Ep. 600 Pierluigi Bolla | Biodynamic & Organic

Italian wine podcast. Chinchin with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast with me Monty. All in my guest today is Pierluigi Bola. Hi, Pierreluigi. Hi. Good morning. So Bola is one of Italy's best known wine families. Where do you fit into the Bola family history? When actually, my family started, the wine business, early in eighteen eighty three, Wayne Zwade, my great grandfather opened a post hotel in order to receive, clients, serve food and, of course, serve, serve a wine. And, in order to keep, our, serving our own wine, he started to buy some lens and to build the first winery in, suave, then in Balicella. In the nineteen thirty nine. So before the the second, the, the war, the war, my father bought, the company, Balbo. And, since then, Vargo concentrated the ease of production in the sparkling wine and mostly prosecco. So how did prosecco sales do during the COVID, situation? Well, prosecco has been increasing, his penetration, not only literally, you know, not only literally, but throughout the world, even, during the COVID situation. In addition to this, we have it to remember that, last year, we, introduced the prosseco doc, Rosse, which was the most exciting, happening in the wine industry, probably in the last, two or three years. And, the product has been, well received by the trade, not only the trade, but also by the consumer. So the the increase of, insumption of the prosecco of, white or Jose type, is, keeps keeps increasing, even in, twenty one. It it I'm sure you've been asked this question four hundred and sixty five times already. Why is prosecco still so very popular with so many people? Well, I think, prosecco, tied with, a new style of life, you know, where the consumer is looking for, fresh products, fruity, easy to drink. Looking for maybe one or more glasses, in addition, without having, problems for drunk driving or, headache or whatever. And, you know, of course, the sparkling wine business is, in any case, increasing, around the world. And the prosecco today is, taking a very important, piece of, of the business. We don't have it to forget that, combining prosecco White and the prosecco Jose, we are talking about the six hundred million bottles, shipped, in two thousand, in two thousand, two thousand and twenty. In a particularly, consumption of Precision is increased, dramatically in, in Europe. In the German spoken, language, countries like, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, in England is flat, in the United States is flat, but in the East countries, in the Far East, and, Italy and France is still performing very well. Just going back again to the to the Rose. Obviously, very successful. I mean, the branding of that is it it looks very simple, but there was obviously a huge amount of thought and research that went into that branding. How do you start, How do you start the process of of branding a new product, like, the prosaicor Jose? Well, we don't have it to forget that, about ten years ago, we started working on the changing the regulation of the of of the regulation for production at the Rosapo. You know, about the ten years ago, we had only one prosaic of EOC, then, a DOCG region at the Indian region. North of Atriviso, which today has been, and decelerated, unesco territory. So the docGG, the traditional historic area has been created. And, the VOC area, enlarging the production, in the Freury, region has been created outside of the province of the Treviso. Of course prosecco has become a region, not only, type, a variety of grape that it used to be, and the bean, region Now, of course, we say, why don't we add a a rosette style, since, in any case, there was some tradition the gates, the the gates, go in, producing, Elus, practically one in the province of, the reason. And, the the regulators, decided to use, to be added to the prosecco in order to become a rosette, a pinot wire unified in red, not the unified invite like, you know, some other sputtering wines. And the division is because as you know, in the prosecco, we are allowed to add, you know, pino, pinot, pinot, pinot, white, and also, pinot noir. So since since, since that, we had already the, a regulation ready, if you will. And, I think, was a great, idea because, we are combining with the prosaic of USA, two major trends around the world. The increase of consumption of a prosthetic from one side, and the dramatic increase of a rosettes diet line from the other side. So the combination of these two very important trends ever created the procedures. How how important was the was the choice of the the color? The color is it looks to me quite quite pale. Was that a really important thing that you had to get right? The the the visual aspect of the of the bottle? Well, the the the the color has a consequence, you know, of course, of the limited quantity of the pinot noir, which, even if, is, only, you know, something around the ten, ten percent, by the fact that that is, unified, in, red is not giving a stronger color to the product, like the payout, you know, if in fact, you know, we we asbando, believed it very much. It was a sparkling business. About fifteen years ago, we created a special today of, and, glera, seventy percent, and the and the glera. And the the combination of these, two grapes. It is a very particular particular, cubet, you know, of course, has a very, tonic, a very strong color because of the umbrella of Escalades is seventy percent content vice versa, with the pinot noir, fifteen percent. The color is very pale and, is totally completely different, wide, even at at the nose. Yeah. I mean, it's an amazing kind of, way of creating a brand. I mean, you would never would have guessed that particular blend of regions, would have would have been able to create such a sort of popular wine. But then again, I suppose France has been doing that for a long time as well, of creating these sparkling wines that come from very different places sometimes, but tastes like they come from a single place. You you you know, the the the, because it is the code that are the grapes in the Benito area are not too strong, like, in the Tarantido or, in Sicily, or in, in the pulga. So, you know, even if you don't have pinot noir, the pinot noir, the pinot noir, that grows in the province, of thirtieth, it's, a much lighter pinot noir than if you don't want that, you'll find it in three or two, obviously, that you'll find in over the proper ways or if you find even in, in CCI. And, you know, the characteristic of the variety of the grape, helps very much in giving this characteristic, it could be prossecco, of of beauty. There's, you know, beauty, lightness is typical of the, of a of a prossecco. But, in Italy, amazing pale, color. What about the the the domestic market in Italy for for wine, not just sparkling wine, but wine in general? How has that changed over over recent years? Well, the the, you know, the consumption of the gen generally speaking, the consumption of the wine is, is increasingly the giving having given any off premise business, a very powerful, activity, during the, you know, the call, the COVID period. And, you know, that all the restaurants have been closed. It closed. So all the com the the whole consumption have, have a increase, and, the internet, yeah, commerce, you know, have, have increased. So people, has shown and, interested to look for more variety, variety of wines, a better quality of wines. And, at the end, the numbers shows show a little, a little increase. You know, both the steve wines, and generally speaking, even in the spot we will see. We will see when, you know, the things that would be better, when the off premise business, we'll, be covered, you know, what what will happen in terms of, home consumption, restaurants, consumption, and, and, all of them is, activity. So probably that the, the second half of the year will, we tell us, we tell us, you know, if, these changes, these changes in the market have been only for the quality reason, or if there is, in effect, a change. In the, consumer mind in terms of consumer law. Let's talk a little bit about international markets. What are your what are your key markets and brands for export? Well, for us, for us, of course, Europe is very important. Germany, France, the Germany, Switzerland, and, and the Oscar, are top markets for us. England is very important. We hope that, this year, the market that can show, an increase because last year, the market that was flat, for a little, you know, little down to two or three per two to three percent. Of course, United States is very important. Because, it's probably the most important, market around the world in terms of, wine, consumption. But we pay a lot of attention to the new markets in the East, like, Japan, China, like, some other countries, where consumption of the sparkling wine in January is increasing in particularly the city. And then we we are considering a lot of attention to the, organic products because, we see signs of little increases in consumption of, the organic sparkling wine, little signs, but, you know, every year, it's, an increase. So I I I think the the the the organic bubbles will give us a good chance in the future. To increase our business. So you using, your suppliers, grapes suppliers, do they get any sort of training if they want to go organic, or is it their their own personal decision? It's not you, the company telling them, we need more organic grapes. Well, you know, the the the company has, decided to, accelerate his activity in the sustainable economy range, in terms of, not only, products, but also supply of energy, attention to, you know, the the the the work activity attention to, the the the the villages, the city where we stay to our workers, to our human capital, you know, we we have decided that to adopt ethic school in our company. We, created the corporate responsibility document, in this, in this sense, today, seventy five to eighty percent of our energy is, coming from a renewable, secession, and, of course, organic products the are are considered the, top priorities. In in in that situation, we needed to convince that, and the two, the the goers. We needed to make a special, agreement in order to, have the possibility, to develop this business. We had started five, six years ago with the, prosseco DLC organic, then three years ago, we added Garda sparkling wine at EOC. And, in June, we will, present into the market, the recycled EOGG, developed Gabbana, organic it will be called, amor Vite, you know, the, love for the life amor Vite. And, so we will, produce a two thousand bottles of Moscow. With the OCTG. And then, you know, the the line of our, organic, prosheco, and sparkling, at that point, we count, of, three products. So the role that is, is assigned. Have you got to the stage where you would think about making Prosecco from single, single sites or single tel wars? Yes, sir. We have started. We, have a special, cubet, like, a river, the San Pietro Vibertosa, which, is coming from a single property, near to, Bardobiadene. And, you know, we are the first company and one of the few today that the producers per se called EOCG with the champagne method, fermentation in the bubble. So we probably are the only one that could use, that can, have, a, testing of, different, vertical testing of the different, vein beatiges of our number ten that, our cuvee of a placebo made of the classical, implemented in the bottle. And, we are we have introduced this year a new made of the classical, that is called the Pradaze, and it comes from our own property in the center of the building. It's one, and I have, actor with, implementation of the twenty four months. So today, we are presenting in the market with Resideo, nineteen, twenty nineteen, and, this property is being included in the register, in in a special, registered, developed by the region of Vanneton, that has, limited to, I believe, forty, forty five single digit properties with the specific name and the specific, production rules. Yeah. I think that's, it's a good, it's a good way to go. I'm not sure about the production costs on those I mean, what sort of volumes would be would be be talking about from a single terroir prosecco? Well, in this case, and we are talking about, seven thousand bottles, okay, with the relay, some people you're talking about the eighteen, a thousand adults, but the the, the idea is, you see, in in nineteen and nineteen, we have started with the idea of making special today of, recycled EOGG, starting from, like, a hundred percent of prosecco, another prosecco with, like, in nineteen twenty six that we have, where is, ninety percent, the glare, and ten percent, the chardonnay, then we have it from the choray, and you get from the choray, which is, a still ninety percent, a ten percent, chardonnay, but the chardonnay is aged in Barrick for three months. So we we developed a special Quebec coming from the same source of the video. Now we wanted to follow the strategy of the level of a single vineyard, pro prosseco, with a different characteristic. Like, if you that we have, a wine that we are studying in a that the procedure will be more mineral because, the characteristic of the soil in where the garden is, the rock, most of rock, very deep, hill, you know, like a eighth of four hundred and five hundred, the nature is, on a sea level. When you go to Colignano, where you have, the characteristic of soil, the display. Hill are not so deep. Any extra dry fruity style, it's, more characteristic than than Baluttgart. So so studying different soil, studying different climate situation, we want to develop a different, prosecco with a different taste and a different sugar content. Interesting. Have you got any more innovations, to share any more new products or themes? Well, in terms of the products, yes, we we well, we are studying some innovation in the fermentation. But, you know, of course, those innovation take a lot of time. We are studying something because in nine in two thousand twenty six, Baldo, will celebrate his, centenary So we are starting to make you some experiments. And, I hope that, in two thousand twenty six, is, experiment that can be shared with our customers and with our friends, with the new product. Okay. Is there a secret to the new product that we're not allowed to hear about yet or? Well, we don't know yet if our innovation can be worthwhile. They can be positive or negative. So we have started the with, last vintage. And, you know, may maybe next year, we will, communicate, we will give us some information about this, innovation if we will be happy with it. Okay. Final question. You've had a long day at the office. You go home, you open a bottle of, prosecco, whether it's a white one or a pink one, what would your favorite dish be? Of course, pasta. I love a pasta. I love a pasta. Both in a very simple way, or with, a strong sauces. But, you know, the pasta with the oil of olive, and the cheese, it's my favorite one. And, so, that would be probably the best compliment for my wife for, for myself, with, a bottle of a proscikola. So, basically, just a bit of olive oil, all your and, a little bit of, grated cheese. Yeah. Yeah. Tell them. Tell them. Of course, and then the the cheese began, but you see the, the fantastic thing of a prosecco is is, at the end, that, you can, pair, you know, any type of food except, except the properly, you know, grilled, meat, barbecue, or, game. So, you know, the the heavy stuff. And so it's, I remember when in nineteen and nineteen, consumption of prosecco was limited to celebration to Christmas to Easter, the importance of celebration in the family, today, Proseco is, a great operative, a great product, to make, you know, mixing factor, but at the same time, to go from, from from pasta to to fish, to meat, to sweet, and to to to prepare with, all your meal. Perfect. Okay. They're very interesting, for all those very interesting and unusual products that you're you're creating and seeing ahead, working, obviously, on long time scales. It's also very interesting. So I wanna say thanks very much, Pieluigi Bola, from the Valddo winery, for a brilliant interview. Really enjoyed listening to you. And, hopefully, we can meet sometime face to face. It'd be really nice to see. Yes. Yes. So we'll we'll be looking forward. We'll be looking forward. We'll be waiting for you That's very kind of you. You had to eat your bowl. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Listen to the Italian one podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Pod casts, Hemali FM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.