01 Dec 2012

Icardi wines in Mozart Wine House

 
 
The 29th of November in the Academy of Sommelier Mozart Wine House in cooperation with company Vintage-M, Moscow had place a professional tasting of Italian wine from Icardi, Piemonte. The event was supported by East European Association of Sommelier and Experts. Six wines produced by the family Icardi were presented by the owner of the winery, Mariagrazia Icardi first at the Academy as tastying, then in the restaurant Pinot Noir during a dinner cooked by chef Philipp Lesquot. Mozart Wine House couldn't miss the chance to ask the Italian lady some questions about her household, her opinion about China customers and the profession of sommelier.

Mozart Wine House: Mariagrazia, your wine and your name are well known and loved by our customers, it's a pleasure to see you in our Wine House. Could you say in three words what is ICARDI for you.

Mariagrazia Icardi: Three words... Nature. Honest. And what is third... (Sergey, manager of Vintage – M says – Passion) Oh, yes, Passion.

MWH: Well and now, please, decode these words.

MGI: Nature is because we are organic. We never use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, we follow the cycles of Nature, listen to its voice. Honest is like our wine. Passion comes from our father, he used to say: without passion we can't do our job.

MWH: Mariagrazia, your name sounds like wine. However, have you studied somewhere or you this work comes to you with you blood?

MGI: (laughing) We were born wine-makers. That was the period when our parents didn't have babysitters and after school we came back and spent our time with Mummy and Dad. I mean, in the vineyard or in the winery. At the age of 10 till 15 I went with my farther in our mini-wan to the restaurants to sell wine. Of course, later I studied in the Academy of Sommelier and learned languages, you know, the wine-maker in our family is my brother and I work in office, do marketing, we do everything by family. We tasted a lot of wine, not only our wine, but different wine from all over the world we have to know more about what is going on.

MWH: Oh, so you graduated an Academy of Sommelier, you know that Mozart Wine House has an Academy of Sommelier. What could you recommend our students?

MGI: It's good, I see a lot of positive changes in Russia. Last time I was here 5 years ago and I should say that Russians improve themselves. What to recommend your students... behave and study well (smiling) Seriously, it is necessary not only to get basic fundamental knowledge, but to get experience. They should keep tasting, visiting wineries, may be stay for some time for a stage. To become a specialist it is really important to be involved in the process all the time.

MWH: Among our guests there are a lot of people who change there life and come to the world of wine after working like lawyer or banker...

MGI: You know, in Italy we see the same. People quit their job to start working with wine. The want to be free. We are free, yes we work all the time nights and days, but we are happy, we are satisfied.

MWH: You said that you traveled a lot and tasted wine in different countries. What do you think about current trends of the market. Does appearance of China influences a lot the situation of producers?

MGI: Yes, I've just come from China and I'm full of impressions. Nowadays the market of China is growing and their interest to wine is enormous. However they are not ready to drink really good wine. What they need is red, sweetish wine with an attractive label about 1-2 Euro in price. I sincerely hope that young people of China, especially in Hong-Kong, who start learning about technology and tasting, will become wine-lovers and even professionals and then this market will be not “must” but real satisfaction for us.

MWH: Well thank you very much. It's time to start the presentation.