Photo left : Francesco Gaja
Intro: You are a "master" of expertise, with a contagious passion and drive, with a vision and a talent for constantly shifting gears as the wine market changes constantly if you meet the right people in the right place who give you a podium and project their own exceptional characteristics. In Piemonte, I got that podium place for winetrading from two very important characters: Francesco Gaja and Mauro Carosso! My eternal thanks!
Here is the full story:
It is time to look back on 2025. By the way, not only that, but also time to look back on the trajectory of my fledgling start in wine importing/wine exporting from April 26, 2013. Yep, I've been in the wine business as a trader for 12 years and actually since 2006 I was also interpreter/entertainer at wine domains during my group tours with Piedmont Travel. Everything started WITHOUT a website with excel sheets, with exports because I lived in Barbaresco. In 2015 switched to online sales and import performed by my business partner because I lived permanently in Piedmont until 2019.
Still, a return to the "very beginning" for a moment.
Upon my move in 2012 from Cherasco (Barolo area) to Barbaresco, my "settling down" in this village did not just go unnoticed. The road from Barbaresco to Alba had to be blocked - read heavy traffic jams on both sides - to allow the long moving van with lots of escorts to enter the narrow and steeply descending driveway.
Waiting for the moving van in the local bar with the staff provided by the mayor of Barbaresco immediately led to an impressive introduction. For days I had all kinds of people over (neighbors, owners of wine estates etc...) but the most remarkable was Francesco Gaja, the nephew of Angelo Gaja (The Godfather of Italian Wine).
Even before I received any wine training at what would later come to be known as Associazione Italiana Sommelier, I received three years of practical training through Francesco, Franco to my friends, who transported me from place to place as he was a trader in those days for the large, well-known award-winning wine estates. Also all the parties at the end of the harvest, introduction of the new wines of the award wineries, I was a guest at the side of Franco Gaja. A great way to become known everywhere without spending a single franc.
So I was able to taste from the barrel wines - Barolos, Barbaresco', and others - that would not be on the market until 3 years later. But also the numerous times a week when we had "Aperitivo" on the Strada di Nicolini Basso 16 (my home) and where he put me in touch with his clients' new acquisitions were incredibly important. As a highly accomplished enologist, Franco was a keynote in deciding which wine would be a success and which would not.
Francesco Gaja, showman, passionate enologist, the glue that connected winemakers...His charisma was immense, as was his authority.
After a short training Sommelier at ONAV at the end of 2014 nevertheless opted in early 2015 for Associazione Italiana Sommelier, much more professional, much more intensive. Even between AisAlba and AisTurin there was a mega difference in wines to taste. The great wines of Conterno etc... we could all taste in Turin but not in Alba which is hugely contradictory. Three years at school with last year a lot of practice (yep, going to prune ourselves in the vineyard etc...besides of course wine pairing with the gourmet foods of Piedmont).
I owe an awful lot to Mauro Carosso, Director Master of Wine, President AisPiemonte who, with his immeasurable knowledge, his fervent passion, his wealth of knowledge acquired in books but also directly from the winemakers, his improbably impressive way of conveying a very theoretical knowledge in manageable way.
My respect cannot be expressed in words. I am 300% convinced that Mauro Carosso has no equal in Belgium. I am well aware that I could only get my three-year education by living in Piedmont and that as a Fleming I could not find an education of this magnitude anywhere here. To acquire such extensive knowledge, I had to be one of them, Piedmontese.
Also understand that all the training that institutes in Barolo&Co area do of barely 6 days over 2 sessions spread over the year can never contain the level, intensity and knowledge of studying Sommelier for 3 years. Sommelier in Italy is completely different from what is called sommelier here in Belgium. That's why the courses are three years at Associazione Italiana Sommelier. Each class of three hours with a minimum of three readings per week supplemented with assignments that also take up three hours per week the first two years. Third year an awful lot of tastings, wine pairing, pruning at the winery and other tasks.
Where I am now as a wine professional is the result of the wonderful individuals whose knowledge I eagerly adopted. It is tremendously clear that your own results can only be top notch if you have "teachers" who are also top notch in their subject matter. I thank everyone who contributed to my education but so 99% of that was Francesco Gaja and Mauro Carosso.
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