Ep. 1171 Matt Paice Interviews Alberto Frea From Fontanafredda | Clubhouse Ambassador's Corner

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This clubhouse session was taken from the wine business club and Italian wine club. Listen in as wine lovers and experts alike engagements in great conversation on a range of topics in wine. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. And remember to scribe and rate our show wherever you tune in. Welcome to Clubhouse. Today, we have Alberto Fareya fire fireside chat with Alberto Fareya, moderated by Matt PACE, Ambassador's corner. We do this every week. And, usually, on Thursdays at six PM, And, it will be replayed on the Italian wine podcast, in the next week or two. And, yeah, it's, normally Stevicune does these. And She is I promise so much better at these than I am, but, she's off traveling in the wide wide world as she does. So and you you're stuck with me this time. So Okay. So Should we go any Go ahead. No. I was gonna say you are a, a restauranteur. I I I see. And your operations director of Enottega, Daluca, an independent group of three Italian restaurants in wine bars in Central London. And you're an Italian wine ambassador and a w set level three holder. Have I got everything there? Exactly. That's true. And, so before we get started, I just wanted to ask you why you chose Alberto Ferreya as your favorite wine producer? Well, me and Alberto just had lunch last week, in one of our restaurants. Fonta's, Barolo, Sierra, is a big seller for us. We've just been doing Fontana Freda have been promoting barolo week for, a while now, I think, Alberto. And so we've just participated in this promotion where we've had the set a longer dalba by the glass, and it's going incredibly well. So I think we're probably gonna continue it through all of November. The week becomes a month. I'm super passionate about Piamonte. I been a few times. I I love Nebulaiola more than anything else. So, yeah, and, obviously, Fontana, Fred, a terrific historic producer. So that's why, I thought it would be good for us to talk. Fantastic. No. I actually was gonna ask you as well. You know, where you had first heard of him. So was it the first time that you had ever you met him the first time last week for lunch? No. We've met we've met weren't we met before, Alberto? Was it Randy Langer with the first time we met? I can't even remember. Correct? Correct. Yeah. January this year. Yeah. You know, in, yeah, in, Corina, which if anyone is listening is, you know, interested in in, Napiordo from Piamonte Grande Langge is the place to learn more about that. Lots of producers, lots of brilliant producers all under one roof. From my point of view, it was great to meet people who are already imported into the UK and also to meet producers who are not imported into the UK. And you've got everyone under one roof. It's a really, really brilliant opportunity to taste things side by side. Great. Okay. And and that's that's awesome. Okay. So you guys know each other a little bit. And and do you do you have any learning objectives? City Kim loves the learning objectives. Do you have any learning objectives that you want the audience? To take away from today's conversation? I would say it was more about, you know, for me, in Italy, the one of the things I wanna talk to Alberto about is, you know, MGAs and, you know, different soil types and really understanding how they can impact, you know, how Nebula responds to terroir. And I think it's super important for Jamonte, and that's been established for about twelve years now, but to have MG's in the label. And I was just yesterday in Kianti Classic with a Consochio there, and that is something that that consortio was is now pushing towards, which what with with what they call the UGGas, which is the unfortunate Italian pronunciation for UGA, which is the same as an MGA really. Just a really kind of terawatt specific, interpretation of of, of wines. So, yeah, that that would be one of the learning objectives for sure. And I think, hopefully, we're also gonna touch a bit about on the history of Barolo as well. So that would be another learning objective too. Hey, great. And also, I gotta remind you to say the word Uga's. Much more times. Yeah. You wouldn't you wouldn't go to bed if you're in Italy. It's gonna be. That makes my day. Alright. So without further ado then, I will bring on Alberto. Are you there? I am. I am. Well, I'm at, go ahead. At the end, I will come back. And if there's time for questions, and there's a question, we'll do that. But, otherwise, you're you're go ahead and, talk to you later. Great. Let's start. At the beginning, if we can. Fontana Freda was one of the very first producers to make wines labeled as Barolo. So that's quite a recent, relatively recent development. Eighteen fifty eight. Have I got that right? Correct. Right. How but the history in context for us, how how's how do you think Barrolo has changed in the last a hundred and sixty six years. Sixty four years. Hundred and sixty four years. How does modern barolo compare to the original wines that Fontana produced back then? Well, first of all, let me just do a quick introduction on about Sanafreda for those of you that don't know it. Yes, correct. It started in eighteen fifty eight. It was because of the love story that the king of Victoria, the second, first king of Italy had with Rosa Garcia, the lucky mistress, And for the state was purchased by Victoria, for her, for the woman that he truly loved. And then, subsequently was, their son, a man named Alberto that started to be notified. It was around the eighteen seventy, so that, the first label of, Fontito Pierre. The property today has preserved the original shape. It's that tiny village set in the Sarlunga Dalba town. We manage under twenty hectares of land. Most of these vineyards are all surrounding the state and it's a beautiful beautiful place. There is this beautiful amphitheater from the deals that's from the state. To answer your question, but well, I read a lot about the early beginnings of, Barolo, heard a lot. There are a lot of myths the the the truth is that Anipiola has been in in PMo since twelve hundreds, but Barolo, as we know it today, start. It's probably around the eighteen thirties. So and what we know certainly, certainly is that, around those times, the modern analogy started to appear in bid mode. So if I can, say what happened in this, under sixty four years, for sure, I believe that today we match the, the analogy in a much more careful way, decanting the wines, managing the fermentation. So at the time, they couldn't manage the fermentation completely, to tell to give you an example. In one of the circle seller that is set inside Fontana Frida underneath the barrels. There there was space to put a fireplace in order to heat the barrels to complete the fermentation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's weird. But, so a lot has changed. So today, we, do more more much more carefully the the we protect the the wine from the oxidation in every stage. We are extremely clean in our cellar in the cellar probably in the 1850s, the, not probably, they also had animals in the same place. So. Really? Yeah. Water technology, Andre, then, almost fifty years of modern technology is what happened and how, Barolo today differs from the early beginnings. Amazing. And do you think the wines have become easier to drink, at a younger age? Is that what would you say as a consequence of this I mean, you you mentioned, you know, not faulty as being the primary, you know, objective or, of temperature crop, but but also more drinkable. Should we say? Or did they use to kind of, at, like, I'm guessing there were more things might have been added to the wide, you know, going back over a hundred years. That is, indeed, a goal. At least, I can talk for, for, what is the identity of Fontanafraid for all today. The main goal is to have wines that are approachable throughout their lifespan. So starting from the early beginning. That is indeed something that has changed. And for us, it is very important. And this also the reason why we met the barolo week making barolo approachable and drinkable by the glass is as a wine for drinking every day. It's something that, for sure, is the proof. Yeah. Good. Yeah. I walked into one of our restaurants today having been away And they were like, oh my god, when how how much longer are we doing this promotion? Because it's flying. So that was really, really encouraging that, customers were kind of jumping at the opportunity to have some bharola by the glass. One thing I look at, you know, I heard a lot all week in county classical is, organic farming. And, I mean, almost everyone I saw in county classico was was organic certified. You Fontana Fred has been certified now for four years. It's it's expensive. Why, you know, it's time consuming. It's expensive. Why did you get that? Why did you want to get that certification? Well, indeed, indeed, you're totally right. Well, it's better to be poor and empty than, reach and see. No? I mean, I was born and a year in in the area. I seen there is is changed during the years. We are in a historical phase where all the companies have this responsibility to, let's say, say, say the planet do something. Fontana Frreda, I always liked this philosophy because it's something that started way before the organic certification. And here, it's not received as a cost at all. Even, even though, yes, it is time consuming, but it's not perceived as a cost at all as an investment. For Talfreda, it's a leading role because it's a path that started in the early 90s. There were already at the time, run by the Rajonopy Monte, some initiatives, to reduce the level of, chemical in the vineyards. And then, at the time for the referendum already applied by this, Agram Gintali. Later on two thousand twelve, we launched a big project called the Vino Libro. Vinoliberoa was, Italy sounds like quite an ambitious name. And today, we someone would say rewashing, but, no, because it's it's Italy was actually a project registered at the European Union level, which involved the elimination of chemical products and herbicides in the vineyards. Reduction of sulfides minimum forty percent to compared to the legal limit and all these eight vineyards and all the farmers that were working under our protocol, we're adhering to these, to these limits. Then in twenty fifteen, we felt that time was mature to step further. So that's when we started the organic certification process. So today, all the for the refrigerator vineyards are run as organic. And also, part of, the same families that work with us are either converting, or, they are working under sustainable practices under our consultancy? I saw that. So, I mean, obviously, organic certification I'm familiar with, but I see that you've also got, sustainability certification called Equolitas, which I don't think I've seen before. Can you tell us a a bit about that? Absolutely. I feel, impact responsible for that. I tell you, I tell you why Qualitas is the next step. It's one of the most important certification body here in Italy to certify the sustainability in different aspects. And I think it's what really represent the philosophy from Panafraid when it comes to sustainability because it's not just the part related to the organic farming. Basically, we measure every year. The main indicator is the carbon footprint. So, the emission that we make for producing our wine. And the goal is a little bit every year to improve the performance. From a commercial, from a street commercial point of view, and that's the reason why if you're responsible is because some of the retailers around the world and the buyer of some market. Let's say they are more forefront from this point of view. And, in particular, in Sweden, the monopoly, called the system blog. It is. Yeah. They are the ones that nowadays require sustainability certification if you want to apply for the tender process in order to be listed in their shops. So that is becoming requirement. Equolitas means environmental ethical and economic sustainability. So these are the three aspects, sir. So regarding the part in the environment besides the agriculture. It is the water cycle, which is measured, luckily in Permanente. We are part quite a virtuous from that point of view because Basically, there is no irrigation in the infant and afraid. The water that we use is recycled, from a small lake that is part of the property. So we use that water, a clean several times in the the proceedings that we need in the seller. We have used the sustainable Blaine Energy. Last year, we experimented sustainable tractors. They're fueled with biometal biometal and the biometal is generated. Yeah, it's very interesting because also this project, is to fuel them with biometal that is generated from the waste from the other culture. So it's a real circular economy. In the property, there is a forest. We call it the forest of fox. It's the greenland often transfer. It's twelve vectors of forest, that dates back to the king's times. And then when it comes to the packaging, all the aspect, all the the single part of the packaging from their a recycled paper to the recycled glass, the cardboard boxes, everything. And then, the last part, the, etic, etical part. For the refer days, a small village, since the beginning, and, initiatives, to make the employees actually happy that they were on since the beginning. For instance, there is a kindergarten free for, during the summer, for the employees. There are a lot of initiatives, and the company itself is investing a lot in the area. So all these, virtual action are part of, an official document that we publish every year. We just published the one related to twenty twenty one, which is our sustainability report. And you can find it on our website. Quite a long, complicated tricky to tell because basic on our label, back label. You just find this small logo. But, it embrace our philosophy for, the years to come. Amazing. That sounds like a huge commitment. It's also funny how much how often when I talk to winemakers, the Swedish monopoly comes up in conversation. It's extraordinary how they influence, the wine world. I mean, I've heard so many winemakers reference them in diff for different ways. Not always. It's sometimes it sounds like they're, that they have some weird ideas that make everyone's life more difficult, but, you know, I suppose we could say that this safe sustainability is a real industry positive. Talking about your you've, you know, you've got these hundred and twenty hectares undervalued. And you have those independent growers. How does that work? Fontanna Fred is a Negosial? Well, I didn't really understand. Yeah. In a way. Yes. And actually, the equality of certification is precisely also, one of the reason, why we make the qualities is that not only were responsible for ourselves, but were responsible for the entire supply chain of the grapes. So this basically stands that the growers that will work in the in the areas to come with us must adhere to certain, clean agriculture a certain protocol. And even though they are independent, I must say they are being most of them have been working with us for generations. And it's a relationship that is not just as a negotiation because, our team of agronomist, consult them, throughout the year. So they they visit each of this farmer throughout the year. When it comes closer to the harvest, they are visited by the knowledgeist as well. So during the year, they are giving a free consultancy by us in terms of the intervention, the treatments, anything they need to do in order to reach the the clean quality of the grades that we want. And also for the most appropriate time of the harvest, of course. During the year, we often do events meetings here in Fonta, to update from a technical point of view. And, yeah, regarding the portfolio, if I can make this big differentiation. The grades that comes from the growers, give us a great chance to make Clabs more homogeneous blinds. So these blanks, of different vineyards allow us to express the variety of characteristic, and more the vintage characteristic. Typically, this is our label, which is the historical one, but the one that we call La Plattinsone, where the the one with the, cotophiles of, the family of Irritorium. Instead, we have, analyze, where We use our own vineyards or the long term rentals. And these are merely the the crew and the one, the device that we call Lariga. Larriga missed the stripes and the stripes, are, is also landmark that identifies the buildings in Fontanafred. So it is a sense of place of where we are and also where the wine come from. Are you enjoying this podcast? There's so much more high quality wine content available from mama jumbo shrimp. Check out our new wine study maps. Our books on Italian wine including Italian wine unplugged, the jumbo shrimp guy to Italian wine, Sanjay, Lambrusco, and other stories, and much much more. On our website, mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Now back to the show. So if I'm looking at your wine labels, it's coat of arms means it's your own vineyards, but stripes might not be. Is that right? Have I understood that properly? Or Stripe is your or or is it? Yeah. Stripe's, mostly on vineyards or long term rentals. Okay. Yeah. And on the other end, the further silver because now it's a little bit more clear color. So we call it platinum. The platinum label is the one, with all the grapes that we purchased around, with this network. Farmers. I see. Okay. So, in terms of your total output, what do what's the split between own grapes and, you know, purchased? Is it fifty fifty or Oh, do you do you know where you able to measure it? Oh, it's taking me to measure, honestly. It's Okay. The tricky to measure. Yeah. I I I will reply later if I can find the the speaker. Okay. Fine. And in terms of your, sales, one thing that was kind of interesting, I know I keep talking about Kianti class ago just because I would just learn, you know, We met a few producers who were maybe ten percent domestic sales, and ninety percent international, usually North America. How does it work for Fontana, Freda? Your, you know, what's the split between what you sell and easily, what you sell elsewhere? Wow. That is an impressive figure. Yeah, with these numbers, I feel more confident. So, actually today, we are roughly fifty and fifty split. It started by Fontana Freda uses as a strong market in the domestic market. Today, we have a big push in the in the expert. So during the year, the split is, has changed that because, when I started in twenty sixteen, it was, forty, forty sixty. Now it's almost fifty fifty. We export to seven different seventy different countries, sorry, around the world. And, yeah, we export a whole round of the world, basically. It's interesting because we have this very diversified portfolio because, of course, we are famous for direct wines mainly. We've been talking about for a week, but for Alfreda is, and gives me these tools to almost have a tailored strategy according to each market where I can pick the different varieties and the different styles of Pemonte because we, we talk about reds, but Pemonte is the region of, Moscatulasta as this momentum into the, great whites, which is, the next frontier for, for, for Pemonte. So Arnaise. Last week, we tasted the Arnaise. Remember how much we liked it? Yeah. In the Alanga, of course, Alanga is, an excellence, in our production, and it's the smallest smallest production that we have It's interesting because today, DB Altaanga, it's mainly consumed locally, the overall production among all the producer is a little above one million bottles, but it's something that will grow over the year. And I always say it's a natural consequence of the climate change, going in the atlantic in the higher elevation. So we are exploiting this potential that are war in the Atalanga heads. And now we've been on war in Chardonay. Tomorrow, probably it will be also other grape varieties. Atalanga is very exciting and Tarfred has been producing Matodo classical since nineteen fifty nine, that is the price because when you look at the story of Tarfred, it has always been very innovative and the trailblazer for many many projects, many things here in the area. We produced a wine called Compressa Rosa since nineteen fifty nine. Today is one part of our full range of Altaanga. Six different wines. And little by little, I am also, we're starting to to export also the Alcalanga, in around the world. We started in, Scandinavia again. In the North America. Yeah. I'm a I'm a I agree with you. There's there's something about Alta Langa. We we list, one from contractor. But, yeah, I agree with you that it's it's kind of an exciting place for a method or classical. And what I just, you know, when when it gets bigger and bigger, I'm sure that it I'm sure if I agree that it it'll keep keep growing. On just talking about, sparkling, you mentioned Muscard or Dasty. I can't think of a less fashionable wine in the UK than Muscard or Dasty. It was about the hardest sell to UK customers. It's possible to get. It's so tough to sell it in this country. Where where does it work for you? It must be working well for you internationally. Where? Who are the countries that love it? Well, to go back to, what we were talking, earlier about the United States. On the United States, it's our main market today. Italy, It's one of the main market for Moscado Dasty is a denomination for the typology Moscado. Actually grew a lot double digits during the pandemic. Please. It's impressive because it's a market where probably they can find the Moscato from different areas from around the world, but apparently, even for the Moscato, the policy pays most cardiovascular is, of course, high quality product. So indeed, United States and then several other markets around the world here in Europe, May Market is Greece. And it's ironic, you know, because, Moscow actually came all the way through Greece, here in Italy, and now we export it there. Funny. Amazing. Yeah. God. How funny. And then going on to getting into now the reds, and in particular, the Barolo, how, I would guess that in terms of value, if not volume, Barola is has got to be the most important part of your sales. Would that be right to say? Indeed, indeed, Your total annual turnover, you know, how does the wrong big, the wrong figure? It is interesting because I was, actually checking this data a few days ago. And, Barolo represent the terms of turnover in terms of revenues, one third of our annual revenues. That is impressive, impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But all is very it's our DNA. It's our ID entity. Of course, I was talking about everything else, but, of course, and then Barolo is, for us at six, we we we produce six percent of the entire barolo that is produced, every year. Really? In this moment, yeah, in this moment, in the seller, among the bottles that are already bottled and the wine that is aging throughout the different vintages, we have actually two point five million of bottles of Barolo, that are there, waiting to to be sold around the world. So that is impressive. What is more impressive is another figure, which is the Barolo Library. The Barolo Library is what really stands out in, in Fontana, Freda. We have about two hundred thousand bottles that are kept aside as part of this library as part of this very extensive collection in terms of quantity and depth of integers. And, yeah, I'm very lucky for Fantara Freight. Yesterday evening, I was having dinner at our restaurant with the restaurant in the property, and we opened nineteen seventy four Broola. Yeah. Since the fifties, from nineteen fifties, Fonta Fedsa is kept aside, every year, the best synergies, if you bought a software role, This bottles are kept naked, no label, and they're resting in the cellar in perfect condition of humidity and temperature. And, basically, today, we continue this practice. So if we if we start this today, it will be crazy, crazy to to start a project like this. So the property today, when they purchased the winery, in two thousand and eight, they were lucky enough to find this collection. So they continue this. And this is great because every time that, we open this all the integers, we demonstrate that Barolo is the greatest one in the world without a doubt, it's crazy. Well, yeah, I'm not gonna disagree. What? Yeah. I mean yeah. To my mind, there's no competition. Tell tell us just because you just mentioned it. What was the nineteen seventy four like? What was the blanket? Well, there was some sediment. There was, this brown color. We had the patience enough to wait. There was some, there was some sign of oxidation, but what was very, very nice that after, fifteen minutes, the wine started to still show some fruit. I mean, it was still fresh. I mean, it's still acidity. And that is, what is impressive for me. That the wine Of course, you need to manage your expectations. But the wine, was still quite surprised in my opinion that the acidity was still there. So it was shaped in my opinion. Yeah. I tasted on Monday. I tasted a nineteen eighty six, county plastic with Fontordie. And what was interesting was, they obviously, it was it was com pretty much completely tertiary, but also the, it's happily not relevant in Barolo, but the the, you know, cabernet sauvignon, there was a there was a small amount of cabernet sauvignon. Which had completely come to the fall. You know, it was very clearly a cabinet serving your blend wine. It's just I'm always fascinated by, you know, with decades of aging, what can happen with wines. So I'm very interested in your, you know, what you're holding back. How are you how is that this project of your two hundred thousand bottles? How is that gonna be commercialized? I mean, are you gonna the library? Is that something that you've got a plan for that you're gonna be kind of selling promoting? Or is it something you're gonna or more that you're just gonna wait to see what happens. Is have you got are you exploiting it? I suppose is my question, or are you this is something you're gonna call back? No. We are. We let's say we are not under, under pressure. Because some of the integers are just held back and, we give them on location. But for instance, we do campaigns when the wine has been aged enough in our opinion. For instance, this year, this year, we did some promotion in a few markets where we launched the nineteen eighty two. Forty years Marola. Forty years Marola, it's a cool cool concept. Sometimes we do that with twenty years Marola. So looking back at the library, we try to create small campaigns in order to do the recall activities. For instance, go back to Sweden again. Sorry. But people are allowed to enter in a wine shop in in the monopoly and buy wine when they are twenty. So, if we have a twenty year old bravo, we try to release, this, every year. And it's a cool concept because, they they they can drink the wine that was conceived, when they were born. Oh, right. Yes. Of course. Yeah. Brilliant. Talking now about the the Barolo, the the the Nabiolo that you're growing today for the wines of the future. You've got between we were talking about this at lunch. You've got in your vineyards a couple of different soil types. You know, Nebula really responds to to terroir. Tell us a bit about the different soils that you have, you know, why you think it matters, what characters you're giving the ones. Sure. Sure. Well, I keep aside the the the barolo classical scenes, as I said, it's bay it's made the stuffing from grapes, from different terrace. When it comes, instead, for the soil of Fontana Fendi State. Yes, we are located in the eastern part of the denomination. We are in Saruman Alba. But for the state is located at the bottom of the reach of fields that starts, the the Sarumetaba Village. So in the northern part, which means that We are closer to La Mora and our soil in this state that show more layers of Mars sand. So this is normally reflected in grapes, for Napiola, that, of course, are always extraordinary quality in Sarunga Dalba in all the village, but here in particular, they express much more elegance. They give wines that are more expressive refined when they're young. There's a natural predisposition from this kind of soil to give softer pennies. And then Oh, sorry. Just sorry, Alberto. Just talking about that. Explain why sand I I was talking about this in a vineyard two days ago. Sand and nebula. Oh, sand and grapes generally, sand and nebula. What's the effect? Why does it have this you know, you get a bit more perfume. How does that happen? Well, naturally, what happens is that the the vines, don't grow in too much, carcharo, carcharo soil. They don't need to struggle. They don't extract it much, tannies on the other end, the, the, the, the perfumes, naturally. And, also, it's a kind of soil in the data, which is a little bit more fertile as compared to the higher elevation in the village, allowing us to pick the grades a little bit earlier. So normally there is, differences of out to ten days, in the phenolic maturation between the in a bureau that we have in our vineyards compared to the one that we have in the higher part of the villages in Guadalba. That but the stupid question now, if you're picking earlier, wouldn't that make the grapes more panic? Or what what would I un misunderstood? What have I misunderstood? Would have thought that you'd pick early or you'd get more organic, more acidic, but not not necessarily because, it's what we, how we accept the detainees that makes the difference. In terms of, of style for the wines, we try to extract the good tendons, the ones that we consider the sweet tendons. So we've mentioned the, masterational temperature or fermentation and everything in our cellar also with some techniques that we are introducing in order to draft a good amount of good tannins and not the the white the white not to be too aggressive. Okay. So it's a combination of, you know, the the the grapes, you know, guests that don't have to stress too much. And so you can pick them earlier. And then in the seller, you're able to manage the tenants in a way that gets the that good, kind of, drinkable outcome. Mhmm. Correct. Correct. K. And one of the things that interests me always about Pier Monte as they grow is is their, kind of deep understanding of talents and how they come about. And, you know, I I just find it completely fascinating how you guys are so good at, you know, thinking about talons, which is so important in Italian wine. So you mentioned the the sweet talons. That would be again, that's Would you say soil in in the vineyard or in the cellar that you're able to get those sweet italian? Both. Both. In particular, the grapes that come from the state of Santa Feida, particularly suitable for this, but we want ten inch the target as elegant as possible. I consider this the style of Santonofreda that during the VINification, we try to have this exceptional standing, sir, not to dry, not to bitter. The ones that helps the freshness and the drinkability of the wine. You have a very good understanding with the video data in twenty eighteen in particular. Because it's, so drinkable and so so soothing this, this style. More coincidence that is going well with this, by the glass campaign. Yeah. And, I mean, I think I think you've kind of you sort of touched on it a bit, but the the what do what what's the per is there a perfect badolo and what's it like? Like, what is or do you think everyone's got their own style? There's a Fontana Freda style, and there's another producer's style and they're both equally valid, or what what do you think is what, you know, when you say the barolo is the greatest one in the world, like, Why? What is it about it? Why? Makes the best. Well, to help you space, the the idea of the supply would be the the longage ability that allow allow you to drink on an average day, fifty years on Barolo, but, I would say, the great elegance that to out is, it's life, the the Barolo preserves. So barolo keeps evolving a little bit later, but it always preserves this elegance. It doesn't have stops. It doesn't have breaks during his evolution. It doesn't slow down. It always continues but it always preserves this, this great elegance in my opinion. And then, yeah, to to to talk about the different styles, to go back to to your introduction. We we could start talking about the the different vineyards and the different MGA. This will be a great discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Please do. I mean, I think it's so important. It's, you know, honestly, the the county classical producers, you know, you can tell the whole, all the producers around there are just really obsessing about this, about how to get single vineyards, the the Frazianner, you name it. They really want to. They didn't talk about what interested me. They didn't talk about Guemonte very much. If I were there, I'd be going well in Guiamonte, they're doing this. And they never did. We were laughing about this. But tell me about your tell me about MGAs, your MGAs in particular. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's no mystery that the the amount is a little bit in taking the example of work in this. So in this sense, We fully embrace this, this, division in MGA. At three Fontanafreda back in the days was quite a fundraiser in that direction. So in the coming years, this, for Fonta, will be the identity to show and explain this difference. We try, to make it easier, but it's a complicated reality. The best is to visit the area. But what we do, what we will do, in the next year is that starting from, two in J BARolo that we have today, we will arrive to have ten. Yes. This is very exciting because, I think I'm telling this, for the first time because I talk to the to the winemaker, to the property, at the lead just yesterday about this. So speaking about talking about the portfolio of tariff data and how it tells her how Barolo is structured today. We said that we have Barolo classical. Okay. But we also have the NGA. MJ is better than Ugano. It's already. MGA or Mega, from the township, the Sirloom Edialba, the Sirloom Edialba, the Sirloom Edalba, founta, is the oldest that was introduced in nineteen eighty eight. We celebrated this year, thirty years of this concept. So we have the NGA and then we have the NGA itself, and the MGA itself in Fontanafreda. He's a Fontanafreda. That's brilliant because, among the division in different MGAs, There is only one monopole that is called the after property, and it's a for the property. And this is the reason why we make this barolo, which is from Nipioly, from different vineyards inside this state, and it's called the proprietary Fontana Freda. But, starting from this year, we, actually, no, starting from twenty twenty. So it will be released in twenty twenty four. We also make the two new NJ that were originally part of our, and now have been, unified separately. We do micro identification. Of Parafaba and Mariyama that are two superveners in Saruman Galba. And then we go to the last smallest portion in the Barolo division because we have Vigna since Fontanafreira historically was producing the wise under as a single vineyard as a vineyard before the twenty ten division of the the MJ. Some of the vineyards are described in the official list. The one that we have been continuously making is Vigna Narosa. Vigna Narosa is our historical group. Is, the the stays in the center of the state facing south, and has been continuous remains since nineteen sixty four. But but but this year, We we have, VINified separately. A few new Vignasa, which are actually not so new. They were made as a Vigna until nineteen eighty two, and we are doing them again. And these are called Vigna Gallareto, still part of M. J. Founta and Vigna San Pietro. These three liners have been, Vignified in, Guinea. So good and better, under the forty eight and two liters, part of the grapes, whole bunches. And then, they went under a total of forty days between fermentation and maceration. And now they're interactive and they are aging in the same itinerantini. And this is a project where we go back to back to future. I mean, we go back to the original, to the early beginning of Montana to do major identification of every single vigna with the most traditional techniques and doing more and more, this small, not so small, but the smaller interpretation, with different techniques of the different videos. I mean, I hope I, I confused you enough. No. No. Not at all. It's, you know, I feel I agree. I feel like it is the future, to be particularly, you know, we're looking at it commercially. To to have the most prized wines of the future and to be able to monetize that, you know, that's it's inevitable. Is it unusual? You said, so they go back into the same teeny to age. Is that an unusual thing? I'm trying to think. Set an unusual step. No. That's the norm. That's kind of not no. No. Yeah. Okay. No. No. No. What is a ironic, not ironic, but what shows the different error in the way I'm making here is that the seller where we make this wine is the one that in the 1990s where the where I was seeing the marique to thirty five liter, for sure that is being replaced. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. You can also find some for us, some other stuff in that, So it's becoming a laboratory, a lab that, about the forest seller. Yeah. And are these wines that they these are basically just a process the the individual individual vineyard those are just ones that you have noticed give, you know, particularly interesting character over the year. It's not driven by it's driven by tasting rather than driven by the science of the geology or or the aspects? I mean, what was, was there a short listing process of how are you gonna get to these individual crew? Or is it kind of try an endless trial and error? Well, it's, for us, it's an experiment because as I said, the this century, Vigna in this data, were not, verified separately since nineteen eighty two. So this three, in particular, are unified in the same, in the same way. Some of the other vineyards are, we try to stress a difference, but more with different techniques. For instance, as I briefly mentioned, some are being identified with different layers of distended and whole bunches. Some were fermented in Oak, some were fermented traditionally. Instead of steel, we have time to make a lot of experiments, and then, we'll see. Let's see. It will be, the future will be exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. Well, listen. I can't wait till twenty twenty four to start trying them. Listen, it's it's we're we're finishing our hour. I think we've covered, everything. Yes. I think we've covered everything we wanna cover. Thank you so much for taking the time. I, you know, good luck with Barolla Week. Around the world. I hope it's been successful for everyone else as it has been for us. And, yeah, we'll catch up back in London very soon. I'm Leika is typing me a message let's see if she's got anything else. Oh, yes. No. I'm now I'm turning over to Joy, which sounds a bit weird. Joy, are you back on the line? I certainly am. So, yeah, that was a very that was a lovely conversation. Sounds like you you really do enjoy his wine. So that's that's pretty awesome. Yeah, I believe that we have, we only have two minutes. So I think like I had mentioned, there is a question from some from owner, I believe. Can you explain if you don't mind, he's written it, but I'm afraid I Okay. I'm trying to reach him. Sure. So, if you scroll up, he has a question. I missed. So he said, I missed how you managed to make a barolo that is younger than twenty to twenty five years drinkable. Can you explain if you don't mind? Thanks. Can you yeah. I think there's reading that question that it could the question seems to be how can Barrola be drinkable at less than twenty years? Perhaps. Mhmm. I can't quite agree with it before, but there you go. Mhmm. Okay. Well, I'm not a white maker, but, basically, it's the, what I was saying before, what we, refer to the exception of the the, sweet, the good tennis. So for our bravo classical, which is the most approachable of the mall, there is, first of all, a majority of grapes that we have that comes from the western part of the illumination where normally the tennis are much softer. But, normally, for the paro classical, we react to wine after twenty days. So we don't do the traditional super long maceration of the race over the skin of the bill. That is how we we make the bill or drinkable. Great. Thank you so much, and thank you so much owner for for that question. That's very much appreciated. So, like, before I say goodbye to Matt and Alberto, can you tell me when the next pot or next podcast? When is the next club house? Session. It's going to be tomorrow at six PM Italian time zone. Shina, Donu, from Vino Vero. We'll be interviewing, Antonella Manuli from, Vazriela Maliosa. So that's it. See you guys tomorrow, and thank you so much for your time, guys. Got to me luck. So Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, email ism, 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, Cheaching.