(VERONA, ITALY) -- First airing in March 2017, the Italian Wine Podcast has now entered its fourth year of broadcasting and is set to publish its 500th episode on February 9th, 2021. Originally conceived as a series of interviews with Italian wine producers at the OperaWine event in Verona, Italy, the program has since expanded its range to include key players in the wine industry from around the world. In 2020 Italian Wine Podcast took the decision to move to publishing five episodes a week allowing it to showcase more content and reach a wider audience with diverse topics.

New concepts initiated in 2020 included a series of video interviews (vlogs) connecting Italian wine professionals during Lockdown, and the first regular content in Italian; question and answer sessions with vine geneticist Professor Attilio Scienza, which are accompanied by transcripts in English. Another format that has proved particularly popular to listeners is the audiobook, with the podcast offering two ongoing narrated podcasts a week, for example, Let’s Get US Market Ready, a book by Steve Raye that was successfully launched as an audiobook; giving wine professionals concise and clear insight into how to gain traction in the US Market. It has proved that listeners are looking not only for personal insights into the lives of producers and professionals, but also clear instructional content to aid their business.

That said, the #iobevoacasa – LOCKDOWN SERIES in partnership with Colangelo & Partners, gave glimpses into the more personal aspects of life in Lockdown, it provided some lighthearted content that gave fans an unprecedented look into the lives of industry leaders. Similarly, the Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza Friday series (ongoing) not only touches on serious scientific and genetic questions submitted by the community, but also features the often-hilarious rapport between Professor Scienza and Stevie Kim, Managing Director of Vinitaly International. Although conducted in Italian, translations are then provided thanks to the VIA community, and these are collected in a series of guest blog posts on the Italian Wine podcast website. These different series demonstrate how the Italian Wine Podcast has kept listeners engaged and diversified to cover more aspects of the wine industry, a tactic that has worked as proven by the 454,000 listens across 50 markets in 2020.

The question is, where does the Italian Wine Podcast go from here? Regular host Monty Waldin will return to his roots and present a series dedicated to Organic and Biodynamic wine production, shining a spotlight on Italian producers using these methods. The broader industry focus will come in the form of a new series hosted by Dr. Rebecca Lawrence that will feature interviews with a wide range of people from the wine world, at the heart of which will be issues of inclusion, diversity and female leadership.

This year will also see the Italian Wine Podcast partnering with Colangelo & Partners once again, this time to create a series dedicated to wine business. Topics such as marketing, technology, retail solutions, importation and the like will be presented by host Juliana Colangelo as she interviews key guests using her wine industry know-how and millennial friendly voice.

Prof. Scienza and Stevie Kim will continue to provide listeners with Italian content that tackles the geekier (or funnier!) side of the Italian wine world, and the audiobooks will remain a stalwart, with How To Get US Market Ready continuing, and new content being provided in partnership with the Jumbo Shrimp Guides, this time with a focus on international grape varieties, giving readers exclusive and early access to new Positive Press Publication, the Jumbo Shrimp Guide to International Grape Varieties in Italy.

2021 is shaping up to be another exceptional year for the Italian Wine Podcast with series planned that will not only educate but also entertain, and continue to expose the audience to a broad range of voices within the wine industry.

About: the Italian Wine Podcast: Cin Cin with Italian Wine People! is a podcast project dedicated exclusively to the Italian wine world. The program uncovers the unique world of Italian wine in conversation with some of its key protagonists from all over the world. Italian Wine Podcast aims to inform, educate, and entertain listeners with content for wine professionals and casual listeners alike. Content includes interviews by organic and biodynamic wine writer Monty Waldin; interviews focused on women in the wine industry, hosted by Rebecca Lawrence DipWSET; chats between influencers, educators, and entrepreneurs in the wine world; deep examinations of individual grape varieties; a guest blog; Q&A sessions with vine geneticist Prof. Attilio Scienza, and audiobooks. Italian Wine Podcast is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, XimalayaFM (for China), and on the official website. It now boasts almost 500 recorded episodes with a growing online following. Listeners interested in providing feedback about the show are encouraged to access a demographic survey on the podcast website. Donations to the show are welcomed and help fund a portion of the show’s equipment, production, and publication costs.