Interview with the president of the Italian Sommelier Association , Antonello Maietta: the history of AIS, training at the time of Covid, Italian bubbles and the Chinese market, which wine to bring for the New Year in China?
Q: Behind us a really difficult year, let’s do a brief consideration on the past with a forecast on what the near future will be?
Forecast is the most difficult element to characterize. Certainly the past was not on our side, but as in all situations, sometimes we can get ideas from the negative aspects and tend to improve aspects that we had not thought about before. It is always good to take useful suggestions and we have taken many suggestions, which will probably accompany us, but already in this first phase of 2021 they are accompanying us, and will accompany us for who knows how long. After all, I am the president of the Italian sommelier association and a sommelier must always see the glass half level, never half empty, therefore always a lot of optimism is needed.
Q: AIS is one of the oldest and most prestigious associations in Italy but what led to its birth on 7 July 1965?
A: More than 50 years have passed, we were in full economic boom and Italy came out a bit with broken bones from the world war only after twenty years had it managed to revive its fortunes. Catering of a certain profile was growing, quality wine was growing and in that context a professional was needed to advise, to suggest wine. Our four founders realized how much opportunity there was in the field of training and were precursors at the time because in our country there was no figure who formed wine experts from the point of view of wine service. There were oenologists, those who made wine, not those who recommended wine. After all, in Italy, even in restaurants there was not so much a wine list or certain references, a lot of bulk wine was still sold and bottled wines had yet to become characterized.
D: More than half a century of history, we have come a long way. How is the AIS structured today at national and international level, given that in the meantime it has also gone a little outside the borders?
A: Ours is a purely national body: in Italy there are 20 regions, each region has its own territorial structure and within each of these there are area delegations that more or less correspond to the scope of a province. These area delegations number about 150. This allows us to be present throughout the country, also because we are about 40 thousand members. So the goal is not to compete with colleagues abroad, but to characterize a training style. Ais has a very particular training path. From Europe we moved to the United States and for two years now also to China. We call these territorial bodies abroad AIS clubs: meeting points for friends and colleagues from all over the world, therefore open to the participation of anyone, not only for wine professionals, that is, not only for those who are dedicated to service, communication. of wine, but also of simple wine lovers.
D: A pillar of Ais is training. How has it changed, if it has changed, and how will it change considering also the many who are approaching and have approached the world of wine not only for the profession of sommelier but for passion, to get to know it better?
A: Our training course is identical both for those who intend to approach the world of wine from an amateur point of view, as an enthusiast and for those who decide to take up a profession. The training course is exactly the same: you study the same subjects, you do the same hours in the classroom, the same visits to the cellar, the same tasting benches, the same exams, so it is perfectly identical. Naturally, the approach that everyone wants to give to the acquired training changes. The training has certainly changed, because the language has changed, the wine has changed. Until a few decades ago, Italian wine did not have this caliber, this style, this visibility. He needed professionals who could tell it more and more effectively. The language has also changed: today it must be more usable. Sometimes we think of the sommelier as that character who speaks in a way that is a bit difficult, incomprehensible, cryptic, difficult to approach. While today we are able to bring especially young people closer. So when you think of a somewhat antiquated, old, dusty, plastered and unwilling person to dialogue, while instead he is a very open person today and above all towards young people who today represent the band in which we are growing most, so it means than a usable, immediate, effective language.
Q: The first president mentioned China, our country of reference for the communication of Italian wine. How do you see our wine, our productions in such a complex market?
A: I am sure that China will give us great satisfaction. We entered this market late compared to, for example, France. But I believe that the levers that Italian producers are using today are very interesting because together with wine we are also bringing the Italian way of life. The Chinese consumer is very attentive and very demanding, I would like to say so Italian wine must be able to satisfy this curiosity and this need and we will do our best to assist our producers and tell our Chinese friends how much beauty there is. is. In addition to a priceless heritage of vines. I believe that never before has Italian wine reached a very high stratified quality as in recent years. There are certainly some quality peaks, but there is no low level, the average quality tends to rise more and more. In all this we can compete on international markets with very high price values. Once we talked about value for money, I like to talk about value for money. Because behind the wine there is not only the price, but the value of those who experience wine on a daily basis, there are families, areas, stories. I believe that the best goal and in this the Italian producers have been good is that of connaturing wine with food and wine, fashion, design, our environments and landscapes. I believe that Italy is a very popular place in China and that the Chinese consumer has the desire to visit Italy and we will be there waiting for them with pleasure and with a smile, happy to accompany them to our vineyards.
Q: A fundamental aspect of the AIS course is linked to wine / food combinations, a difficult aspect in China given the custom of presenting a lunch or dinner with many courses together. What suggestion do you propose to overcome this cultural difference?
A: Unfortunately I have never been to China physically, but it is a type of cuisine that I really like and Milan offers many references and when I go I see that in fact it is so but let’s face it even in Italy we are looking for a wine that can accord with the I believe that most of the dishes the role of the wine professional, the sommelier is fundamental. The luck of this pairing method is that it does not include a rigid concept: red with meat, white with fish. But it is linked to the characteristics, the structure, the spiciness, the bitter note, the sweet note so the peculiar characteristic of a dish is examined and a wine is paired so it is a valid concept for every kitchen on planet earth, in every place in the world with a possibly Italian wine.
D: With this issue of 19Youbao we bring the knowledge of Italian bubbles to China. How have they grown over the years, even compared to Champagne?
A: There has not been an orderly growth let’s say and remember that Champagne remains a milestone, an international reference point for those who want to consume bubbles especially with the method of refermentation in the bottle. In Italy today we hold the palm of the bubbles that have the highest production in the world with Prosecco. Clearly it is another method, another geographic area, another vine therefore difficult to compare, but today it has about 500 million bottles produced and it is a growing trend, but we also have many other bubbles. I like to remember as a pride of belonging that 50 years before Perignon in fabriano, a very beautiful village in the Marche region, a Scacchi doctor drew up a treatise that spoke of the methods of sparkling wine, long before Perignon developed the Champagne formula. In Italy we know a lot … In addition to the classic areas that are Oltrepò Pavese, Franciacorta, the area of Trento, Altalanga today in every Italian region there are companies that are dedicated to sparkling wine: they find in their local wine scene a vine that is therefore sparkling wines are growing exponentially in our country, accompanied by easy, casual, immediate drinking. In this regard, sparkling wine is a bit of a passpartou, a key to interpretation that sometimes brings together different types of dishes. It is able to accompany many types of dishes.
Q: If you could take a bottle to China to celebrate the Chinese New Year with them, which one would you bring?
A: I would bring the one that could satisfy a large volume of people: I would bring the prosecco which then is the one that could perhaps adapt more adequately to different types of cuisine that also has spiciness or spiciness as reference elements. Prosecco has this ambition not only to have very delicate and gentle bubbles, but also this softness. Clean the taste buds and support the taste profile. Especially in the extradry version, which has a mild sugary residue that could accompany palates that are approaching these types of flavors. In the East it is a bit difficult to approach sparkling wine, but this could be a vehicle to enter that type of market.
Imagine having a flute of Prosecco to propose a toast to our Chinese friends: “I drink to their health, remembering that Italy and China have centuries-old relationships, we always keep these friendships of ours strong”.
