Zlast year I published the first part of a larger interview with Cezar Ioan that can be read here. There we talked exclusively about wines, today we talk about other topics as well.
For those who don't know, Cezar is a wine journalist, founder and publisher of vinul.ro, organizer of profile competitions, co-initiator of the Romanian National Gastronomy and Wine Day law, co-organizer of the National Congress of Gastronomy and Wine, author of the volume "Connaiseur fău ifose", initiator of the Pleșcoi Revolution, winner of the Radu Anton Roman award, more gourmet than gourmet, more intelligent than hardworking & much more.
fromamong the projects you're working on, tell me a few you can reveal and what you expect from them.
The most important – and I'm not afraid to say it – is to enforce the idea that independent evaluations and scores, to an even greater extent than medals, should and deserve to be displayed on bottles. It is an objective reality that brings more competitiveness - not just competition - to the benefit of producers, traders and consumers alike, without any negative effect at the level of the sector.
The second important project for us is educating and elevating the market through education - of consumers, traders and producers: we believe that the current stage requires a message and language as accessible as possible, criteria and ideas exposed on as many channels as possible, subject to as many debates as possible from which no one should be excluded. The effects we expect are beneficial throughout the chain, and one of them is the marginalization of impostors and wrong ideas, which do nothing but take the minds of professionals and confuse the public. Education is the reason why we get involved in the promotion of sustainability and in defining the identity of some wine regions or some profile associations, as well as in the professional evaluation and auditing of the quality of some categories of wines and wine derivatives such as BIO, Sweet & Aromatic, wormwood, distillates, mixology and promotion in HoReCa (in particular).
I consider cOur professional literature is extremely poor, although we have a considerable history and industry. Why?
For lack of education – which is a defining and increasingly profound constant that characterizes the country. Romania, in general, has a much smaller book market than its neighbors, not to mention the comparison to developed markets. Who should read, in a country with a percentage of nearly 90% of the population evenly divided between functionally illiterate and semi-illiterate? Especially since we are talking about a niche that does not promise the naive the exorcism of fears - ancestral or specific to the modern era - it does not promise quick enrichment, nor perfect sex for the rest of the days, nor ultra-fast personal development until... God.
In the absence of education, acculturation happens to us - a kind of throwing the child down the drain
At least you preparein a book. We can'ttell you more?
It is a re-edited transcription of the "one-minute pills" of educating tastes and cultural acquisitions in the field that I made for a year, every weekday, for Radio France Internationale. Mainly it's about wine, but I mean there also other products and aspects in the field of good taste of many kinds.
How important is educatedtation/educating the general public and how it can make a differencea?
To try to define how important it is could take my life and I probably still wouldn't succeed: the development of languages and the cultivation of networks of inter-human interaction, the development of systems for the transmission of relevant information, the education of thought, the awakening of curiosity for new cultural acquisitions and life experiences or only sensory are generally human concerns that define civilization - I could never pretend to even list them. I would just say that in the absence of education, we care about acculturation - a kind of throwing the child down the drain - and the big problem is that this acculturation I'm talking about will allow the adoption of a culture EVEN WORSE than the one we are giving up, an all-leveling culture at the lowest and lowest common denominator possible, at the lowest level. So EDUCATION MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE and all the differences.
We talked a lot about the potential of distilled or fermented fruit drinks. What conclusions did you come to?
There is enormous economic, but also socio-cultural potential – as demonstrated by the success with which these types of drinks are starting to populate bars, but as imported alternatives. Unfortunately, the Romanian suppliers have not yet noticed this potential to a small extent, and the consumer public is too seduced by the almost kaleidoscopic brilliance of international brands. Due to the same lack of education and self-respect, the Romanian HoReCa does not know how to promote these types of drinks, and the large retail always has alternatives from internationally established brands. I am not saying here to drink Quick Cola or Brifcor instead of Coca Cola and Fanta as worse alternatives to some foreign products, each has its place in the market. I'm just saying let's not throw the "child", the local heritage and tradition, along with the "water" from the tree, into the "swirl" and "flood" of foreign brands.
What trends do you think are coming??
Váleu, Mafalda is not! But, regrettably, I think the trend will be... even deeper segregation. Between those who understand and those who don't understand the importance of education and the responsibility of self-education: a kind of "Those who have it, more will be given to them!" Those who don't have it, what they have will be taken from them!"
Beyond the butada, concretely, I believe that the following segments will expand - and be revalued: sparkling wines, organic and natural wines, sweet wines, mixes that include wine, vermouths and flavored wine-based drinks. Large packaging formats (1 liter, bag-in-box) will increase, and certain brands rated as premium or even superpremium will decrease by a step in terms of positioning. I think that the category of brandies and beer will continue to decline.
I know that you are one of the people (who sit in the shadows) behind the launch of a concept with potential as an example of very good practice in regional gastronomic branding: Iașul & Golia wine. Please elaborate.
I'm not in the shadows at all, just that I didn't hit myself with a brick in the chest "at a rush hour, on social networks". I declared my availability from the very beginning and I advised the organizers of this year's events that promoted this variety, I promoted it in writing, on the radio waves at RFI and by word of mouth in my circle of friends in Bucharest. Unfortunately, the idea that a grape variety and a wine of this variety can generate profit, visibility and individuality for a city - no matter how "in the mind of the rooster" it is! - escapes many from Iași. Just as they also miss the idea that regional gastronomy is a tourist attraction and a source of social cohesion with profit. But maybe that's why we're here.
Wineries, wines and strategies that impressed you in this firsthalf a year?
Pietroasa Viticulture and Winemaking Research-Development Station, from Dealu Mare, Buzau County! They are doing some really good things there – both for vine growing and winemaking and even for wine tourism. I'm thinking primarily of Bohotin Basil, Romanian Tâmiaoasa and a dreamy Fetească neagra, but I can do more. They have enormous potential, they have capable people, unfortunately they are trapped in a system that keeps them relatively out of the market, and because of that they are lagging behind instead of leading, for example. I could not say that they have any strategy that I know and understand, but I look "with interest" towards them. But not even the most important private wineries here have a strategy, they only fantasize that they would.
It's limeUm, what are we drinking?
Beer, what to drink - that wine has become more expensive. I'm kidding, I'm not: we drink water, let's hydrate ourselves - because wine has become more expensive. Or we don't drink - because wine has become more expensive. And the beer. Now, if the government slaps increased VAT on restaurants, we'll be drinking dreams - each one at the scale of the block, under the pretext of fixing the car. Or we go to Greece, we move there: on the terraces, retsina is still 5-6 euros for a 0.5 bottle, house wine is 7-10 euros – at least where I was.
Whatever else you want 😀
Good peace and brains to everyone - but not in the plate, but in the head. If it could, it should also be functional.
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