Ep. 2290 Rebecca Severs IWA interviews Primo Franco of Nino Franco winery | Clubhouse Ambassadors’ Corner

If you drink from us, a flute, the level of the wine is going straight at the end of your mouth where you taste the bitter part of everything, and the bubbles they explode in your mouth. If you are drinking from a big glass, the level of the liquid, it will be at the same level of your mouth. And so the first sip is going to, at the beginning of the tongue, and you will, first, you taste at the sweetest and the saltiest part of the liquid. And then the bubble, they will enter very gentle in your mouth, and they will not explode. So it is different. Welcome to the special clubhouse session of the Italian wine podcast. Listen in as members of the Italian wine community engage in fascinating conversations about contemporary wine topics. If you enjoyed the show, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. And remember to subscribe and rate the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your pods. Hello, and welcome to Clubhouse, the Investors corner. My name is Caruana Vanaro, and today I'm pleased to welcome rebekka Severe's and her guest Pribo Franco from the iconic Nino Franco winery. Welcome, everybody. Hi. Hi. Hello. So Rebecca, since you'll be today's host, would you like to share with our listeners a little bit about yourself and your background? So I have an Italian restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee called Barri Ristorante that I run with my husband, and we've been open twenty three years. I am an Italian wine ambassador, and yeah, that's why I'm here. Nice. So, actually, we have a very important guest today, because we all love a good glass of refreshing, fun, So my question for you is, how did you discover about Nino Franco, and why did you decide to invite primo Franco with us today? I love Nino Franco. I've been a huge fan of them, of the winery ever since I'd opened my restaurant in two thousand two. I poured Unifronco by the glass for years and years and years. You know, twenty three years ago, there weren't as as as many prosseccos available in the US market. There was still plenty to choose from, but the Nino Franco Rustico was always my favorite. I used to say I loved it so much. I threatened to get a tattoo of their logo, which I never did or haven't yet, but, to me, it's just the best quality prosecco that there is or was, and I believe it's gotten even better over time. I totally agree with you. There's definitely some great pros and, you know, Franco is probably one of the most renowned also. So why did you decide to invite primo Franco? Like, how did you meet him? Do you have any connections relations? Yeah. Really, many, many reasons. So I do believe that, you know Franco is the quintessential Valdo Biale prosecco producer. They produce such high quality prosseccos, and Primo has devoted his entire lifetime to the winery and perfecting it. And even traveling himself around the world, to promote his prosecco. You know, I'm a family restaurant too, so I like to support small families. I met his daughter Sylvia at Opera Wine in Verona in twenty twenty one And I just instantly, oh, I love, you know, I love your prosecco. It's my favorite and snapped a picture with her. And then I also, in October, my husband and I were traveling and just kind of due to weather. We were gonna go up into the dolomites, but weather was not cooperating. So we decided to just go south. And when, we were trying to figure out where to go, I instantly thought, oh, I wanna see if we could stay at, you know, Franco. So I did have the pleasure of staying at Villa Barberina, which is is what I wanna talk about today. Also, it's an eighteenth century villa that Primo and his wife own in the middle of their vineyards. It's just paradise. And I did get a chance to talk to him there. He stopped by just to talk with my husband and I, and they're just such a nice family, so sweet. And I just really wanted to share my love of Muno Franco with everybody else. Got it. You've touched under Villa. So my next question for you is what are the learning objectives that we should expect from this interview? I want to shine a spotlight on primo because of my adoration for what he has achieved in his lifetime time. I want people to know about the book that he wrote. It's called The Persecco Way of Life, and he wrote it to celebrate, you know, Funko's 100th anniversary in two thousand nineteen. I want everybody to know about Villa Barber. And that they bought this villa, not to live in themselves, but to open up for others to come and stay and experience it. And by doing that, you can learn about the history and the town Ana Lisa is the sweetest most gracious host ever. She is amazing, and I cannot wait to go back and stay there again. But lastly, I want people to know about just how legendary Nino Franco is, and I want them to learn about the single vineyard seccos and why they're so special and why they were seeking out. It sounds amazing. And I can definitely feel the passion and the energy you have for this project, like a special connection. So I'm looking forward to hear your conversation with premo. I'll not mute myself so you can you can start your conversation. Hello, Primo? Hi, Rebecca. How are you? I am right. I am so happy to have you here. I'm really glad that you agreed to do this. So I'm just gonna read a little biography for you. To our listeners, and then I will get started on my questions. The winery was founded in nineteen nineteen by your grandfather, Antonio, who set out right from the start to make a quality product. With his son, Nino, the winery grew consolidated and expanded, but it was primo first with your father and then later alone who modernized the winery. And from the moment you entered the winery after or earning your diploma at Cornelliano Vinatos School of Inology, you focused your work on precise quality model. At the beginning of the nineties, you were convinced that you needed to control the product right from the origins to obtain a good wine. Primo took over running a vineyard where he experimented with new planting techniques and the use of old clones. Meanwhile, he continued his close collaboration with local producers to develop his idea of promoting the grape. Premo today is helped by his wife, Anna Lisa, who manages Villa Barber. And by his daughter, Sylvia, who supports in the management of the production strategies and sales. First off, I wanna congratulate you because I opened my email today, and I saw that the Noty extra brute prosecco was included in the world's best sommelier selection for twenty twenty five. So congratulations. Thank you. It's always an honor to submit sample to this, very important testing pilot, you know. And then, you know, if you succeed, then we are happy because this is kind of recognition of our job. So also, I just while we were talking about winning awards, so Nino Franco has consistently won more gold medals in the champagne sparkling wine world competition than any other Prosecco producer. And these are up with champagnes. So that says a lot about your prosecco and the quality of it. Let's say that I always been thinking, quality of our wine, drinking the wine from all over the world, to build up in my brain, a kind of a model of quality, that first of all, you'd expect, the the wine by itself has a steel white wine and then a steel white wine with bubbles. So this is something that are being helping me to get the quality, to get the best from our simple grape because at the end of the day, Proseco is just a simple, semi aromatic grape. But if you know exactly what's you can have from this grape, you will then succeed with the best thing that you can have from there. Right. My first question for you is you inherited the business in nineteen eighty two. And then just one year later, you released the first ever vintage dated Prosecco with your signature on the bottle. Up until then nobody had ever done that before. What made you decide to do that? And was it instantly popular, or did it take consumers a while to realize that it was not your average persecco and just how special it was? Well, let me say something first. My grandfather, Antonio, founded the one in nineteen nineteen, but the important thing is that he came back after being escaping from the first world world east, you know, we were at the border between the aligned, the Italian, and the other European people that were fighting again, Ocean, And because they lied, they have been bombing when the Vietnamese to push back the Austrian and in Austria, they almost destroyed the village. So when my father came back, it found everything destroyed And this started again as a negotiation. When we say negotiation means that they were buying wine and grape from where the wine and grape were available because the effect of the war was that the we lost a lot of people and also the being that they were almost a disaster. So he started again and doing everything that was necessary to keep up the business. And so we were doing Actually, he were doing a simple, white wine and also a red wine from the, south part of the Veneto area, and also from the Verona one. And then it was the beginning of the fifty, they started to change doing also some sparkling wine and, of course, some steel white wine in Blahblah. At the beginning, it was something that there was everything. And, then when I joined my father in being that waited, Coneliano, I said, that we need to focus ourselves in one product. So through from the windows, everything that was not prosecco, and, becoming just specialist in prosecco. Then my father passed away very quick. You know, he was very young and I was very young also in nineteen eighty two. And, in some way, I needed to send a message to the village that, well, guys, I'm here. They didn't know me because I was already traveling fight a lot around the world to sell my wine, and it was not going at the Austria, you know, six o'clock in the afternoon, drinking wine with the colleagues. And, everything I was happened at the first of September, the first Saturday of September in nineteen eighty three, there was some people for the business, you know, at the wedding for lunch, there was, business people, journalists, lovers, way lovers, and, it was four o'clock in the afternoon. And I was quite tired, and they wanted these people to go home. And so I asked to, Julia, the former neurology, the waymaker that was working with me at the time Julia Go on top of this tank, you know, the cement tank and bring a couple of bottles for my grandfather. And they came down with two bottles of prosecco from my father dated March, actually February, nineteen fifty. Six. So I said, okay, guys. Now, this, it will be the last bottle of your day, then you go home. And we opened this bottle and we said twenty three years old. And they were both outstanding So it was a very good prosecco in with the dosage of the time. So prosecco's bone has a demisic, you know? Being make with an aromatic rep, he needed to have some residual sugar. And, in between of these people, there was a travel the best part of Italy, you know. And one of them told me, Primo, why don't you start again from here? And, in this days, Proseco primo Franco was born. So we decide to choose, a part of a vineyard, a special place, you know, and then, to make the wine at that time as a present, with a high guarantee of a shoe, vintage in the wine, but also singing the wine. So let's say a kind of signature wine. And I reproduce the label for my grandfather. So I did, not only a job to have a very great wine, but also reproducing the bottles, the labels for my grandfather. And, in this succeed, you know, I told the first I would say prosaicos back in wine, go back to the former Resideo Sugar, you know, a little bit just off dryos, sweeter than usual. And, I've been lucky and something new started. And the message to the village to the my father colleagues was, hi, guys. I'm here, and this is my first wine with my Singeto. Very special. There's so much history. I know we're not gonna have time to talk as much as I would like to, but what a great thing. So how many single vineyard valdovia dene prosseccos do you have today? We have three. The valdobbiadene And then we have the Gradistekka and the Nodi. These three single vineer, they are inside the area of Valdubiato and the community, but we had an and between the first and the last one, there are almost, I would say, a thousand meter by a bird of distances. We first released that the first single vineer was being yet to deliver the Sanfriiano in two thousand. And, actually, to tell you the truth, who asked me for first to make a single dinner per second was my former US importer set Alan from Bindivido in Chicago. And I believe that Rebecca, you started working with us through them because at that time, I was still with them. You've been importing your prosecco to the US since nineteen seventy two. Yeah. So, yeah, that's a long time. You know, even before I was born, but You know, we were working with a company, the and inside this portfolio, there was already something very important because we were for, winery. There's Nino Franco, Tomazi and Maroney producers, and then, Carpinito, this is a Keo family, and then another one. And, this was quite, you know, a big start. My first trip in US was in nineteen seventy six, something like that. So are any of your single vineyard prosseccos available in the US? Well, actually, I would say that with different vintages, you can find San Fernando, you can find grabbed a stick, and you can also find no teeth. They are mainly distributed in the New York area. I was in Miami two weeks ago working with our local, this Boutor, and we were having their gravidistic, and the treatment flag. It depends, you know, because at least they are quite, I would say, high end prosecco with the price, you know, is quite important. And also, the quantity of this, they are, I would say, very rare because from the three, from the all the three single vina we, at the end, have more or less thirty, thirty five thousand bottle perillas means, you know, ten thousand cases. Actually, five thousand cases per six. So it's it's a very small production. Right. That was gonna be my next question was how much of it you produce? I know it certainly has to be a really small amount. That's why they're so special. You know, it depends on year to year. For example, in the last two year, San Fernando was very small. We come down from three thousand bottle to seven thousand bottle twenty three and then twenty four, there would be maybe ten thousand. Grav is always a little bit more. It's around ten thousand. And now the it depends, you know. When you work with this single vineyard, you only have what you get from the single vintage. So you never blend. You will drink the weather, the exposition, everything. It's pure expression of terroir, you know. And of course, you don't intervene And for this reason, the quantity that you can have is going to be different every year. Yes. And the note is gonna be hard to get now that I just won or was, you know, included in the world's best sommelier selection. So let's talk about your the villa. In two thousand four, you and your wife purchased the eighteenth century Venetian villa. That is in the middle of the gravitas Stecca vineyards. It's got a stone wall surrounding the entire property. You say in your book that it's the most beautiful house in Valdo Biedene. Can you tell us more about the history of it and what it means to you and your family today? Well, Rick, you need to go back to the ninety because, the state include the villa, include the Casarosa where we live, but the most important thing is the vineyard, you know, because, let's say, the state was belonging from a seek entrepreneur. If they can open a parenthesis, I would say that in the past, the main business, even though Biardini wasn't prosecco, but it was seek a fact. So, you know, in fact, there was three seek factorial email to the other day. And then when the NATO came from the States, you know, after the second award, everything changed. And, the sick business went there to be down, and the prosecco job and business went up. In any case, this family, they were owning this factory and also these states. And, in nineteen ninety one, the count asked Niprimo, can you please have a look the vineyard that is surrounding the villa because of blah blah blah. And, I came into this beautiful vineyard. Let's say that the count and me, we were friends but I never been going around to the dinner. I was always going to the villa to have dinner or something with him. And, at the end, I asked you, why don't you rent me the estate? The winner was plenty of old clones, all biotypes of, glare, you know, and I was amazed about that. So to be short, we rented first, Divina, And then in nineteen ninety two, we bought the Casarosa, and we came leaving at the Casarosa that if you remember, it's on the corner of the states. And then in two thousand and four, the countess said of, I don't want to run this estate anymore. And we bought, the entire state. But the most important thing is what I did in ninety three is after, I've been working with this, a very important, vine pepe near east. It's a nursery in France. And together with, Maseguillaume, we have been selecting, with Anariza. First, we did a master selection from the old bio type and from the old vine. And then we planted we are replanted part of the Vineer gravity sticker. And this was the most important thing. And then, you know, in two thousand and four, we bought the villa. The villa was very well kept. The family have been loving this Bila. And they decided to leave everything inside all the furniture, the pictures, the books, everything because they didn't know where to put that. So together with Anneliza, we decided to keep the aim of the villa, restoring the villa without, understanding that we are restoring. I don't understand. I don't know if you understand what I mean, you know. We did what we called a physiological restore. And, and decided to convert the villa in a luxury bed and breakfast. And we succeeded. So we opened the villa in two thousand and eight. The only thing that, you know, it's, probably we don't have, the TV on the roof. We don't have the free go, but we don't have air conditioner because in some way, we think that the people come to the villa, they don't need to have the TV. On the room. And, last but not least, we are under protection of a national trust in Italy, and so we can't put inside the air conditioner than something. But, you know, people that come there living in the countryside, you have been there, you know, how beautiful it is even if you don't have their condition. Yes. No. It's just paradise. It is amazing, and I I don't need a TV. Your the property is so beautiful from the second you pull into the driveway and drive up, and it's lined with trees, and there's this beautiful gardens everywhere. And, you know, we walked around the gardens, and we looked at the vineyards, and you can see the little Casa Rosa on the side, and you can see the town. It's just the most beautiful place. You know, we were there in October, so it definitely wasn't swimming weather, but you have this beautiful pool right there in the vineyards. I guess in the summertime, when the weather's nicer, you can sit outside and have breakfast. It's just so beautiful. And, yes, it's like being in a museum on the inside because everything is still there and we, got to sit in front of your fireplace and had some prosecco and just looking around at all of the original belongings is just pretty it's a pretty incredible experience to have. I was so happy to be there, and I would like to come back so that I can stay longer. We stayed for just a short time, but you and your wife and your daughter, you're all so welcoming, and it's so amazing. And so I really want listeners to know that you can go stay there too, and you can experience a little bit of paradise, and you can try some of the amazing prosseccos also. Thank you, Nick. You're welcome. I didn't get to go to your winery, but how close by is it to the villa. Well, I was walking distance, I would say kind of a thousand meters, so a little bit less than half of the mile, you know, and, by car, it's two minutes. So the villa is, just outside the main square of the village, and the weiner is in Diego Alibaba, which is the historic, via for all the old family in the wine business, you know, you, you will find in this street, all the old, the oldest, producer in the village, you know, of the wine. So it's not so far from. Yes. It it seems like it it is definitely a small town. And when we were driving to leave, sadly because we only had one day. You could see all of the wineries, and I'm just listing off the names. So I definitely want to make a trip and stay a little bit longer next time. So let's talk about this book. In two thousand nineteen, you wrote a book called the Presecco Way of Life, and it was to celebrate Munofanko's one hundredth anniversary. It is available online and you can download it as an ebook. For me, it was an easy read, but very informative. I really enjoyed learning about your life, and I recommend it to everybody listening. When did you get the idea to write the book? Was it something that you had in your mind for years or something that you wanted to do once you got to the one hundredth anniversary? Well, you know, of course, the book was in my head, because in my brain, you know, without being a book, because it's my life. And, let's say that, when we decide to make the celebration of under the diversity of the family in the wine business, the company that was taking care about all the events and, the PR and so on, they say, Why don't you write a book about, your life? And, it was quite easy because, you know, everything is inside myself. And so step by step, I've been saying, what I did, events, you know, what I did in your country because, you know, Your country was, I would say, the most important place to make the brand, apart from Italy. And at that time, you know, the eighty were kind of a a revolution in the wine business, in the restaurant business. So we were Both winemakers and, restaurants, we were doing, things together, and, we changed everything. And, at the end, it was quite easy to put down all my experience in this book. You know, and say that, young producer, nowadays, young people in the one business, they can't, actually understand what happened in this, ten, fifteen year that went from the end of the seventy till the middle of the NIT. Just to reiterate someone is asking the name of the book is called The Presecco Way of Life by Primo Fronco. And you can find it on Amazon or wherever you know, it is available online. There's some really great information in there. And I know we don't have enough time, but I had too many questions. So I had to narrow it down after reading your book. So in your book, you did write that you were the president of the consortio del prosecco in nineteen ninety two. And you and some of the other producers worked with directly with Readle to develop a prosecco glass because up until then there wasn't a prosecco glass. So my question is Should we be drinking prossecco in a white wine glass instead of a champagne flute if we don't have access to a prossecco glass? I remember that this is one of my, you know, my things. So I've been hating, you know, the small fruit that they were using in the village, the the winery to drink in taste prosecco. And, I started using the chardonnay, a rideau glasses from the serie Vignum, you know, I would say, along before that decided then to go to Vidal. Because, I believe that, you know, drinking back in mind from the flu. Well, if you are just drinking, you know, you don't understand what is going on. Actually because when you drink, sparkling wine, you usually are celebrating something. The most important thing are the highest of the people in front of you. And if they give you a glass of champagne or proseccos, something like that, you will just drink without, tasting, you know, you have to be just nice. Right. But if you are seated at the table, and you will have, the sommelier pour in the wine or you are doing by yourself. Now it is not easy to, explain, without seeing, but if you drink from a, a flute, the level of the wine, it's going straight at the end of your mouth. Where you taste the bitter part of everything, and the bubbles, they explode in your mouth. If you are drinking from a big glass, could be a white wine glass, but also red wine glass. So anyway, a round glass, not like a fruit. Yeah. The level of the liquid, it will be at the same level of your mouth. And so the first sip is going to go into your mouth at the beginning of the tongue. And you will first, you taste the sweetest and the saltiest part of the liquid. And then the bubble that will enter very gentle in your mouth, and it will not explode. So it is different. So it's not only a question of it's many things to say about that. Anyway, because of that, I asked to a couple of my colleague, why don't we go finding Gail Girdell at that time, I went in touch, to Gergo Gaja, who is the man that is still nowadays selling, really, glasses to the professional in Italy. And when we arrived there. He prepared for us twelve different glasses. And, we have our wine with us. And he said, you taste your wines in these glasses. And then you will choose which one you think is better. And, we did. And at the end, we choose, a glass. And not by chance, we we were three. We choose the same one. So after that, he gave us a twelve series of six glasses, you know, different glasses included the one what we chose. And, he said, now you bring this glasses at home, and you will give the chance to all the producers of Proseco that they want to taste wine in these six glasses, and you will understand if they agree with you. And we did And, at the end, they choose the same glass of that, you know, that we choose it, and then then throws the prosecco glass in the Riedel catalog. I did want to mention also a little, bullet point. You're I love your website. It's so informative, and I love that it has a timeline because a hundred years is a long time, and there's a lot of accomplishments. And I just really love that timeline on your website. So good job. But also another thing I saw on your website. So recently, I read that in August of last year, Nino Franco winery officially became a a benefit company Can you explain to our listeners what that is and why it is important to you? We are in the past to become b corp, you know. Let's say that, looking around what is going on, with the weather, with the climate change blah blah blah, but not also, you know, it's, the meaning of sustainability, it means, you know, when you are deciding to do in this way, you will not only take care about the climate change, but also all the things that are very important nowadays, so to take care about people that work with you, to take care about the village where you live, to take care about everything. So it's a I would say that being b corp means to change our way to work and to deal with the others. Let's say that during this way, this path of the record, we discovered that we were already doing almost eighty percent of what they asked us to do, you know? And, becoming a benefit company. It's, the first step And I hope that within this year, we became a definitely a big corp, which is, something very, very, very important, for, for us and from the people to work with us in Iran. So, hopefully, we'll be around for another hundred years at least Is there anything that you want to share with our listeners that I didn't ask you about? Just that you want everybody to know? Well, Rebecca, you know, let's say something, about prosecco. Again, because we've been talking about, you know, Franco, we're talking about the villa. We're talking about many things, but, Proseco is the main thing. It would say that I'm leaving, and I'm working in this part of the Proseco area, which is the, DOCG, which is the area that goes from Baltimore and Colignano. And nowadays, Proseco is quite a big business. And, you know, through our simple, democratic, wines, we have been changing the style of drinking bubbles, you know, from the celebration to the everyday life. And let's say, I would say to the listener or to the people that is listening as they follow Rebecca, example. And, when you are looking for a prosecco, I look up, a docG, but to be out in the prosaicos superiore, you know, which is, the best part of this wine. Absolutely. And, you know, it's quite a a hard job to do that because everything is handmade and then so on. But we are the producer that, at the end, been ringing, this simple wind around the world for first. And then, of course, thank you to Rebecca, to all the people that are working with us today to give me the chance to talk with you and to display myself. And Oh, absolutely. Anytime. Yes. Presecco is huge. And most people just think prossecco is prossecco. So when I explain that there's a pyramid for the quality of prossecco and prossecco DOCs, you know, at the bottom, and it's larger. Anyway, I'm doing my best to promote Nino Franco. We're actually selling it by the glass. Currently, people love it. So in your book, you said that it was hard for people to I don't think that go as hard to pronounce. But if you see Corneliano Valdo Valdo Biale, that is hard to pronounce. So I'm doing my best to try to educate the people in Memphis and my customers about the differences in prossecco. I do love your prossecco, and I love your family. And, yes, everybody should drink more Nino Franco, Presecco. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And, of course, I hope to see you again, Eva, to be at the at the villa, and to have time to spend with you. I wanna come back when I can get in that swimming pool. And also visit the winery. So for our listeners, they could go to your website and probably find an email, right, to set up either a visit to the winery for a tasting or to stay at the villa? The tasting at the winery are only by reservation. And, they are, I would say, they are more experienced is the testing because the taste wine either with me or Sidia, who is available or sometime also with the winemaker. So they are talking with the family, and they will be together with us, which is different than, you know, to talk with just, an employee or something like that. So we Yes. It makes a difference. Definitely makes a difference. I guess you guys will be at a Vin Italy soon. Exactly. We will be out Vin Italy. And we also will be at Opera wine, which is the wine spectator and the Vineita event the day before the Italy on Saturday, which is quite an exclusive event that a wine spectator and Binita, they decided to organize ten, twelve years ago. I don't remember how many times, but, you know, I would say this is the event of in Italy to be, possibly. Yes. It's amazing. I've had the pleasure to go like I said, months and, a few years ago. So, hopefully, I might get to go back at some point. Do we have any questions? Do we need to open up the room to questions? I think everything is pretty clear. I'm sure everybody that's coming to the Italy may also go to primo Franco and, you know, Franco winery since it's like kinda closed. We're still in the Veneto region. So I think it's just like an hour and hour and a half away from verona. And I think this is a wrap. Thank you everybody for joining us today, and also our listeners to Rebecca and to Primo. But that's it. Have a nice day, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Primo. Thank you. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, email ifm, 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.