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I think Prosecco is a perfect welcome drink. If you're having a banquet and then when the guests arrive the first drink, when they're just mingling, going around talking to people, what you're gonna have is not a very, very strong red. What you're gonna have is bubbly, something light, something elegant, it's just something to get you going, so maybe more men should really open up.

Exactly. Something quite fruity so help you… sometimes when you get really hungry, you cannot consume too much alcohol, Prosecco is just like around 11 or 12 percentage of alcohol.

It's really good enough for you to bring up your appetite if you don’t feel hungry, but consume a little bit of the sweetness and fruitiness.

So if you are a gentleman and listening to this, Prosecco is perfect for you as well. Since you were mentioning champagne, this is actually the next question I'm going to ask. Champagne Prosecco, both are sparkling wines. So what makes Prosecco special?

From my point of view, the Prosecco, it is the image of the fashion, because more and more young generation who are keen on this popular drinks, fashion style and fashion life.

Secondly, compared with other types of wine, Prosecco has low alcohol level and it is not easy to get drunk. For our ladies, we always want to keep the elegance.

Thirdly, I think that Prosecco has its unique taste, fresh and natural. It is not complex and easy drinking;

So last but not the least, it can be provided in any sense of environment and can be matched with any food.

Also, as Roger mentioned, compared with the price, Prosecco’s more competitive than champagne.

Much better value for money.

Yes, much better value.

Sounds like it's a very versatile drink and matches all sorts of scenarios and food.

And Roger I'm sure you have something to add as well.

When you drink something, you have to think about your wallet first, you got a very huge wallet, you go for champagne, no one can stop you, right? As the situation global like pandemic, it's not really in the positive economic situation. So why don't we try something easier to drink?

It's more on the tip of the fashion area. Italy is always on top or two of the fashion world, a lot more competition, for example, like sailing or motor cycling, fancy, assignment sports. They are starting to use Prosecco instead of champagne for the champion who spread in the world. You can see that all the times, right?

So I would say from my point of view, because I'm getting with so many different audiences all the time. To me, I personally love Champagne. There's no problem at all. It's a classic drink, but it's more like a grandfather's drink for me.

It's a bit old fashioned, isn't it, classic but old fashion.

Yeah, it's a bit old fashion. I would like to say Prosecco is more friendly, easy to drink, easy to accept it, more fruit instead of a lot of yeast.

It's interesting that you mentioned that champagne, perhaps it's more complex and you might not really like it. If you don't really know a lot about wine or tasted a lot of wine, but Prosecco is super beginner friendly.

I appreciate what you say about complex. This is exactly the explanation for champagne tasting, because back into my study in London for WACT I mean first time I get to contact champagne, and I almost puke, because this is that too heavy and too complex to me, exactly what you're saying.

And there's a really good quality of Prosecco as well, but there's something important is they add up or they keep a lot more fruitiness into the wine that makes it easier to be drunk.

Honestly, I'm starting to picture this in my head like the Downton Abbey style, everyone's super dressed up， and then you like holding champagne and then having a really sort of posh conversation.

But on the other side, you have all these young fashionable people in these social events in Milan or in London, sipping Prosecco.

All right, let's continue. But let's move a little bit away from the drink itself. Let's move on to some of these events. What kind of memorable experiences have you had promoting Prosecco in China? What kind of events are we talking about? Let's ask Feiling first.

We did a lot of events and activities since the year 2016, catering to the general public and people in the industry. For example, Prosecco Master Class and professional training in 西安, 上海, 北京, 烟台, 成都, 厦门, 重庆, 香港, and 台湾.

And also we do Prosecco music concert in 西安 and 成都 and also we have wonderful Prosecco nights in Embassy Italian 北京 and 重庆. We also published our book named Prosecco on Road.

And we cooperated with so many museum in China, for example, Xi'an Terracotta Horses and various museum, 成都 三星堆rooms.

Can I just ask that is very intriguing, I would never have put Terracotta Warrior and Prosecco or any wine together. What was that event like?

Yeah, we also invited some very famous museum...

Curator?

Yeah, to visit China museum. We just exchange, you know, we move Italian Pompeii Museum.

Pompeii?

Yes, also show their relics in the museum of 三星堆. 三星堆 I remember last 2 years also moved to Roman museum in the Medici museum. (美第奇)

Oh, Medici Museum

They get exchanged. For Prosecco, we just to make the promotion and try to assist them for the finance and for the celebration. In Italy, it's very common after training or after class we must have…

Have a celebration, yes.

Yes, and even in the museum, you know Prosecco with Terracotta Warrior and the Horses, you feel that the long history, you really moved by the scenery.

I love that perspective, because I mean food and drink, this has always been a major part of culture; and obviously all these artifacts, that's definitely historical relics; and to combine these and to be able to sponsor and organize and facilitate these events sounds amazing.

Exactly, and also Prosecco traveling, we took Chinese importers to visit the winery in Prosecco DOC area.

Sounds great.

And furthermore, we hold at least hundreds of times of tasting for prosecco. Even these 2 years, we still insist on doing online tasting and virtual tasting.

Sounds like a great idea, even during the pandemic, why stop enjoying the great wine, right.

Yeah.

And Roger, I know for a fact that you host or you're in charge of probably different types of events, probably more smaller scale, more like parties. Am I right?

Touch the ground. Yeah, true, talking about memory of experience, there’re actually quite a lot. There was so much fun actually, but one impressed me most would be by the end of 2020, the first Rose Prosecco released, which is a pink color Prosecco with the grapes of the Pinot Noir, it’s global release at the end of the 2020.

Right after our new year, and then I organize a barbecue party for the new release of the Prosecco Rose in my seaside restaurant in Xiamen. We had a barbecue feast, with the best sea view and sunny weather. The Rose Prosecco is just perfect because it provides the more textures and complicity to the meals, plus it's close to the summertime, a chilled Rose Prosecco just bring you a beautiful and sexy color.

It also cools you down a lot. So everyone’s singing and dancing, and we had a great fun for the whole day.

Sounds like a great event. Actually, I noticed both you and Feilig were mentioning barbecue, that brings me to another question. Since you guys at Casa Prosecco is all about educating consumers, can you actually recommend a few common food pairings for Prosecco.

I would say in Italy, this is something in their blood. I would like to share with you what sort of Chinese cuisine would go well with Prosecco. As you say, barbecue is really nice because most of barbecue we concentrate on meat, oily, the meaty feeling and you have that some acidity and fruitiness to wash away those uncomfortable…

To balance it off.

Exactly. And then another point, which Feiling just mentioned about the hot pot. When I’m talking about hot pot, I really mean it must be a really, really spicy one. The reason behind it, first of all, it’s acidity.

Prosecco has a really high acidity with the green apple and lime or lemon flavor and then to help you to remove the oily feeling from the hot pot.

The second one is the sweetness, because most of the Prosecco are marked as extra dry. This is the term that shows the Prosecco with efficient sweetness in there, which means not too much but it contains a very soft and gentle touch of the sweetness, will help you to reduce the painful feeling come after the spiciness.

I think this is why Feiling earlier was saying that we can use Prosecco to replace beer.

Yeah, we do have to, because the beer has all different fatness, however Prosecco is the nature fermenting fruit drink, and that helps you a lot to reduce this sort of unhealthy things.

And then last but not least, the nature bubble that generated from the nature fermentation process would also help you to refresh the palate all the time. If you want to remove yourself into the next dishes, have another sip of the Prosecco. They help you to…

Cleanse your Palate.

Exactly.

Ok, I think we've really covered a lot already, but since we have been talking about food, I do also want to ask how does Casa Prosecco collaborate with restaurants and bars?

I'm quite sure every western style of restaurants nowadays in China, especially Italian restaurants…

Definitely have Prosecco.

Must have Prosecco, because this is like something really popular back into Europe, every restaurant, they get used to have some Prosecco to start with all the meals.

So it became like a customer tradition, so you don't even need to train lots western style restaurants to have this, they already have at least two or five brands in house already. And then for the bar, specifically like bar the sort of Relaxing Bar or…

Like the Wine Bar?

Wine bar has to have it, same, same, wine bar have to have it.

But for the same sort of like Rock Bar, let me… they prefer a little bit more for the beer or spirit in hand, sure, however I'm encouraging these things to happen because we have a whole set of Prosecco cocktails to be provided to people, and this is a really genius design.

Actually, I live in 鼓浪屿island. I had a bar. My bar has designed specifically for the 50 different parts of the Mojito, and some of them I use Prosecco to make a Mojito.

You use Prosecco to make Mojito?

Yes, and that is up to the heaven. Yes, and I will make some for you.

If I ever go, I would love to try that out. Definitely. That sounds amazing.

You’re gonna love it so much.

This sounds great. What about globally, Prosecco sales based on the stats you know, has it been going up in recent years?

Lulu you really get to the point, these really important figures I really want to show you. We started with China first, so since 2020, Prosecco imported to China almost doubled the importing figures and 217% up.

This is really, really something. According to this data, there's around 1,469,000 bottles of Prosecco being imported into China. This is amazing.

So during the pandemic?

Yeah, I’d love to show you another figure. In 2020, the worldwide sale, champagne sold 100 million bottles, and you guess how many Prosecco has been sold.

Based on the data you offered about China. I would say worldwide would probably be at least 10 times that of champagne.

No, that much, but 5 times, is it big enough for you.

Five times…

500 million, 500 million Prosecco sold worldwide, Close to 600 million naturally.

Even in the world, it’s getting more and more popular, really, especially in the recent years I've noticed.

Ok, as we're coming towards the end of our talk, I would like to ask both of you, how do you see the future of Prosecco, and also the future of Casa Prosecco?

I’d like to show you the numbers you know 2021, this is from observation economic of Prosecco. These are the new numbers.

Last year, the production of Prosecco bottles that is 627 million, before we were talking about 500 million you know, but now 627 million bottles, turnover around 3 billion.

I have no doubt for the bright future in China, because more and more people who love the Prosecco and also we’re continuously have more trading and tasting and also let them to feel more and really enjoy the life of bubble, enjoy the life of Prosecco.

So I'm full of confidence for the future Prosecco market in China.

I'm sure there will be a sparkling future. And Roger, you have something to add.

The Prosecco sold so much in the world. However, when it comes into China, it's only taken 1% of the whole world sales. I would love to say this is a huge potential to have Prosecco to grow in China. There's another thing I had to say which is the global warming now is raising a lot. You have a glass of the Prosecco in hand it's so essential to cool you down a lot.

I like the way you're thinking, I've learned so much from both of you, honestly, and I'm not just saying this, I personally am a huge lover of Prosecco, even when I have other options of sparkling wine, I will always choose Prosecco; and there's nothing better than Prosecco on like a hot summer day, especially if sitting in a restaurant like Roger’s, looking at the beautiful view with some good friends.

And sunshine.

Exactly, exactly.

And I'm sure Prosecco is going to have just as sparkling a future in China.

Thank you so much. Thank you Feiling, thank you Roger for coming to the show and sharing with us all these wonderful stories about Casa Prosecco and Prosecco.

Thank you, dear lulu. Thank you.

It's been the pleasure.

Yeah, My pleasure.