The marketing extraordinaire and wine producer Renzo Rosso inaugurates a new series of Italian Wine Podcast, the first podcasting project dedicated exclusively to the Italian wine world and available on Soundcloud and iTunes. On March 31st, during the first day of tastings for the new Vinitaly guide 5StarWines – the Book, the fashion tycoon Rosso introduced a wine tasting of red and white wines produced in his winery near Vicenza and recorded an interview with wine writer and Italian Wine Podcast host Monty Waldin.
Renzo Rosso is generally known for being the “denim genius” who founded Diesel Jeans and a number of global fashion and lifestyle brands like Maison Margiela, Viktor & Rolf, and Marni. Albeit traveling internationally for his business, Rosso is deeply attached to his home region, Veneto, and in the mid-nineties purchased a winery in Marostica. Rosso’s winery, Diesel Farm, features over 100 hectares on the Marostica hills at 300 meters of altitude and grows Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Nero. In the interview (available on https://soundcloud.com/italianwinepodcast/monty-waldin-interviews-renzo-rosso-of-diesel-farm), Rosso speaks about his humble beginnings, growing up on a farm and helping his father with the land and the animals: “My father taught me values like how to be loyal to the people, how to respect the people, the kind of education that it is hard to find nowadays in the new generations.” Rosso also discusses his lifestyle and his love of simplicity: “I travel all over the world all week so at the end it is very nice to be home. I live in a very simple way. I like staying at home, I invite my friends, I spend time with my family, my children.”
Rosso’s personal story told wholeheartedly to Monty Waldin is a fitting example of the great communicative power of the podcasting medium, whose beginnings date back to the early 2000s, when MTV VJ Adam Curry and IT programmer Dave Winer pioneered a way to sync audio content to portable players through RSS feeds. When the method was perfected in 2004, Curry launched his own show, which was initially categorized as audio blogging. The coinage of the word “podcast” is generally attributed to BBC journalist and broadcaster Ben Hammersley shortly afterwards. A recent survey on media usage in the U.S. conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital established that “four in ten Americans listen to podcasts.” Podcast listening is growing steadily in the U.S. with an overall 40% rate of podcast listeners (estimated 112 million) (Source: http://www.edisonresearch.com/infinite-dial-2017/). Despite not being a mainstream medium, podcast practitioners have created communities of loyal aficionados, who regularly listen to podcasts on various devices and faithfully subscribe to their favorite shows.
In the wine world, various podcasts both instruct and entertain professionals and amateurs. However, unlike these shows which generally cover wines and wine cultures all over the world, Italian Wine Podcast is the first podcast which focuses solely on the Italian wine universe. With the largest number of native grape varieties in the world concentrated on its national territory, the Italian wine biodiversity is a story worth telling. So is the growing popularity on an international scale of Italian wine. This increasing appreciation is undoubtedly linked to the fact that wine in Italy is inextricably connected with Italian culture, from its centrality in Italian cuisine and lifestyle, to its prominence in Italian agriculture and in shaping distinctive Italian landscapes. Through engaging conversations with key protagonists of the Italian wine scene, Italian Wine Podcast illuminates the milieu in which the Italian wine culture takes shape. Stevie Kim, Managing Director of Vinitaly International speaks highly of Monty Waldin’s broadcasting and interviewing skills: “I am not very spiritual but I believe in destiny. When I chose Monty I had no idea that his father was a radio broadcaster and he had been exposed to recordings since he was little. I think the Italian Wine Podcast is right up his alley because he can relate to the interviewees in such a likable and accessible form, it must be in his DNA.”
Renzo Rosso’s podcast officially launches Italian Wine Podcast second series, in which Monty Waldin will uncover additional compelling stories from wine producers, leading figures in the wine business, but also broader issues affecting wine-making such as global warming and zoning. Stay tuned for more passionate storytelling about Italian wine.
About:
Veronafiere is the leading organizer of trade shows in Italy including Vinitaly (http://www.vinitaly.com), the largest wine and spirits fair in the world. During its 50th edition Vinitaly counted more than 4,100 exhibitors on a 100,000+ square meter area and 130,000 visitors from 140 different countries. The next edition of the fair will took place on 9 – 12 April 2017. The premier event to Vinitaly, OperaWine (http://www.operawine.it) “Finest Italian Wines: 100 Great Producers,” united international wine professionals on April 8th in the heart of Verona, offering them the unique opportunity to discover and taste the wines of the 100 Best Italian Producers, as selected by Wine Spectator. Since 1998 Vinitaly International travels to several countries such as Russia, China, USA and Hong Kong thanks to its strategic arm abroad, Vinitaly International. In February 2014 Vinitaly International launched an educational project, the Vinitaly International Academy (VIA) with the aim of divulging and broadcasting the excellence and diversity of Italian wine around the globe. VIA this year launched the second edition of its Certification Course and today counts 55 Italian Wine Ambassadors and 6 Italian Wine Experts.
