[Music]
couple months ago in May or June a tank
we had in our little village village
called shisha pods and it’s here in Pro
Street water for those of you who don’t
know first regatta is a small wannabe
Mountain here between Sava and Danube
rivers and it’s basically just a little
hillside and I think it was May Sunday
afternoon we were doing some work at the
winery and somebody knocked at the door
I open and there were two German guys
standing at the door one was older the
other one was a bit younger and they
said we are coming from Berlin and we
found your winery on the web we heard
about you and we want to try our wines I
was like look we haven’t seen Germans in
this village since 1945 and last time
they were here they did not come to buy
any wine so please please come in they
did try the wines they even like some of
them and they said we want to import
your wines to to Berlin we import Serbia
moins to Germany and we like what you do
I said look guys we only produce about
15,000 bottles a year we have three
Hector’s it’s very small but if it’s
Berlin let’s do this it’s a good reason
for me to go to Berlin I’ve never been
there and really it’s a it’s a cultural
capital of Europe nowadays and
gastronomic people as well so it was a
big compliment for us that’s something
we do in this middle of nowhere ends up
in in in Berlin it took us a little
while to get through the red tape of
Serbian bureaucracy to export but after
monitor so we did and that’s how we
ended up exporting our our products to
Berlin and we were very proud of it that
we can we can we can be in such a great
market and that was a major major
milestone for us as I said our winery is
in the garage that’s why we’re called
carriage vistas vintage garage is a
movement that initially started in
Bordeaux in the 80s and basically owners
of very really small plots of vineyards
organized and made some really really
great wines in the in the garage then
Robert Parker came Robert Parker is a
major name in the wine business he rated
their 100 out of 100 points and and the
rest is history
those were shot all upon shotput this
year one draw and so on you might you
might know some of them and those wines
are are now very expensive and they
basically prove that you don’t need to
be a big winery you don’t need millions
of years or dollars to do something
great you can do it you can do it in the
garage with attention to detail if you
do everything by hand if you do it with
with true passion and and with your
heart you can make something and compete
with the big guys and they proved it and
somebody somebody did come and recognize
that so nowadays you have this whole
whole movement worldwide of garage
whispers and and one of those is our
little production and and I think we can
do something similar now nowadays here
and there I was in the 2004 when when I
came back from the from the States my my
grandparents owned the small small cabin
in infrastructure and they had an old
and Albany I was looking to maybe do
something that’s that’s not finance
because I I have a finance degree and
finance degree in Serbia is I don’t know
you have a stock market in in Belgrade
that has a daily trading volume of
average hot dog stand in Wall Street so
it’s it’s it’s not very big and then I
said look what can I do it has the small
barriers of entry there has a small
capital investment and what are my
competitive advantages here in
frascatore we have a very good terror
our we have a very good climate we have
the very good blend and very good
history Romans planted the vineyards
back in the in the good old days there
so they knew what they were doing there
was one idea and also in fresh ricotta
you have a lot of these monasteries
medieval monasteries and churches and
you know how the monks are first and
church is the oldest corporation in the
world they do a proper due diligence
before they do something so I figured if
they found out where they can grow wine
that’s where they will build the
monasteries because if you want to talk
to God I mean you need a lot of wine and
since there are a lot of monasteries
then I figured look if they can do this
maybe so can we
so me and three of my other friends we
started this this little dual winery one
of my companion is from Grazia Georgia
one is from Macedonia and one guy is
from Belgrade so between the four of us
if we can sell it we will probably drink
it and and there we went and from there
on it’s been about 10 years and now
we’re in the
pretty much all the countries in the
region we we sell some some in Belgrade
and as I as I said first we also have a
wheel store president now in great city
of Berlin and let me tell you even she
should know that you can hardly find on
the map we don’t even know we don’t have
a website yet but we have a Facebook
page
I think websites are so 90s and that is
outdated but Facebook page is a good
thing and people do find us all or chubu
Google Maps or they find us through
Facebook and if even if in such a middle
of nowhere I think you can you can
accomplish something and sell it and
sell it probably Internet has helped us
a great deal first of all if you want to
stay ahead of the curve you need to have
a proper education we did exploit Amazon
books I really quite a bit on wine
technology and in great growing through
to Amazon books he also have these
online courses like ethics and other
platforms biology microbiology and so on
it also helped us with these extension
courses UC Davis California and some
other universities in in in the states
have these extension programs you can do
stuff online so I’d be much used
whatever I could to to learn from
wherever I can you even have some
Russian sites that illegally sell books
for free or I mean distribute for free
so that’s one of the benefits of doing
stuff in Serbia because those web sites
are not blocked also in terms of
marketing Facebook and Instagram are a
big help
otherwise a lot of people especially the
younger crowd would never hear about us
and would never know about us now you
have this thing with the bitcoins and
we’ve planned to be the first winery
that will accept bitcoins when we sell
our things online and also in terms of
e-commerce now there are quite a few
ecommerce platforms the sell mines in
Serbia it’s still very small but in in
the rest of the world it’s it’s become
bigger and I think in the UK one company
that does wine online sale sells their
annual turnover is around 300 million
pounds which is quite significant and
whatever goes on in the UK or us will
probably someday come here even though
you have a number of problems when it
comes to red tape and bureaucracy if you
want to export from third markets to to
Western Europe or the US and there’s
really nothing more global than than
wine in Chengdu or in Tokyo or in London
or in the US everybody knows what is the
good Cabernet or what is good merlot and
and it’s it’s very easy to communicate
wherever we go
we meet other winemakers we’re usually
very good friends and if you get lost
just find find the wine store and and
you’ll find some some some good people
there so we were pretty much globally
globally connected in probably another
50 years we believe that the global food
market will democratize in a sense where
small producers from around the world
will be able to buy these non industrial
foods from everywhere such as our small
winery
I strongly believe in this concept of
technological determinism which says
that it’s it’s in patents and its
investment what determines how a society
is developed and that’s that’s where we
are today internet and air travel will
allow people who want to buy these non
industrial foods handmade handcrafted
from small productions to be able to
obtain those in in big cities and
getting products to the market from from
villages around the world will be made
available maybe not so much for now but
that’s that’s coming to be and I think
it also would be able here throughout
Europe it’s it’s already possible so if
if you want to start a small business
such as we did and even if if you
produce wine or food or or anything you
can do it in in a small village because
there is a so-called
curve of diminishing returns the more
you invest at some point it doesn’t
matter anymore because for every
additional dollar you will not improve
quality in wine that’s how it is with
the unit maybe the first fifty or
hundred thousand years for the Wynyard
and for the garage and for the equipment
and so on but at some point those big
corporations they have millions of
zillions of dollars every additional
million they invest does not mean they
can produce stuff this higher quality or
better then then then the stuff you made
even even the the country and there are
economies of scale in terms of food
production mean very little and I think
segmentation will come in especially in
the food business where you will have
people who nowadays have a lot of money
and our care functions they want to know
what they were came from who grew is how
they grid and you will have
population which is probably majority
that will be maybe less wealthy but they
will be interested only in pricing so
that’s that’s that’s a global trend I
think and and where it does anything to
do with food needs to need to take a
look at it for now our star story is is
semi success and I think as as Steve
Jobs said stay hungry which I always am
and in in Serbia that’s very possible we
we can always do business that has needs
no electricity and human factor is
minimal because in agriculture so you
grow something you build it and all you
have to do is just to make sure that you
don’t mess it up nature pretty much did
did the job so when you when you think
of it as a competitive advantage not the
disadvantage I think we can we can do a
lot of great things and put these little
villages they will live in on some
global map of winemaking word or a lot
of my friends do other things they make
cheese they make other other great stuff
and with the technology today and all
these the tools that that now exist that
I mentioned I think it’s it’s possible
to to compete even with these big big
corporate businesses and I encourage
everyone who has any idea to leave the
big city and maybe do something smart
with their lives to follow in our in our
steps thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
couple months ago in May or June a tank
we had in our little village village
called shisha pods and it’s here in Pro
Street water for those of you who don’t
know first regatta is a small wannabe
Mountain here between Sava and Danube
rivers and it’s basically just a little
hillside and I think it was May Sunday
afternoon we were doing some work at the
winery and somebody knocked at the door
I open and there were two German guys
standing at the door one was older the
other one was a bit younger and they
said we are coming from Berlin and we
found your winery on the web we heard
about you and we want to try our wines I
was like look we haven’t seen Germans in
this village since 1945 and last time
they were here they did not come to buy
any wine so please please come in they
did try the wines they even like some of
them and they said we want to import
your wines to to Berlin we import Serbia
moins to Germany and we like what you do
I said look guys we only produce about
15,000 bottles a year we have three
Hector’s it’s very small but if it’s
Berlin let’s do this it’s a good reason
for me to go to Berlin I’ve never been
there and really it’s a it’s a cultural
capital of Europe nowadays and
gastronomic people as well so it was a
big compliment for us that’s something
we do in this middle of nowhere ends up
in in in Berlin it took us a little
while to get through the red tape of
Serbian bureaucracy to export but after
monitor so we did and that’s how we
ended up exporting our our products to
Berlin and we were very proud of it that
we can we can we can be in such a great
market and that was a major major
milestone for us as I said our winery is
in the garage that’s why we’re called
carriage vistas vintage garage is a
movement that initially started in
Bordeaux in the 80s and basically owners
of very really small plots of vineyards
organized and made some really really
great wines in the in the garage then
Robert Parker came Robert Parker is a
major name in the wine business he rated
their 100 out of 100 points and and the
rest is history
those were shot all upon shotput this
year one draw and so on you might you
might know some of them and those wines
are are now very expensive and they
basically prove that you don’t need to
be a big winery you don’t need millions
of years or dollars to do something
great you can do it you can do it in the
garage with attention to detail if you
do everything by hand if you do it with
with true passion and and with your
heart you can make something and compete
with the big guys and they proved it and
somebody somebody did come and recognize
that so nowadays you have this whole
whole movement worldwide of garage
whispers and and one of those is our
little production and and I think we can
do something similar now nowadays here
and there I was in the 2004 when when I
came back from the from the States my my
grandparents owned the small small cabin
in infrastructure and they had an old
and Albany I was looking to maybe do
something that’s that’s not finance
because I I have a finance degree and
finance degree in Serbia is I don’t know
you have a stock market in in Belgrade
that has a daily trading volume of
average hot dog stand in Wall Street so
it’s it’s it’s not very big and then I
said look what can I do it has the small
barriers of entry there has a small
capital investment and what are my
competitive advantages here in
frascatore we have a very good terror
our we have a very good climate we have
the very good blend and very good
history Romans planted the vineyards
back in the in the good old days there
so they knew what they were doing there
was one idea and also in fresh ricotta
you have a lot of these monasteries
medieval monasteries and churches and
you know how the monks are first and
church is the oldest corporation in the
world they do a proper due diligence
before they do something so I figured if
they found out where they can grow wine
that’s where they will build the
monasteries because if you want to talk
to God I mean you need a lot of wine and
since there are a lot of monasteries
then I figured look if they can do this
maybe so can we
so me and three of my other friends we
started this this little dual winery one
of my companion is from Grazia Georgia
one is from Macedonia and one guy is
from Belgrade so between the four of us
if we can sell it we will probably drink
it and and there we went and from there
on it’s been about 10 years and now
we’re in the
pretty much all the countries in the
region we we sell some some in Belgrade
and as I as I said first we also have a
wheel store president now in great city
of Berlin and let me tell you even she
should know that you can hardly find on
the map we don’t even know we don’t have
a website yet but we have a Facebook
page
I think websites are so 90s and that is
outdated but Facebook page is a good
thing and people do find us all or chubu
Google Maps or they find us through
Facebook and if even if in such a middle
of nowhere I think you can you can
accomplish something and sell it and
sell it probably Internet has helped us
a great deal first of all if you want to
stay ahead of the curve you need to have
a proper education we did exploit Amazon
books I really quite a bit on wine
technology and in great growing through
to Amazon books he also have these
online courses like ethics and other
platforms biology microbiology and so on
it also helped us with these extension
courses UC Davis California and some
other universities in in in the states
have these extension programs you can do
stuff online so I’d be much used
whatever I could to to learn from
wherever I can you even have some
Russian sites that illegally sell books
for free or I mean distribute for free
so that’s one of the benefits of doing
stuff in Serbia because those web sites
are not blocked also in terms of
marketing Facebook and Instagram are a
big help
otherwise a lot of people especially the
younger crowd would never hear about us
and would never know about us now you
have this thing with the bitcoins and
we’ve planned to be the first winery
that will accept bitcoins when we sell
our things online and also in terms of
e-commerce now there are quite a few
ecommerce platforms the sell mines in
Serbia it’s still very small but in in
the rest of the world it’s it’s become
bigger and I think in the UK one company
that does wine online sale sells their
annual turnover is around 300 million
pounds which is quite significant and
whatever goes on in the UK or us will
probably someday come here even though
you have a number of problems when it
comes to red tape and bureaucracy if you
want to export from third markets to to
Western Europe or the US and there’s
really nothing more global than than
wine in Chengdu or in Tokyo or in London
or in the US everybody knows what is the
good Cabernet or what is good merlot and
and it’s it’s very easy to communicate
wherever we go
we meet other winemakers we’re usually
very good friends and if you get lost
just find find the wine store and and
you’ll find some some some good people
there so we were pretty much globally
globally connected in probably another
50 years we believe that the global food
market will democratize in a sense where
small producers from around the world
will be able to buy these non industrial
foods from everywhere such as our small
winery
I strongly believe in this concept of
technological determinism which says
that it’s it’s in patents and its
investment what determines how a society
is developed and that’s that’s where we
are today internet and air travel will
allow people who want to buy these non
industrial foods handmade handcrafted
from small productions to be able to
obtain those in in big cities and
getting products to the market from from
villages around the world will be made
available maybe not so much for now but
that’s that’s coming to be and I think
it also would be able here throughout
Europe it’s it’s already possible so if
if you want to start a small business
such as we did and even if if you
produce wine or food or or anything you
can do it in in a small village because
there is a so-called
curve of diminishing returns the more
you invest at some point it doesn’t
matter anymore because for every
additional dollar you will not improve
quality in wine that’s how it is with
the unit maybe the first fifty or
hundred thousand years for the Wynyard
and for the garage and for the equipment
and so on but at some point those big
corporations they have millions of
zillions of dollars every additional
million they invest does not mean they
can produce stuff this higher quality or
better then then then the stuff you made
even even the the country and there are
economies of scale in terms of food
production mean very little and I think
segmentation will come in especially in
the food business where you will have
people who nowadays have a lot of money
and our care functions they want to know
what they were came from who grew is how
they grid and you will have
population which is probably majority
that will be maybe less wealthy but they
will be interested only in pricing so
that’s that’s that’s a global trend I
think and and where it does anything to
do with food needs to need to take a
look at it for now our star story is is
semi success and I think as as Steve
Jobs said stay hungry which I always am
and in in Serbia that’s very possible we
we can always do business that has needs
no electricity and human factor is
minimal because in agriculture so you
grow something you build it and all you
have to do is just to make sure that you
don’t mess it up nature pretty much did
did the job so when you when you think
of it as a competitive advantage not the
disadvantage I think we can we can do a
lot of great things and put these little
villages they will live in on some
global map of winemaking word or a lot
of my friends do other things they make
cheese they make other other great stuff
and with the technology today and all
these the tools that that now exist that
I mentioned I think it’s it’s possible
to to compete even with these big big
corporate businesses and I encourage
everyone who has any idea to leave the
big city and maybe do something smart
with their lives to follow in our in our
steps thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
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