
Italians are so great. They're numberone when it comes to hospitality in
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my opinion. So that was kindof you know, that's what clicked in
my mind, and I said,this is what we need to create online
ambassadors. You know, it's anindustry program, but as you talk,
I could see, you know,a consumer element of this to a consumer
program because really everybody's worrying about consumersselling wine to consumers. Now when people
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go to Italy or whatever in France, they become adjunct ambassadors, as we
say, because they had such anincredible experience, and it's it's you're basically
selling that experience experiential education to consumers. Whereas obviously the academy is as you
said, the pass rates fairly low, which surprised me. So it is
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obviously very intense for the industry,but I think it's a it's a great
trajectory to go to as we lookat the global market of selling wine to
people and getting wine into people's hands, which is everybody's talking about now how
to get younger people excited about wineagain, so that it seems like there's
an opportunity there to do more toget that gospel out there. But just
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we also we do want to touchon wine to wine because we went.
It was our first time and wewatched that we actually are ambassadors. We
think it's a terrific program and overallwriting topic of how to sell and market
Italian wines not just in the UnitedStates but globally because there were some interesting
countries. And how to address changingtastes, particularly on the younger generation,
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was just a topic not only atthe Wine to Wine program, but the
Pino Grigio de la Vinitzi conferences wewent to a week prior. The main
topics were how to get young peopledrinking wine again, excited about wine premiumization
that came up over and over andover again. And you know, I
was fascinated by the standing room onlyAI and your industry, how it's impacting
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it. And I know the EUjust leveled some major regulations with AI,
but these are like evolving topics thatare really important for the business of wine.
Yeah, you know, this wastenth edition, so we've been doing
it for ten years now. Peopleare surprised when they come for the first
time because we have more than athousand people attending. I believe this year
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was about twelve hundred. And thereare parallel sessions and everything starts on time
and they're fifty sessions, so peopleare amazed. That was amazing. Yeah,
because I've run it very very tight, you know, and I have
everybody start the sessions, even ifpeople are not there, even if there
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are five people in their room,I will start the session because otherwise there's
no way we can finish on time. And the format is such that you
know, it's half an hour ofthe speech if you will, and then
fifteen minutes of Q and A.And it works like a charm because in
the beginning I had more like apanel session, but I realized that it
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never went deep dive right into anything, so I opted for less speakers,
and as you've seen, everything isin English, so it brings an international
audience as well as obviously the speakers. And we just love it because I
do believe that it is a trulynetworking opportunity for the wine industry of people.
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You know, people come back,e're in and ear out. I
wish more producer attended, but asyou know, Italians tend to think they
know everything you know, but weare persistent. So I think we had
some good, great feedback from variousgroups this year, and they promised me
that they will be more proactive intrying to recruit other members of the wine
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community. You know, one ofthe things I found interesting that even though
there were There were a number ofspeakers that were invited to come and speak
at Wine to Wine, but theywere also all sitting in the audience at
other events learning about the other facetsof what Wine to Wine was teaching.
Absolutely, it was a wrapped audienceall the way around. I mean,
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I thought that was very impressive.There had several takeaways from it and also
several ideas for future ones. Andthe one on artificial intelligence was probably my
eye opener because I literally spoke topeople after that who were using AI regularly.
We haven't been, and you know, I'm trying to shop an article
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around about that right now, becauseI just had no idea how it can
streamline a business and do so manythings. And then I tested it and
I asked chat GPT to write amarketing plan for a wine startup. It
was pretty spot on. It wasfascinating. I think with certain things I
think it you cannot rely on itone hundred percent, but certainly it can
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be a tool. That's how Ifeel. And you know, we have
a big graphics, video, audioteam, so of course they use it
for many things that we do.There are different applications in terms of the
wine business. I still have togo through the videos. So but I'm
looking reciently. She's you know,she's so clever and she's she's definitely one
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of the sharpest one in the pact. So I it's like when I invite
her, I know, it's aguarantee that she will be very succinct but
also punctual about the the subject.It was a very good seminary and it
was standing room only. It reallywas. You know, you mentioned publishing
a video. You have a wholepublishing arm and video production in the podcast.
(28:34):
So it's it's I mean, it'sa fairly large company. And you
know, something that somebody told meis is you this is your company.
You don't work for Verona Fiera.This is your company, right, So
yeah, So we have two utwo areas of the business that we run.
We have a client. First ofall, I am not employed by
(28:56):
Verona Ferre, you know, weare. We are a full service agency.
Like I developed the products, theconcepts, some go through and then
we also do the execution. Sowe're like from the beginning to end,
it's a turnkey kind of agency.And then of course there are the maintenance
and there are so many products thatwe've created together, right from Opera Wine
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to the Wine competition, to theVinagel International Academy, to the Wine to
Wine and so many others. Then, in addition to that, because I'm
very interested in the digital side ofthe communication, from the get go,
we were very very much involved withthe communication side and the editorial side because
(29:38):
I also was a publisher and Iam still a publisher. We started a
new wine publishing business, but wewere always a publisher. In terms of
the business. I did more medicalstuff, so it was very natural because
when we do Vinagel International Academy,I needed a textbook, so I had
to do a textbook, and bythat, when I did the tech book,
(30:00):
I did the Mama Jumbushrimp because Ineeded to do like a skinnier version
for wine lovers and the textbook wastoo challenging to be appreciated by a wine
lover, so we did that,and then I started the podcast because I
also needed a digital documentation. Sofor me, a lot of things got
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started because I needed ways to documentin a different way. So when we
were doing Opera Wine, for example, I needed someone to interview in an
audio format all the producers, soI had him singularly interview each of the
producers and then we put it online. We broadcasted it throughout the year,
(30:48):
and during Wine to I had himdo the same thing. So in the
very beginning twenty seventeen we did justyou know, seventeen and eighteen, he
did these two moments, you know, all of the recordings at during Opera
Wine Vin Italy and then at Winetwo Wine, and that gave us enough
episodes go through the entire year,right and then during the pandemic, that
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was a great opportunity for us becausewe weren't doing a lot of events live
and I had a lot of youknow, extra time to be I couldn't
I wasn't traveling. So we wentfrom one episode a week, same thing
you guys are doing now, Isuppose a weekly right to we're to to
(31:33):
a daily show every single day.And you know you are podcasters yourself,
so you know what that means.So that means we just accelerated, and
we went from thirteen thousand listens downloadsin twenty seventeen to last year three million
alone just on SoundCloud now counting notcounting you know, all of the video
(31:59):
chanels, all of the social mediaall of we are also in Russia and
China not counting those, and thisis just from SoundCloud as an aggregator.
So you know, we are incrediblyprolific and just by by pure numbers we've
we are I think one of thetop top you know listens you know,
(32:24):
wine podcasts in the world. Actually, well, congratulations, I think you
and giving it focus. I thinkthe most successful podcasts are focus podcasts that
really give people they become the goto destination for learning and listening. And
that's what you've been able to do. And you've diversified it because you've got
different types of podcasts but all arounda similar theme. So congratulations on that,
(32:46):
because it's not easy to build,uh and diversify a successful podcast.
We know because we've been doing thisfor ten years and it's it's we've done
a lot of sweat equity to getright. You get have been doing much
longer than I have, so youknow you know what that means. But
I think you know, in orderto do this, I think you know,
(33:08):
I'm not a perfectionist, as youcan see, right, So it's
not about making every single episode interms of audio or the content or the
interviews in the perfect manner for me. It was more important. Some people
will say, you know, quantity, Okay, I can still accept that
(33:29):
as a as a constructive criticism,but it's we really focus on the authenticity
and originality of the each podcast,so you can we can only do this
because we're a team. You've gota big team now too, right,
mm hmm. We're about I meanin house is thirty and then we get
(33:50):
we used to be forty two beforethe pandemic. But a lot of my
people they come from outside, sothey went back home. But we're good
all at thirteen now in terms ofpeople who are in house, that's big.
That's pretty big. That's pretty big. It's pretty big. So what
do you what do you what's next? What do you want to do next?
(34:15):
I do want to create, youknow, more content. I'm still
We started doing the video podcast onlytwo years ago because because mostly prior before
the pandemic, I didn't really geta chance to stay in Italy. Paradoxically,
(34:37):
I never got a chance to visitthe wineries. I discovered this technology
called automobile during pandemic. You know, so I had never I used to
never drive. I mean I usedto always have cars with like low mileage
in terms of traveling, and Iwould change and it's like it would be
(35:00):
a very new call. But thenduring the pandemic, I realized I don't
I you know, I couldn't findanymore. But I'm like, okay,
you know, I can actually dry, which was interesting, so I would
I went to visit wineries. Andwhen I went to visit wineries, for
me, you know, I love, of course, you know, you
(35:20):
know, incredible hospitality from every singlewineries that I visit, so you know,
lovely food and wine. But forme, that was just not enough.
You know, I wasn't happy.I feel like I needed to share
this experience. So that's when Istarted doing the video podcast, which is
a lot more difficult, I haveto tell you, because every time I
(35:44):
travel, I need I need atleast three other people with me, right,
so, like you know, we'retraveling in at least and four people
and that's becomes very economically engaging andalso time consuming. So but people,
the producers will love, you know, they love to see themselves, you
(36:06):
know, and even though our reachfor the podcast it's so much deeper and
wider, but they don't care.They want to they want that damn video
interview, you know, so wedo that, and you know, then
of course we get you know,with the videos, it's not just the
interview, but it's also you know, the drone shots, the scenery,
(36:28):
the canteen and where you can geneyou can actually show the lies and the
grapes and the vineyards and the people. So that all makes it so much
more layered and and I think youcan have them kind of look. The
look and feel is quite different fromthe audio, right, So audio is
very intimate, I find. However, I think video just is a different
(36:52):
type of animal in terms of podcasting. And so we've been doing that for
two years now. It's difficult becausethe YouTube because we didn't we didn't get
the jumpstart in the very get go, you know, even just by the
fact that we've started in seventeen.There were very few wine podcasts, you
know, in the very beginning,but now they're like literally thousands, I
(37:15):
think, and they're having a hottime. It's not so easy for them
to take off, right because youhave that first mover, you know,
advantage, and I think you know, you and I both benefit from that.
So the video podcasts were on theother hand, kind of a newbie,
(37:36):
and it's not easy. I thinkwe're reaching you know, five thousand
follower subscribers, which is very,very difficult. I thought it would be
a lot easier. But we're going, we're you know, we're persistent,
so we are going to continue.Well, you know what is it's consistence
to be consistent and persistent they gohand in hand. And you know,
(38:00):
we're believe me. We go throughthis all the time. And when we
started Nobody, you know, ourshow was based on Charlie Rose, remember
his television shows In Depth Inside theActors Studio, and we never planned to
be only wine. We always madeit three sixty wine Spirits, food Hospitality
because my background was really in thechef world. And then the wine end
(38:22):
of it came as after I hada well established chef event company doing multiple
tasting events all around the country.Then the wine came into it, and
then wine took off and David joinedthe company. After we were together,
I said, you're so expert,come in because that business was going crazy.
And then I only had chefs workingfor me. And then when we
(38:43):
started The Connected Table, it waslike that inside the Actor Studio meets Charlie
Rose and now I think a lotof people are doing a similar type show,
including couples. But that was thevision we had. Yeah, I
mean you were you is in certainsense, so it was all about people
too, and for us, itwas really not about talking about the wine.
(39:04):
It was talking about the vision behindthe one, yeah, and really
getting to know the story behind thewine or the family legacy that came with
the winery and not necessarily the newrelease of Wind themselves. That's what we
can tell when we get pitched whenwe know people have not listened to our
podcast, because when we need thepitch just about the wine, we realized
they haven't really listened to our shows. Yeah, I mean I think,
(39:25):
you know, like our Payoffice,you know Italian Wine podcast, which is
so blatantly obvious, but also chinchinwith Italian wine people, So it is
we are also people focused. Wedo do one like very very very geeky
episode series. It's called The AmbassadorsCorna on Clubhouse and I started that during
(39:45):
the during the you know the pandemic. Of course, Clubhouse like the big
thing, and we had a huge, huge following, and now there aren't
that many people on Clubhouse but westill use it as a re coding platform
because they have excellent, excellent audio, I think capability. I think they're
(40:06):
the finest in terms of social media, and we still use that because we
have the Ambassador's Corner is this isalso all connected through you know, vin
Itaalin International Academy, because this ispart of the community effort and we have
them. One of the ambassadors choosestheir their favorite Italian wine producer and they
(40:28):
do did the Deep Dive and it'slasts one hour sixty minutes, and I
was like, who the hell isgoing to listen to sixty minutes of you
know, uh itanglish you know,wine descriptors and wine story instead that that
is actually one of the most popularshows because we have that very large Italian
(40:49):
wine community of you know, expertsbut also geeks. So that's a special
series and you know, I thinkthe fact that you can offer different type
of conversation to different folks, Ithink that also is it's helpful as well.
That's what we do with the ConnectedTable SIPs, which is a sip
(41:09):
and shorter and more product focused andwe're tasting it's and it you know,
you can spend a story, azillion ways. If you're if you know
what you're doing and you know whoyour audience is, and that's really what
it's about. So let's get alittle personal and some time here. You
know, we only see you whenyou're working and you're on and and you're
(41:30):
in I we call full court pressevent mode. How do you spend your
downtime when you have downtime, Iactually don't have downtime case well, I
don't know. I know that,but I don't really believe in downtime.
So when I get home, let'ssay i'm not traveling. I'm traveling quite
(41:52):
a bit, but when i'm home, i'd like to get home before dinner
and have a drink by myself andI if it's not too cold, I'll
sit out on the terrace and I'lljust decompress. And that can only be
like for fifteen minutes. I'm quitehappy. And then you know, in
my house there's a saying at eightpm the dinner serve, So whoever's there
(42:15):
eats. That is the protocol inmy house. Then usually I kind of
work for me, it's pleasant work. If I go home with a bunch
of articles, that's the time whereI can read by myself without having constant
interruption, or someone will send melike check out this you know, profile
(42:36):
or whatever, and then I'll youknow, you get into that rabbit hole,
like you go to that profile andthen you look into what they're doing,
and then you go deeper and thenlike, oh, then they they
know this person and you know,if that's kind of my I guess pastime.
I'd love to read, but unfortunately, I have to be honest,
I don't get that much chance toread. When I'm driving. I either
(43:00):
listened to podcasts or I listened toa blinkist. That's kind of my cheat
sheet too. For the for thebooks, but they're mostly business books.
I used to ski, but myniece, you know, my niece,
it's kind of I have a Lesianligament, so I stopped skiing. I
(43:22):
used to run before wine. ActuallyI was telling my friend that I did
two marathons before I started wine.But again because of the knee, I
stopped running. Are you playing thepiano? No? No, I stopped
because I think because I was itwas it wasn't pleasant. I it was
(43:45):
kind of traumatic, you know,so I stopped. I think at elementary
school, like you know, Iwas in a band or whatever part of
the but I stopped because I justI didn't enjoy it. Well, that's
a good reason to start, you. Yeah, when something's forced on you
(44:09):
and you and you want to bewith your friends and you want to do
other things and you're forced to forcedto play the piano, then you kind
of don't like it because I wishI had continued to be quite honest,
now, you know, as anold lady, but what do you want
to do? What have you notdone? And we've about two minutes,
(44:29):
love, What have you not donethat you would like to do? I
mean like I want to write abest selling novel. I mean that's like
all I've achieved so much. Iwant to write a best selling novel so
bad. What do you want todo? Well? I I guess that's
it's all about legacy, right,What do you want to leave behind?
In a way, I don't thinkit's one thing that I would like to
(44:50):
do, but I would like tohave made a difference. I know that
sounds like wish you watch it veryvague, but I I would like to
I suppose when I die to saythat you know I have I was able
to make a difference. That's kindof my thing. And I've started a
foundation, a nonprofit foundation with ProfessorShansa. I don't know if you've met
(45:15):
him. He's that big, whitehaired he looks like Einstein, you know,
hundred yourself. Yeah, he's mychief scientist. He's the most generous
soul in the wine industry I've evermet. He's a bying genitis and he's
like a very big, large figurein the Italian wine industry. And we
(45:37):
would like to do something so thatwe can make more of a significant difference
in the wine education, you know, in terms of not just the technical
side to it, but also communicationand marketing. And so we are thinking
about making a big project because onlywhen you're a nonprofit you can access you
(46:04):
know, the europain funding and allof that stuff. So we're thinking about
doing a big project together. Isuppose that's my next big project. What's
a good one. What's the nameof it. It's called Mia Grego,
which means it's one word, whichmeans I aggregate myself. You know.
I joined and and I didn't wantto have a wine name affiliated to this
(46:30):
foundation. I just wanted to bea little bit more generic so that we
can also it belonged to everybody andthe sense of being becoming together, the
togetherness with the purpose. So youknow, anyway, anytime you start a
foundation, of course you need alot of work, which we have very
little time, neither of us.So but it has been approved. It's
(46:52):
it took like you know, Ithink, ten months to get it proved,
so we in addition to you know, depositing a large amount of money,
but we've done all of that,so I think we are ready to
now examine some of the opportunities thatwe are trying to create for ourselves.
(47:13):
That's really exciting. Again. Yeah, I love the community aspect of it
because the name conveys community and comingtogether and I think at the end of
the day and that connection, whichis why we created the name Connected Table.
Creating that connection and sense of communityand building on it to enrich and
enhance people's lives and their livelihoods isreally a great impact. You've already made
(47:37):
an impact, but what where you'regoing is the lasting impact, Because there's
the impact when you live, andthere's the impact when you were gone,
but your legacy lives on. Ithink you've got a great track with this
foundation. To do that, Stevie, Yeah, I hope. So,
you know, it's also a matterof getting This will only work if we
(47:59):
can we can attract recruit the righttype of players right and right now.
You know, not everyone is soaltruistic and not. This has to function
also, it has to be youknow, everyone talks about it. I'm
so tired of everybody talking about sustainabilitybecause then they think it's about you know,
it's only about the environment, butyou know, it has to be
(48:22):
economically sustainable otherwise nothing will work andim and people don't realize. So you
know, that was one of thewine as well. Yeah, economic sustainability
is critical because you you know itand it is different from environmental. They're
both important, but you can't haveone and not the other. They have
(48:43):
to entity. You know, ithas to be socially, it has to
be cultural, it has to beenvironmental, but it also has to be
economically sustainable because otherwise it's you know, who's going to do it, Who's
who It's just not doable, it'snot feasible. Well, it's very exciting,
I think, you know, thefuture looks bright. Times are always
challenging, but the challenges are whatmakes us stronger and more resilient and more
(49:07):
determined to take things to a newdirection, next level. And I think
it takes people like you and manyof the people that you work with to
do that. We've really enjoyed chattingwith you. We could talk forever.
Stevie. How can how can ourlisteners find and follow you? What's the
best way or the many ways?I suppose you know on LinkedIn that's kind
(49:30):
of the best way to connect withme professionally, so I know you're not
a psychopath killer, you know,that's kind of the best way I can
see also your CD that's my NewYork side. But I'm very inclusive.
I'm an open networker. So ifyour profile picture is not, you know,
a psychiatic, you know, killerkind of instinct, then I'll connect
(49:52):
with you. That's a good wayif you want to connect with professionally.
Otherwise, you know, through Instagram, Stevie can and one word to to
too, because Stevie Kim was alreadytaken. Who knew. It's actually like
a stripper like Stevie Kim. It'slike a porn star. Interesting, Oh
(50:17):
my goodness. Ye well, yeah, there's a couple of Melonie Young's out
there too, so yeah, absolutely. You know, one of them is
a travel writer, so I getlots of invitations to go on trips.
Oh oh that's convenient. That's quiteconvenient. It is. It's another's a
writer and parenting, it's all crazy. Well, I think your your your
(50:37):
vision is important. My mother wasa philanthropist and her legacy was important and
giving back was ingrained in me.And everything we do has to have a
way of enrichment and helping people learnand inspire. So I think it's important.
And I like the way you're thinkingand going. But again, you've
(50:58):
been listening to The Connected Table Livewith Melanie Young and David Ransom. We
hope you enjoyed this conversation. Youcan hear all the shows on like forty
semi channels on demand. You canfind us, but most importantly check us
out at the Connected Table on Instagramand our messages always stay insageably curious.
The topics and opinions expressed in thefollowing show are solely those of the hosts
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We make no recommendations or endorsements forradio show programs, services, or
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(00:21):
FOURCY Radio. Welcome to the ConnectedTable Live where your hosts, Melanie Young
(00:44):
and David Ransome. You're insatiably curiousculinary couple. We travel the world to
bring you our listeners stories of theamazing people who shape the wine, foods,
spirits and hospitality industry. We bringyou what they eat, eat,
what they drink, why you shouldbe eating and drinking where they are and
visiting those countries. And if youfollow us, you know that we go
(01:08):
to Italy a lot, right,David, Absolutely, Melanie, And in
fact we just returned in November fromtwo weeks in Italy and it was a
great trip. Yes, and weattended a couple of conferences as well well
were there, so it wasn't justvisiting wineries this time. Yeah, most
people think we're always there on vacation, but it's work and it's work we
enjoy, as do the people wemeet and the guests. Today. We've
(01:30):
been ships passing in the night foryears and we're so honored to have her
because she really is a force thatwe admire and she's really worked hard to
bring Italian wines to the forefront.If you work in the wine business,
and specifically in Italian wines, thename Stevie Kim is a familiar one.
Stevie is a managing director of inItaly, the largest wine exhibition in the
(01:53):
world, which takes place in eachspring in Verona. We've actually not attended,
believe it or not, but weneed to. Stevie's impact has made
quite an influence globally and has touchedmany lives because the producers get to know
her, and Stevie has really helpedVanillai evolve from just the trade fair as
(02:15):
we know it and it's massive,to a global brand through several initiatives which
she has spearheaded, which we willdiscuss, including the Italy International Academy,
the Wine to Wine business Forum,which we recently intended and really recommend if
you're in the business, The ItalianWine Cut podcast, which I've been honored
to be a guest on an operawine. Stevie also has several publishing projects,
(02:38):
including the Jumbo Shrimp Guide to ItalianWine. It's part of a bigger
publishing initiative. I have the bookhere in front of me. It's kind
of fun and really interesting, andshe is very active in social media and
really helping people evolve in their career. Her career trajectory is probably as diverse
(02:58):
and fascinating as many grapes produced inItaly, and as I said, our
paths across many times. We're actuallysitting down for the first time to speak
with her on the Connected table.So Stevie Kim welcome, Thank you very
much for having me today. It'svery exciting. I know you've been in
the business way longer than I have. Your a veteran, and I'm excited
(03:21):
to have our chat today finally,because you know, we see each other
often. Right in many of theevents, we kind of, like you
said, we were just sliding doorsright at the same time. So sometimes
you have to force me to sitdown put on my headphone so we can
have a proper chat. Thank youfor that. Well, you know,
that's what we created this show,is that we just wanted to have that
(03:43):
vision of sitting down at a tablenormally you were eating and drinking together to
have what we think is important,a conversation. So Stevie, we start
all of our guests the same way. We love to talk about where they
come from and their roots. Let'stake a bit to yours. You were
born in Korea and raised in theUnited States. We're curious about your childhood
(04:04):
and how old you were when yourfamily came the United States and your family.
I was born in Korea like yousaid, and we immigrated exposed when
I was about six with my folks, so most of my childhood was stateside,
and then I moved to Europe.I would travel to Europe every summer
(04:28):
since I was sixteen, mostly toItaly. But when you graduate from school,
I think we're kind of the samegeneration where you get the Yeul pass
and you do the whole the entireyou know, two months in Europe,
and I always stopped in Italy becauseI was fascinated with Italy and being from
New York, you have a lotof Italian American friends, so inexorably you
(04:51):
go back to their origin, right. So I think that's how I got
very, very connected, and Ihave this calivity to be always, you
know, coming back to Italy andItalian culture. I suppose I came to
Italy like I physically moved to Italywhen I was twenty four, so I've
(05:15):
been here most of my grown uplife now more or less. When you
were young, what did you wantto be when you grew up? And
then what inspired you to get intothe business and the things? You know?
This is what I always say.You know, I look Asian,
so I'm very current. There's thattraditional side of me and the traditional upbringing,
if you will. But then growingup in New York, I have
(05:35):
that mentality of the New yorka andthen having lived in Europe most of my
life, and you know, havingan Italian family because my original sin is
Italian, is my husband is Italian. That's the reason I'm here, I
think. You know, people alwaysthink like, do you feel more American
or do you feel more Italian?And I always go back to saying that
(05:59):
when I'm in New York. Ifeel more European definitely, you know,
hands down, But then when I'min Italy, I often feel that I'm
more American in a way the wayI think and approach things, especially when
it comes to perhaps attitude and character, because Italians tend to think that I
am aggressive, especially for a woman, which I would like to think of
(06:23):
as being asserted. Right, SoI think it's I think it's just a
combination of my upbringing, my culture, and also of course what I'm what
I've been exposed to in my lifetime, and like I said, I've been
now most of my life in Italy. So perhaps I think it's a privilege
(06:46):
being exposed to so many different culturesand have the privilege of working in Italian
line is also that, right,meeting all these divers people, because if
you come to Italy is yes,one country, but in a way like
all different regions, every little province, as you know, it's like it
(07:09):
it's a country in itself. Right. So when I was little, going
back to way way back, theKorean culture didn't really give you a lot
of space for I suppose you know, like you know, young kids have
dreams, like you want to becomea fireman or the president of America.
You don't really have a choice.In a way, the Korean tradition gives
(07:32):
you a certain path. My pathwas being pianist. So I started playing
the piano when I was very,very little, and I think that's practically
where I got my discipline, becauseI was little and I recalled very well.
When I was even I think Iwas three or four or five,
(07:53):
I started playing immediately. And youwould play the piano in the dog for
like many many hours, right,So those kind of discipline, that's the
tradition. And also even from stateside, our only path was to go to
university. It wasn't the question whetheryou should go to college. It was
(08:15):
a question of which college, right. So I think that is very you
know you live Melanie and David.You know, New York, there's a
big Kurran community, and I thinkevery crane you meet they have that kind
of you know, discipline in away, and that is absolutely the upbringing
(08:37):
of the Korean culture. And Isuppose but my brain was wired in a
way that I was very curious fromthe get go, and I wanted to
expand my horizon in terms of theavailability of the culture that I would like
to access, and for me,Europe was the place to go because it
(08:58):
was so much older than America.And whenever I met Europeans, I was
absolutely enthralled with the way way notjust the way they spoke about their culture,
but you know, not just food, but because when I was little,
it was mostly food and less wine, if you will, And I
(09:18):
was an ignoramus when it came towine before I started, you know,
in the wine business. And Iwas just really fascinated about the European culture
in general, and in particular Italianculture, because I knew quite a few
Italian American friends. I had friends, and also so many went to Italy
(09:43):
and they absolutely fell in love withthe Italian culture and this you know,
dolce vita, if you will,the lifestyle. So I suppose I was
conditioned. I was destined to cometo Italy in a way. Well,
and then you also met your husbandwho is Italian, and that probably helped.
(10:05):
That was that was purely coincidental,because I stopped in Verona because I
had friends. One of my bestfriends was a went out with a girl
from Verona. So I met thisfriend through my friend. My best friend.
Through him, I came to Veronaand I was a guest at my
(10:28):
friend's extended family. But I stoppedin Verona. But my real goal was
to go sailing in Greece for twomonths with two groups of professional Austrian sailists.
But I had a base in Verona, so it was actually just coincidental.
Then I when I came back fromsailing, I said, okay,
(10:50):
I'll never sail again. That wasso traumatic experience being part of this crew,
sailing every day, not being youknow, not being landing your feet
to the ground ever. So Iput that away, and then I met
my husband. So it's not veryoriginal story, if you will. So
(11:11):
I met my husband. It wasmuch easier for, I think, for
me to adapt to Italian culture thanfor him to have come to Stateside.
Also because he's a medical doctor andhis license was not recognized, you know,
so we made that compromise. Youknow, there's so much I'm taking
away from this conversation already. Firstof all, I love I love the
(11:33):
fact that you went over there togo sailing and met your husband on a
stopover. That's so fun. Andb I love the expat expat thing because
you're kind of expatting on both sidesof the Atlantic, aren't exactly. Absolutely,
it's really great, great, Andyou know, Steve, I'm actually
from New York. I was bornthere and raised there and whatnot. So
(11:54):
I understand when you say that youthink people in Italy tend to think that
you're aggressive. Yet you have torepurpose it to say it's assertive, because
I feel the same way. WhenI come down South and meet Melanie's friends
and family that you grew up,they think he's like, so new York.
They all think I'm so New Yorkand so so I got to get
it done now, and it's it'sjust me being a New Yorker. Yeah.
You know, it's funny because whenI first came and I used to
(12:18):
say assertive, like assertiva, itdidn't really exist in the Italian language.
They're like, what what is that? It's just like everyqull I'm saying.
You know, I'm very incredibly resilient. You know, twenty years ago when
you said resilient or assertive, theyhadn't they hadn't a clue. They're like,
that is not a word, youknow in Italian. Now of course,
(12:41):
you know, it's you know,they're like resilients, you know,
or resiliens. It's very common now. So we've seen you in action and
it reminds me of when I wasproducing major events, and I get the
assertive you've got to be take chargethough, You've got to take charge,
particularly when you're running events in Italyexactly. So how did you end up
(13:03):
with Italy? I mean you joinedVanilla in two thousand tens. How did
that match up happen and this relationshipbegin again? It's a bit personal in
a way. I stayed in Italybecause of my husband, and he's a
medical doctor. He started the firstinpatient treatment of eating disorders and it's so
amazing. A whole nother discussion.Yeah, so that's the reason why I
(13:26):
stay. And I started a publishinghouse, produced books, started a master's
program for doctors and psychologists. SoI worked with him because I believed in
what he was doing. But aftera while I needed some space of my
own, so I said, Ido something else in terms of work.
And my idea was at the timeto do like a funds of a fund,
(13:50):
whine investment fund and launch it atin Italy as an event. That
was how I get in touch withmin Italy, you know, like opera
wine of the situation, but anevent. But then, of course,
this was in two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and in
my misfortune, I was fortunate becauseof course there was the crash and I
hadn't actually launched the fund yet.So then I got recruited. You know,
(14:16):
they were trying to recruit me todevelop their international business because I am
from Verona, and Verona is quitesmall, so everybody knows each other.
And I got recruited to develop,you know, to kind of see opportunities
internationally for Verona Fierra because, asyou know, in Italy is just a
(14:37):
brand, it's not a company,and it is owned by it's one of
the affairs that the exhibition company owns, which is called Verona Fiere. So
I was recruited to do some businessdevelopment. And then by chance I discovered,
of course one of the product isin Italy. And I suppose what
(14:58):
you want, wine professionals call thebug the wine bug. I got the
wine bug because when I saw inItaly, I thought there was so much
potential and I wanted to, youknow, spread the gospel in a different
way. So that's how I started. Well you've spread quite a bit,
(15:22):
and really, you know, whatI really appreciate and we both do about
you, is that you have thatvision. And there are people who do
and make things happen, and thenthere are the people who envision what can
be and make that happen. AndI belong in that latter school, and
I know you do. So let'stalk about some of the initiatives that you
(15:43):
have spearheaded and how the impact hasbeen made for Italian wines. When I
first started, because I hadn't aclue about the wine business, right,
I was just coming from the financialside and from the event the execution side.
I had no clue. And Ihad realized that in Italy at the
(16:04):
time, em was still running theVinitaly events abroad and I just realized when
I took over that just by doingevents abroad, Why what Why does Binicli
work in Varna the flagship Because Viniciis the aggregator and he in aggregates everything
(16:27):
that has to do with Italian winein terms of the suppliers, the producers,
but also the communication and pr everything, the sextories, et cetera.
So so if you think about it, in New York, for example,
every single day there is something,you know, there's an event about wine,
(16:48):
especially Italian wine. Whether it's aregional organization, whether it's the you
know, consotium, whether it's aportfolio taste, whether it's this private you
know events, there's always an event. And I said, what is the
value add of in Italy something thatVinicli does that the others can't Because at
(17:11):
inn Italy she's the aggregator and everyone'slow wine, gum middle everyone is under
this umbrella. But if we goas soon as we go abroad, we're
actually at the same level, right. I mean, there can be vinically
event that can be slow wine,event that can be gum meddle, that
can be you know, the BrunelloConsolsium, et cetera, et cetera.
(17:34):
So I you know, after awhile, I realized there wasn't really a
great value add or for me toorganize another walk around tasting, Like I
just didn't see that because at thetime I was already doing opera Wine Opera
Wine. I see the value adright because I started that because first of
(17:56):
all, it's an opening event andall the principles actually participate in an event
and it is absolutely the you knowthis, I call it the Sexy and
Glam event to premier event verve inItaly. There is a purpose, right
But when we do an event,you know, walk around tasting with producers
abroad, I didn't really see agreat value. So I said, what
(18:18):
can we do which adds value whichthe others cannot do on their own.
And I thought of an Italy InternationalAcademy creating Italian wine ambassador more as an
aggregator. Because I was actually doingthis for my other business. I had
started the Master's program for you know, it's an annual program however, and
(18:40):
it's only Italian for doctors and psychologists, and it is still still going on
and it is the benchmark you knowprogram master's program for eating disource orders of
cognitive behavioral therapy. So I said, why don't I do something similar so
I can create this community of Italianwine Ambassadors. That's how it started.
(19:02):
Well it's brilliant because you know,there's so many walk around events. We
were producing the same event over andover and over again for everyone region.
You knew when yeah, when Iclosed M Young Communications for many reasons including
you know, a life change,I had breast cancer, my dad's died,
he was part of the company.Blah blah blah. But one of
the things was we were doing thesame event over and over and over,
(19:25):
and it was like it wasn't evenfun anymore. It was like that nobody
wanted to do any of the wonderfulnew ideas we had. And you're so
fortunate that you work with an organizationwhere they listened and you could take the
reins and go and creating the Academy, the Italy International Academy, is a
stroke of brilliance because you were creatingambassadors and they spread the gospel. Oh
(19:51):
sounds religious, but and you didit based on a business model you had
already started, which is a master'sprogram, much like many people do the
certification programs now. But it builds, and it really has built because now
everybody is doing I remember we weredoing Italian Wine Masters and Tuscan Wine Masters,
and every two minutes, everybody wasdoing these master's programs, which I
(20:14):
think kind of started from the conceptof what you were doing, and people
suddenly all wanted to do those.But it's good because it enhances education and
getting people to speak the language ofwine correctly and accurately about their specific areas
of expertise. Yeah, and youknow, we have a community because we
have people, you know, comingfrom all over the world, and of
(20:37):
course it's another you know, anotheropportunity to bring them back to in Italy
because it's the flagship is just beforein Italy. So they stay, stay
onward. And we've gone through Ibelieve about thirteen hundred candidates. The pass
rate is quite low, you know, it's twenty five percent, only one
(20:59):
other four pasts. But because andact, I mean, if you think
about it, what is it,it's really nothing, right, It's not
it's not anything official, right VintelInternational Academy. Yes, you get a
pin, but you are recognized asthe maximum as expert right in the field.
And people some of the candidates,they will take the exam four or
(21:22):
five times, you know, andthe people, the community is very tight.
So we have you know, weget together even through like what I
call the Chita Scholastica of course throughoutthe year that which we organize and they
come back. We create different opportunitiesfor them. If we create different opportunities
(21:42):
for them in terms of jobs,because of course there is a network system
and we also bring them back forwine to wine as as you've seen,
a lot of the ambassadors will comeback. That's another opportunity. And not
only that when they come back.My point is not that it's not just
about in Italy the annual wine fat, but that they can actually be true
(22:06):
ambassadors right and make them come becomeinterested in coming back to the territory,
who do different regions as many timesas possible. Maybe because I was coming
not from the wine world, Ikept everyone kept on saying, you know,
France, you know they're so successful. But I look at Franz and
I said, you know, theydon't really make you know, so much
(22:29):
better wines, but they're very goodat creating ambassadors. That's how I felt.
Because they were able to bring themback to France and they were hooked
right so and they loved the territoryand the hospitality. And I said to
myself, if we can only getthem back to Italy many times as possible,
Italians are so great. They're numberone when it comes to hospitality in
(22:52):
my opinion. So that was kindof you know, that's what clicked in
my mind, and I said,this is what we need to create online
ambassadors. You know, it's anindustry program, but as you talk,
I could see, you know,a consumer element of this to a consumer
program because really everybody's worrying about consumersselling wine to consumers. Now when people
(23:12):
go to Italy or whatever in France, they become adjunct ambassadors, as we
say, because they had such anincredible experience, and it's it's you're basically
selling that experience experiential education to consumers. Whereas obviously the academy is as you
said, the pass rates fairly low, which surprised me. So it is
(23:33):
obviously very intense for the industry,but I think it's a it's a great
trajectory to go to as we lookat the global market of selling wine to
people and getting wine into people's hands, which is everybody's talking about now how
to get younger people excited about wineagain, so that it seems like there's
an opportunity there to do more toget that gospel out there. But just
(23:59):
we also we do want to touchon wine to wine because we went.
It was our first time and wewatched that we actually are ambassadors. We
think it's a terrific program and overallwriting topic of how to sell and market
Italian wines not just in the UnitedStates but globally because there were some interesting
countries. And how to address changingtastes, particularly on the younger generation,
(24:26):
was just a topic not only atthe Wine to Wine program, but the
Pino Grigio de la Vinitzi conferences wewent to a week prior. The main
topics were how to get young peopledrinking wine again, excited about wine premiumization
that came up over and over andover again. And you know, I
was fascinated by the standing room onlyAI and your industry, how it's impacting
(24:49):
it. And I know the EUjust leveled some major regulations with AI,
but these are like evolving topics thatare really important for the business of wine.
Yeah, you know, this wastenth edition, so we've been doing
it for ten years now. Peopleare surprised when they come for the first
time because we have more than athousand people attending. I believe this year
(25:10):
was about twelve hundred. And thereare parallel sessions and everything starts on time
and they're fifty sessions, so peopleare amazed. That was amazing. Yeah,
because I've run it very very tight, you know, and I have
everybody start the sessions, even ifpeople are not there, even if there
(25:32):
are five people in their room,I will start the session because otherwise there's
no way we can finish on time. And the format is such that you
know, it's half an hour ofthe speech if you will, and then
fifteen minutes of Q and A.And it works like a charm because in
the beginning I had more like apanel session, but I realized that it
(25:55):
never went deep dive right into anything, so I opted for less speakers,
and as you've seen, everything isin English, so it brings an international
audience as well as obviously the speakers. And we just love it because I
do believe that it is a trulynetworking opportunity for the wine industry of people.
(26:17):
You know, people come back,e're in and ear out. I
wish more producer attended, but asyou know, Italians tend to think they
know everything you know, but weare persistent. So I think we had
some good, great feedback from variousgroups this year, and they promised me
that they will be more proactive intrying to recruit other members of the wine
(26:41):
community. You know, one ofthe things I found interesting that even though
there were There were a number ofspeakers that were invited to come and speak
at Wine to Wine, but theywere also all sitting in the audience at
other events learning about the other facetsof what Wine to Wine was teaching.
Absolutely, it was a wrapped audienceall the way around. I mean,
(27:02):
I thought that was very impressive.There had several takeaways from it and also
several ideas for future ones. Andthe one on artificial intelligence was probably my
eye opener because I literally spoke topeople after that who were using AI regularly.
We haven't been, and you know, I'm trying to shop an article
(27:25):
around about that right now, becauseI just had no idea how it can
streamline a business and do so manythings. And then I tested it and
I asked chat GPT to write amarketing plan for a wine startup. It
was pretty spot on. It wasfascinating. I think with certain things I
think it you cannot rely on itone hundred percent, but certainly it can
(27:48):
be a tool. That's how Ifeel. And you know, we have
a big graphics, video, audioteam, so of course they use it
for many things that we do.There are different applications in terms of the
wine business. I still have togo through the videos. So but I'm
looking reciently. She's you know,she's so clever and she's she's definitely one
(28:11):
of the sharpest one in the pact. So I it's like when I invite
her, I know, it's aguarantee that she will be very succinct but
also punctual about the the subject.It was a very good seminary and it
was standing room only. It reallywas. You know, you mentioned publishing
a video. You have a wholepublishing arm and video production in the podcast.
(28:34):
So it's it's I mean, it'sa fairly large company. And you
know, something that somebody told meis is you this is your company.
You don't work for Verona Fiera.This is your company, right, So
yeah, So we have two utwo areas of the business that we run.
We have a client. First ofall, I am not employed by
(28:56):
Verona Ferre, you know, weare. We are a full service agency.
Like I developed the products, theconcepts, some go through and then
we also do the execution. Sowe're like from the beginning to end,
it's a turnkey kind of agency.And then of course there are the maintenance
and there are so many products thatwe've created together, right from Opera Wine
(29:18):
to the Wine competition, to theVinagel International Academy, to the Wine to
Wine and so many others. Then, in addition to that, because I'm
very interested in the digital side ofthe communication, from the get go,
we were very very much involved withthe communication side and the editorial side because
(29:38):
I also was a publisher and Iam still a publisher. We started a
new wine publishing business, but wewere always a publisher. In terms of
the business. I did more medicalstuff, so it was very natural because
when we do Vinagel International Academy,I needed a textbook, so I had
to do a textbook, and bythat, when I did the tech book,
(30:00):
I did the Mama Jumbushrimp because Ineeded to do like a skinnier version
for wine lovers and the textbook wastoo challenging to be appreciated by a wine
lover, so we did that,and then I started the podcast because I
also needed a digital documentation. Sofor me, a lot of things got
(30:23):
started because I needed ways to documentin a different way. So when we
were doing Opera Wine, for example, I needed someone to interview in an
audio format all the producers, soI had him singularly interview each of the
producers and then we put it online. We broadcasted it throughout the year,
(30:48):
and during Wine to I had himdo the same thing. So in the
very beginning twenty seventeen we did justyou know, seventeen and eighteen, he
did these two moments, you know, all of the recordings at during Opera
Wine Vin Italy and then at Winetwo Wine, and that gave us enough
episodes go through the entire year,right and then during the pandemic, that
(31:12):
was a great opportunity for us becausewe weren't doing a lot of events live
and I had a lot of youknow, extra time to be I couldn't
I wasn't traveling. So we wentfrom one episode a week, same thing
you guys are doing now, Isuppose a weekly right to we're to to
(31:33):
a daily show every single day.And you know you are podcasters yourself,
so you know what that means.So that means we just accelerated, and
we went from thirteen thousand listens downloadsin twenty seventeen to last year three million
alone just on SoundCloud now counting notcounting you know, all of the video
(31:59):
chanels, all of the social mediaall of we are also in Russia and
China not counting those, and thisis just from SoundCloud as an aggregator.
So you know, we are incrediblyprolific and just by by pure numbers we've
we are I think one of thetop top you know listens you know,
(32:24):
wine podcasts in the world. Actually, well, congratulations, I think you
and giving it focus. I thinkthe most successful podcasts are focus podcasts that
really give people they become the goto destination for learning and listening. And
that's what you've been able to do. And you've diversified it because you've got
different types of podcasts but all arounda similar theme. So congratulations on that,
(32:46):
because it's not easy to build,uh and diversify a successful podcast.
We know because we've been doing thisfor ten years and it's it's we've done
a lot of sweat equity to getright. You get have been doing much
longer than I have, so youknow you know what that means. But
I think you know, in orderto do this, I think you know,
(33:08):
I'm not a perfectionist, as youcan see, right, So it's
not about making every single episode interms of audio or the content or the
interviews in the perfect manner for me. It was more important. Some people
will say, you know, quantity, Okay, I can still accept that
(33:29):
as a as a constructive criticism,but it's we really focus on the authenticity
and originality of the each podcast,so you can we can only do this
because we're a team. You've gota big team now too, right,
mm hmm. We're about I meanin house is thirty and then we get
(33:50):
we used to be forty two beforethe pandemic. But a lot of my
people they come from outside, sothey went back home. But we're good
all at thirteen now in terms ofpeople who are in house, that's big.
That's pretty big. That's pretty big. It's pretty big. So what
do you what do you what's next? What do you want to do next?
(34:15):
I do want to create, youknow, more content. I'm still
We started doing the video podcast onlytwo years ago because because mostly prior before
the pandemic, I didn't really geta chance to stay in Italy. Paradoxically,
(34:37):
I never got a chance to visitthe wineries. I discovered this technology
called automobile during pandemic. You know, so I had never I used to
never drive. I mean I usedto always have cars with like low mileage
in terms of traveling, and Iwould change and it's like it would be
(35:00):
a very new call. But thenduring the pandemic, I realized I don't
I you know, I couldn't findanymore. But I'm like, okay,
you know, I can actually dry, which was interesting, so I would
I went to visit wineries. Andwhen I went to visit wineries, for
me, you know, I love, of course, you know, you
(35:20):
know, incredible hospitality from every singlewineries that I visit, so you know,
lovely food and wine. But forme, that was just not enough.
You know, I wasn't happy.I feel like I needed to share
this experience. So that's when Istarted doing the video podcast, which is
a lot more difficult, I haveto tell you, because every time I
(35:44):
travel, I need I need atleast three other people with me, right,
so, like you know, we'retraveling in at least and four people
and that's becomes very economically engaging andalso time consuming. So but people,
the producers will love, you know, they love to see themselves, you
(36:06):
know, and even though our reachfor the podcast it's so much deeper and
wider, but they don't care.They want to they want that damn video
interview, you know, so wedo that, and you know, then
of course we get you know,with the videos, it's not just the
interview, but it's also you know, the drone shots, the scenery,
(36:28):
the canteen and where you can geneyou can actually show the lies and the
grapes and the vineyards and the people. So that all makes it so much
more layered and and I think youcan have them kind of look. The
look and feel is quite different fromthe audio, right, So audio is
very intimate, I find. However, I think video just is a different
(36:52):
type of animal in terms of podcasting. And so we've been doing that for
two years now. It's difficult becausethe YouTube because we didn't we didn't get
the jumpstart in the very get go, you know, even just by the
fact that we've started in seventeen.There were very few wine podcasts, you
know, in the very beginning,but now they're like literally thousands, I
(37:15):
think, and they're having a hottime. It's not so easy for them
to take off, right because youhave that first mover, you know,
advantage, and I think you know, you and I both benefit from that.
So the video podcasts were on theother hand, kind of a newbie,
(37:36):
and it's not easy. I thinkwe're reaching you know, five thousand
follower subscribers, which is very,very difficult. I thought it would be
a lot easier. But we're going, we're you know, we're persistent,
so we are going to continue.Well, you know what is it's consistence
to be consistent and persistent they gohand in hand. And you know,
(38:00):
we're believe me. We go throughthis all the time. And when we
started Nobody, you know, ourshow was based on Charlie Rose, remember
his television shows In Depth Inside theActors Studio, and we never planned to
be only wine. We always madeit three sixty wine Spirits, food Hospitality
because my background was really in thechef world. And then the wine end
(38:22):
of it came as after I hada well established chef event company doing multiple
tasting events all around the country.Then the wine came into it, and
then wine took off and David joinedthe company. After we were together,
I said, you're so expert,come in because that business was going crazy.
And then I only had chefs workingfor me. And then when we
(38:43):
started The Connected Table, it waslike that inside the Actor Studio meets Charlie
Rose and now I think a lotof people are doing a similar type show,
including couples. But that was thevision we had. Yeah, I
mean you were you is in certainsense, so it was all about people
too, and for us, itwas really not about talking about the wine.
(39:04):
It was talking about the vision behindthe one, yeah, and really
getting to know the story behind thewine or the family legacy that came with
the winery and not necessarily the newrelease of Wind themselves. That's what we
can tell when we get pitched whenwe know people have not listened to our
podcast, because when we need thepitch just about the wine, we realized
they haven't really listened to our shows. Yeah, I mean I think,
(39:25):
you know, like our Payoffice,you know Italian Wine podcast, which is
so blatantly obvious, but also chinchinwith Italian wine people, So it is
we are also people focused. Wedo do one like very very very geeky
episode series. It's called The AmbassadorsCorna on Clubhouse and I started that during
(39:45):
the during the you know the pandemic. Of course, Clubhouse like the big
thing, and we had a huge, huge following, and now there aren't
that many people on Clubhouse but westill use it as a re coding platform
because they have excellent, excellent audio, I think capability. I think they're
(40:06):
the finest in terms of social media, and we still use that because we
have the Ambassador's Corner is this isalso all connected through you know, vin
Itaalin International Academy, because this ispart of the community effort and we have
them. One of the ambassadors choosestheir their favorite Italian wine producer and they
(40:28):
do did the Deep Dive and it'slasts one hour sixty minutes, and I
was like, who the hell isgoing to listen to sixty minutes of you
know, uh itanglish you know,wine descriptors and wine story instead that that
is actually one of the most popularshows because we have that very large Italian
(40:49):
wine community of you know, expertsbut also geeks. So that's a special
series and you know, I thinkthe fact that you can offer different type
of conversation to different folks, Ithink that also is it's helpful as well.
That's what we do with the ConnectedTable SIPs, which is a sip
(41:09):
and shorter and more product focused andwe're tasting it's and it you know,
you can spend a story, azillion ways. If you're if you know
what you're doing and you know whoyour audience is, and that's really what
it's about. So let's get alittle personal and some time here. You
know, we only see you whenyou're working and you're on and and you're
(41:30):
in I we call full court pressevent mode. How do you spend your
downtime when you have downtime, Iactually don't have downtime case well, I
don't know. I know that,but I don't really believe in downtime.
So when I get home, let'ssay i'm not traveling. I'm traveling quite
(41:52):
a bit, but when i'm home, i'd like to get home before dinner
and have a drink by myself andI if it's not too cold, I'll
sit out on the terrace and I'lljust decompress. And that can only be
like for fifteen minutes. I'm quitehappy. And then you know, in
my house there's a saying at eightpm the dinner serve, So whoever's there
(42:15):
eats. That is the protocol inmy house. Then usually I kind of
work for me, it's pleasant work. If I go home with a bunch
of articles, that's the time whereI can read by myself without having constant
interruption, or someone will send melike check out this you know, profile
(42:36):
or whatever, and then I'll youknow, you get into that rabbit hole,
like you go to that profile andthen you look into what they're doing,
and then you go deeper and thenlike, oh, then they they
know this person and you know,if that's kind of my I guess pastime.
I'd love to read, but unfortunately, I have to be honest,
I don't get that much chance toread. When I'm driving. I either
(43:00):
listened to podcasts or I listened toa blinkist. That's kind of my cheat
sheet too. For the for thebooks, but they're mostly business books.
I used to ski, but myniece, you know, my niece,
it's kind of I have a Lesianligament, so I stopped skiing. I
(43:22):
used to run before wine. ActuallyI was telling my friend that I did
two marathons before I started wine.But again because of the knee, I
stopped running. Are you playing thepiano? No? No, I stopped
because I think because I was itwas it wasn't pleasant. I it was
(43:45):
kind of traumatic, you know,so I stopped. I think at elementary
school, like you know, Iwas in a band or whatever part of
the but I stopped because I justI didn't enjoy it. Well, that's
a good reason to start, you. Yeah, when something's forced on you
(44:09):
and you and you want to bewith your friends and you want to do
other things and you're forced to forcedto play the piano, then you kind
of don't like it because I wishI had continued to be quite honest,
now, you know, as anold lady, but what do you want
to do? What have you notdone? And we've about two minutes,
(44:29):
love, What have you not donethat you would like to do? I
mean like I want to write abest selling novel. I mean that's like
all I've achieved so much. Iwant to write a best selling novel so
bad. What do you want todo? Well? I I guess that's
it's all about legacy, right,What do you want to leave behind?
In a way, I don't thinkit's one thing that I would like to
(44:50):
do, but I would like tohave made a difference. I know that
sounds like wish you watch it veryvague, but I I would like to
I suppose when I die to saythat you know I have I was able
to make a difference. That's kindof my thing. And I've started a
foundation, a nonprofit foundation with ProfessorShansa. I don't know if you've met
(45:15):
him. He's that big, whitehaired he looks like Einstein, you know,
hundred yourself. Yeah, he's mychief scientist. He's the most generous
soul in the wine industry I've evermet. He's a bying genitis and he's
like a very big, large figurein the Italian wine industry. And we
(45:37):
would like to do something so thatwe can make more of a significant difference
in the wine education, you know, in terms of not just the technical
side to it, but also communicationand marketing. And so we are thinking
about making a big project because onlywhen you're a nonprofit you can access you
(46:04):
know, the europain funding and allof that stuff. So we're thinking about
doing a big project together. Isuppose that's my next big project. What's
a good one. What's the nameof it. It's called Mia Grego,
which means it's one word, whichmeans I aggregate myself. You know.
I joined and and I didn't wantto have a wine name affiliated to this
(46:30):
foundation. I just wanted to bea little bit more generic so that we
can also it belonged to everybody andthe sense of being becoming together, the
togetherness with the purpose. So youknow, anyway, anytime you start a
foundation, of course you need alot of work, which we have very
little time, neither of us.So but it has been approved. It's
(46:52):
it took like you know, Ithink, ten months to get it proved,
so we in addition to you know, depositing a large amount of money,
but we've done all of that,so I think we are ready to
now examine some of the opportunities thatwe are trying to create for ourselves.
(47:13):
That's really exciting. Again. Yeah, I love the community aspect of it
because the name conveys community and comingtogether and I think at the end of
the day and that connection, whichis why we created the name Connected Table.
Creating that connection and sense of communityand building on it to enrich and
enhance people's lives and their livelihoods isreally a great impact. You've already made
(47:37):
an impact, but what where you'regoing is the lasting impact, Because there's
the impact when you live, andthere's the impact when you were gone,
but your legacy lives on. Ithink you've got a great track with this
foundation. To do that, Stevie, Yeah, I hope. So,
you know, it's also a matterof getting This will only work if we
(47:59):
can we can attract recruit the righttype of players right and right now.
You know, not everyone is soaltruistic and not. This has to function
also, it has to be youknow, everyone talks about it. I'm
so tired of everybody talking about sustainabilitybecause then they think it's about you know,
it's only about the environment, butyou know, it has to be
(48:22):
economically sustainable otherwise nothing will work andim and people don't realize. So you
know, that was one of thewine as well. Yeah, economic sustainability
is critical because you you know itand it is different from environmental. They're
both important, but you can't haveone and not the other. They have
(48:43):
to entity. You know, ithas to be socially, it has to
be cultural, it has to beenvironmental, but it also has to be
economically sustainable because otherwise it's you know, who's going to do it, Who's
who It's just not doable, it'snot feasible. Well, it's very exciting,
I think, you know, thefuture looks bright. Times are always
challenging, but the challenges are whatmakes us stronger and more resilient and more
(49:07):
determined to take things to a newdirection, next level. And I think
it takes people like you and manyof the people that you work with to
do that. We've really enjoyed chattingwith you. We could talk forever.
Stevie. How can how can ourlisteners find and follow you? What's the
best way or the many ways?I suppose you know on LinkedIn that's kind
(49:30):
of the best way to connect withme professionally, so I know you're not
a psychopath killer, you know,that's kind of the best way I can
see also your CD that's my NewYork side. But I'm very inclusive.
I'm an open networker. So ifyour profile picture is not, you know,
a psychiatic, you know, killerkind of instinct, then I'll connect
(49:52):
with you. That's a good wayif you want to connect with professionally.
Otherwise, you know, through Instagram, Stevie can and one word to to
too, because Stevie Kim was alreadytaken. Who knew. It's actually like
a stripper like Stevie Kim. It'slike a porn star. Interesting, Oh
(50:17):
my goodness. Ye well, yeah, there's a couple of Melonie Young's out
there too, so yeah, absolutely. You know, one of them is
a travel writer, so I getlots of invitations to go on trips.
Oh oh that's convenient. That's quiteconvenient. It is. It's another's a
writer and parenting, it's all crazy. Well, I think your your your
(50:37):
vision is important. My mother wasa philanthropist and her legacy was important and
giving back was ingrained in me.And everything we do has to have a
way of enrichment and helping people learnand inspire. So I think it's important.
And I like the way you're thinkingand going. But again, you've
(50:58):
been listening to The Connected Table Livewith Melanie Young and David Ransom. We
hope you enjoyed this conversation. Youcan hear all the shows on like forty
semi channels on demand. You canfind us, but most importantly check us
out at the Connected Table on Instagramand our messages always stay insageably curious.
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