![\"Gian](\"https:\/\/gentologie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Gian-Luca-Passi-de-Preposulo-FIOL-Prosecco-owner.jpg\")
Photo: FIOL Prosecco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
So, welcome to Montreal Gian Luca, this is not the first time I\u2019ve heard?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No, I stayed here for a month last year, I really love the city and I love the food and drink culture you have here. In Bogolia, where I come from, wine culture is more important than all of Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How was the idea of \u200b\u200bFIOL born?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n So back in 2011, my family and the one of my two partners, Giovanni and Pietro, have always been in the wine industry. For my family, it\u2019s by selling the grapes to other people. So in 2011, after several years working away from Rome, I had been working in the fashion industry for about 9 years with Armani and Moncler (Gian Luca has a lot of style), and my two partners were in finance and in the private investment. We decided to start this project together by relying on something we grew up with, the Prosecco. But we decided to make our way by creating an assembly that would allow us to bring the product abroad. It should be understood that sparkling culture (including Champagne) around the world has been essentially developed over the last 10 years. Before the sparkling wine was only for parties like New Year, birthday, a party in a club, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To celebrate something special?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly. So, after 2008, with the financial crisis and people began to look for something more affordable to replace the Champagne and basically they discover the Prosecco by thinking cheaper wine, they expect a less good product. Instead, they find a product at a good price and of good quality. So things started to grow with the culture of creating cocktails. The most common are Aperol Spritz and Bellini, both of which make up two thirds of Prosecco and so when we started the company, and today there are more than 500 million bottles of Prosecco in the world and all come from the region of Veneto. The problem is that if you ask people in different countries of the world if they know about Prosecco, 95% will say yes, and when you ask them to name a brand of Prosecco, and they have no idea.The reason why, often, is that they go to a bar and ask for a Prosecco, and the bartender serves them what they own. They do not know what they drink and bartenders do not know what they are serving. It\u2019s crazy if you think about it. For drinks of different categories, if I ask you what you want, you know, it\u2019s the same for beer, water, vodka, champagne, tea, each category has brands and you know what brand you like and you can name 3 or 4 brands, for Prosecco you cannot name a brand. People do not know it because all the efforts, during all these years, they were to sell the product at a low price.<\/p>\n\n\n In the wine and spirits market, all well-established brands have invested heavily in the marketing and construction of their brands, and all that the Prosecco brands have done in all these years has been selling to discount. The representatives wanted to bring in the product so they were selling it cheaper at bars and restaurants, and after two months, the story repeats itself and repeats itself with another representative and even more discounts. So we tried one thing, sell only for consumption on the spot: in bars, restaurants, hotels, cafes with a stronger identity, with the customers we want to join with FIOL. In Canada, it\u2019s different with the LCBO and the SAQ, which are your supermarkets (note: where you sell alcohol). So, how can we balance the trend? Either go to the SAQ \/ LCBO and see FIOL on the shelves and the on-site consumer experience, how we want to build our brand. So,check with our suppliers. That\u2019s how people see the product when they go out and then buy it. So what does FIOL mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n FIOL is a 17th-century word meaning my little son, my son. It is from time to time in the dialect. But also to make point, you are a fiol. You stand out as the cool guy from your group of friends. The “vial” means the band of cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, “How do you FIOL? Is it a little cool or something like that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly, “How do you FIOL? is based on the creation of exceptional cocktails. Because it\u2019s one thing to say that we love FIOL, but when you enter the mixology and you put the product in the hands of mixologists, which for me are like chefs in the kitchen,they can create something from scratch.We ask bartenders in our partner establishments of this program to create 4 cocktails each season. The cocktails are not based on what they are told to do, but they are created from what they serve in the restaurant. It will be associated with food. So when we do that, we create digital content for the restaurant, for us and for the restaurant customers. They see on social media that they can try these cocktails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It must be difficult, if you want the cocktail that was served at the other bar \/ restaurant, you cannot have it \ud83d\ude09<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You must return to this bar then \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a good thing. \ud83d\ude09<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They keep changing, so the recipe keeps changing every month, it\u2019s like the menu of a restaurant. The upscale restaurant changes the menu each season and offers new dishes. After the start of the program, we will keep track of the cocktails and add the best cocktails to our signature cocktails. So, it\u2019s going to stay with the recipe; basically, people can make the cocktail at home, it\u2019s like sharing the recipe. We give them privileges to get FIOL. We promote FIOL, we promote restaurants, we advertise what we sell and we educate our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is really a nice initiative, with the cocktail culture going well, and the growth of the Aperitivo around the world, the afterhours takes more and more space.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s even better when you are with your partner and your friends, the evening is so much better when you have a good cocktail in front of you. The cocktails elevate the experience. <\/span>It\u2019s another world. It\u2019s already an art, we want to elevate the experience of our customers and it\u2019s fantastic. We therefore correspond to the taste of our customers. You love more bitter, more sour, sweeter. For me, I want people to forget that it\u2019s a Prosecco, I just want to hear FIOL.<\/p>\n\n\n It\u2019s like when people ask for Bollinger, Mo\u00ebt, Veuve Clicquot or Krug?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, that\u2019s right, I know there is a lot of energy, a lot of conversations, education, everywhere. I find it very stimulating, very funny. At the moment, the bars really focus on improving the experience of their customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interesting, and what is your type of cocktails? More bitter, sweeter?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It really depends, I\u2019m really in this space where we just started this program, I must say that I discovered a gigantic culture in the cocktail industry be it at Tales of Cocktails in New Orleans and at the Bar Convent in Brooklyn last month and it was the first edition, the Bar Convent Berlin is the original and there will be about 15,000 people who will be there in October, it\u2019s really impressive. We are treated like wine, but we see our product as a spirit. It\u2019s a bit of a brainwashing, and it\u2019s a bit difficult at first. We are looking for new goals by doing this. We come to disrupt the wine industry by doing it this way. FIOL is not a Super Tuscan nor a great Bordeaux, you know. It\u2019s a wine I call sophisticated, but not pretentious. So when you open a bottle of FIOL, you do not have to think about it, it\u2019s easy. It is with this one that we celebrate every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s your favorite cocktail with FIOL, the one you do at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I come from Veneto, I really grew up drinking Spritz, and I really like to experiment, I also do a culture around mixology. Having worked in the world of fashion, I see bartenders as designers who draw clothes. They do it at random, they know their favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Une publication partag\u00e9e par Polo Ralph Lauren (@poloralphlauren)<\/a> le ![\"Giovanni](\"https:\/\/gentologie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Partners-FIOL.jpg\")
Photo: FIOL Prosecco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n![\"Gift](\"https:\/\/gentologie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FIOL-Bottles.jpg\")
So, we created this project: “How do you FIOL?\u201d It\u2019s like, how do you feel, basically the definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/gentologie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FIOL-Bucket.jpg\")