Ep 2325 Anna Obuhovskaya IWA interviews Fabio d'Attimis-Maniago of Attimis-Maniago | Clubhouse Ambassadors’ Corner

We've owned our vineyards in Montreal and the winery in Montreal since the fifteenth of February fifteen eighty five, which roughly means five hundred years. And we acquired it through a marriage which is also the reason why I know the exact date. I don't just know a year. This guy, Pompeo di maniago, mary is this lady called the Lavinia Frisquilla, and she brings the vineyards, the winery, all of the buildings, into my family's hand. And since then, there has been no time throughout history where these vineyards haven't been cared for and managed by a Doctor. Miss Maniago, a member of the Doctor Miss Maniago family. I am currently the eighteenth generation who's been working here. Welcome to the special club house 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 Ambassador corner. My name is Carabaravanyal, and today I'm pleased to welcome Anna Bujoskaya, and her guest, the Fabio, Dactimis Manuel from Dactimis Manuel state. Welcome, everybody. So, Anna, since you're gonna be today's host, why don't we start by asking you to tell us a little bit more about yourself, your background, your wine experience? I'm a proud Italian wine ambassador, and, my discovery in wine started sixteen years ago. My expertise is mostly in wine retail marketing and sales. I worked in a number of bigger wine importing companies and independent projects. And founded Italian wine tasting club in Saint Petersburg in Russia. But in two thousand twenty, I started my journey as an Italian wine ambassador since two thousand twenty two. I'm based in Slovenia. And currently, I'm leading export development and sales strategies for wineries at Nowtello Strade. This is the company that I founded. Nice. So moving on to today's guest, How did you discover about that Timis Manago wines? Well, I had the pleasure to be invited to Pignola Festival in Udina. It was on March twentieth this year, and it's a fantastic event within the association of Pignola producers. And Fabio is the president of this association and a great Pignola producer. So I had a chance to meet FABio and also discover his wines in the entire range of Pignola wines from other producers. This is how we met through wine through a great event in. Amazing. So why did you decide to invite Fabio specifically with us today? Well, first of all, I loved the wines. And I love this style. It's very elegant. It's something that you could see made with a good tradition and with a good hands with a big knowledge in the background. And second, I do believe in the power of young generation in my making And five years definitely a very interesting guest. And I'm looking forward to ask him some questions today about the wine, about the future of the region, about pinolò grape, of course. So may I ask you what are the learning objectives that we should expect from this interview? Yes. Well, today, I hope we'll learn more about the piniolo grape variety, which is in my eyes, cherry on the top of the range of wines in friuli and also about the perspective of friuli wines on the international scene. Amazing. So I'll now mute myself. The show is yours, Anna. Thank you, Carla. Nice to see you. Great to be here. Could you quickly describe for our audience your background and wine and how you connect it to the winery. What's your experience? Yes. For sure. So ours is a historical winery. We've owned our vineyards in Buctrio and the winery in Buctrio since the fifteenth of February fifteen eighty five. Which roughly means five hundred years. And we acquired it through a marriage, which is also the reason why I know the exact date. I don't just know a year. I know day, month, and year This guy, Pompeo de Mariano, marys this lady called the Lavinia Frisquilla, and she brings the vineyards, the winery, all of the buildings into my family's hand. And since then, there has been no time throughout history where these vineyards haven't been cared for and managed by a Doctor. Mis maniago, a member of the Doctor. Mis maniago family. I am currently the eighteenth generation who's been working here. So that's quite, let's say the responsibility in a way, but it's it's a fun responsibility, one that I enjoy being part of and it's it's a tradition that I enjoy being a part of. You know? Well, this is what we call deep roots of the vine going down and connecting you with a different generations of your family, your ancestors. That's pretty amazing. Can you also tell us about your current influence in the winery What's your job? What is your duty? Yeah. So this is a family estate. So everyone does a bit of everything, you know, from bottling to sales to, I don't know, buying and marketing. It doesn't really matter. My days are pretty pretty odd and unforeseeable in many ways. That being said, my main focus is on export and international sales because I think that's that's an area that, let's say that where our winery and fuel in general has quite a big, let's say, a margin to improve and be more present. So that's why I decided to care more for that side of the business rather than other parts that are already being taken care of by very expert and knowledgeable people. But did you always want to be a a part of the family business or you had some other idea, let's say, for your career? I know that you are well educated, a young man, that you studied abroad, and you decided that you'd like to come back to the family business. Can you tell us a bit more about it? Yeah. So that's an interesting question. And a question that I get asked quite often, which makes sense considering the history of our family in in wine which is, you know, it's difficult to have eighteen generations. Each one of them passionate and that cares about wine. So every now and then, people do ask me quite often, actually, people do ask me how did I decide to be part of this business. Many people also ask me if I was made, I was compelled to be part of the family business, and nothing could be further from the truth, honestly. I live pretty much within the winery, wonderful commute in the morning. So when when you live a family business, when you grow into, let's say, especially this business that is based on passion, it's very difficult not to be attracted by it. So there was no time that I can remember aside from when I was very small, you know, in Italy, kids have two dreams. When they're in elementary school, when they're five, six, seven, eight years old, they either want to be astronauts or football players. I want to be an astronaut. Then growing up, I changed my dreams, let's say. And I I always thought about making wine. I always thought about being part of the business. Now I didn't know which role would I have taken I didn't know what my, let's say, colleague was. I didn't know what I wanted to do specifically that came later on, that came through experience. I started working here after, again, number of experiences I lived in England for a couple of years. Then I got my degree in economics and management in Trento, and then I worked a bit in other wineries from Italy, and then I came here. And it's by working that I discovered that, let's say, I want to be involved in sales and in international markets and in developing international markets, but I've always always always wanted to to be part of the winery and of this business. Well, that's that's really interesting explanation. And what was your degree in the university, if I may ask? Of course. I have a degree in economics and management. So I don't have a necessarily a technical background when it comes to winemaking and buying growing. All the things I know about making wine, caring for vines, and so on are things that I learned through experience, through harvest, many harvests since I was very little and through working in the winery with my own hands. But, I think economics is a good, you know, it's a good degree to have it. It's a good technical background to have. Nowadays, word is challenging and you need to be precise with your decisions. I'm happy. To have a degree in economics because I think it helps me in many ways to make good decisions and decisions that can bring the winery not just to the nineteenth generation, but also to the twentieth and the twenty first generation and so on and so forth. That's a great perspective, I must say. Yeah. It is a valuable discipline, let's say, quite, important. This is what I see in, many other families who are winemakers. They start us farmers, you know, they start as growers working in their own estate. And when it is possible to give other generations education, also very good education, maybe in best universities, maybe with best possible professors and all. And it's definitely either business or marketing or economics. Something that would help distribution because no matter how good you make the wine, distribution is always the key. You know, working in the in the wine sales in retail, so many years. This is my outlook to the industry. I think that distribution is really critical in the wine business to be present at certain markets. I'm sure you can attest to that much better than I could ever dream of doing, but yes, I agree, you know, especially in agriculture and therefore also in wine. Time is slow. We're not in a plant. We're not in the industrial. Sector. So when we try to make a new product, a new wine, specifically, since we're talking about wine, it takes years and years and years and years. It's a very lengthy process to develop a new product to let's say, perfect, a technique or something like that. So for me, it always made sense that the first generations always, let's say, focused on production, and it's just the following generations. That, you know, trying to develop better marketing, better distribution, better sales, to, I don't know, find new markets, and so on, and so forth, new buyers has always seemed natural to me. And what is your approach, within winemaking? Is it more traditional? Modern or mix of both? This is a difficult question. This is a difficult question. If I had to choose between traditional and modern, I would surely pick traditional. Being born and, you know, carrying a very deep heritage and deep roots as you said before in this business in winemaking and in in the wine industry I have to be traditional, not just because, you know, for the sake of the past, not just because of that, but it's because I truly believe in all of the learning, all of the experiences that we've made throughout the centuries. It's not, again, learning new things in wine in agriculture is always very, very difficult, very, very challenging. And therefore, it takes time. So for me, it's always about tradition Then again, since you allow me to pick and also choose a mix of both, I must land on a mix of both because at the end of the day, new techniques are developed every year. There are new, let's say, styles new things that we are experimenting every day in this winery and in many other wineries throughout free willy. We're not unique in that sense. And so we're always trying to improve on our products. I would say that, The best lesson that I got from my ancestor is, believing in Freuri. It's terroir. It's for the French culture. It's believing in native varieties. It's believing in what are the typical products of friuli are we mentioned Pignola before. It's one of the many native varieties that we have in Priuli. And that's probably what let's say, if I had to pick between traditional and modern would what would carry me more toward the traditional side rather than the modern style in the sense of finding new styles, new techniques, and so on? Well, yes. It was once very modern to bring in international varieties to freely. Now there's a tendency to work with local varieties with indigenous varieties. Although, Sevenom Blonde and and merlot, those are typical varieties of fruity. So in your state, how you balance native varieties with international ones? What drives your choices more or less? Yes. So international varieties, as you said, even though they are not native. So I'm thinking about maybe Pinogrija, sovignon, in this specific area, my winery and all of my vineyards are located in Boutrio, which is in the south of the DOC Free, what we call. We have a great sun exposition. We have a couple of degrees more in terms of temperature on average. So Merlo is another international varieties that I think found a a perfect spot on those hills in Montreal. Those are varieties that are not maybe native, but they're surely traditional, as you said. Think Pino Grijo, we've had it in our vineyards for more than two centuries. So it's nothing new, let's say. So they do carry a weight in the wines that I produce and in my production I'm leaning, not just me, but my family in general, my dad, as well, always lean towards, growing the amount of hectares that we have of native varieties. So slowly, but surely we are getting rid of international varieties to be more focused, both in the vineyards, in the winery, but also when we present the wine, and we tell the stories of our wines, to our customers on the native varieties. For example, Up until two years ago, we used to make chardonnay. Chardonnay is now one that we don't make anymore. We didn't replace it with something new. We just took away. We just got rid of the chardonnay in bottle. To give us more space to focus on native varieties. For one very simple reason, if we want to tell the story of Frioli, if we want to have people know what Friola is all about. We have to focus in my opinion. We have to focus on native varieties because they are the best ones to tell the story of Frioli. Yes, as we said, it's a traditional variety of Frioli. Sovignans of free inferiority is well known around the war, but they're not native. They weren't born here. So those are the varieties that we have to, in my opinion, care more for and focus on? Well, you do definitely focus a lot on Pignolow, and you became a a president, an elected president of the Pignolow association I had the chance to taste a variety of pineal o wines simply, but to the people who never tasted it, could you describe how would you describe pineal o taste? This is this is the most difficult question you've asked to date. I don't think I can honestly. Pignola is an experience. Pignola is something that you have to taste to really understand what Pignola is all about, especially coming to the tasting with, you know, the preconception of what friuli is all about, the great land of white wines. You wouldn't know how to approach bignol and I don't want to say spoil the surprise for you. You mentioned, that we met during the World of Pignolo day, which is the day where we when we celebrate the beauty of Pignolo, the story of Pignolo, and everything that comes and goes around the pineal of wine and the pineal of wines. And every year we choose a different topic, a different theme for the day. This year's team was the unexpected So since we are still in twenty twenty five, and the word funeral day was word funeral day year two thousand and twenty five, I want to keep in line with Beam and and I will say that I will not describe what Pignol is all about because it must be unexpected. If you want to learn more about Pignolo, my recommendation is go to your local distributor, go to your local wine shop, go to your local retailer, or whatever you acquire your wines, and ask them to find you a box of Pignolo. Grab a train, a bus, a car, a flight, whatever, come to freely, travel through the wineries that make pinolo and talk with the pinolo producers. Talk with the pinola lovers, taste pinola with them. I think that's the best way to learn about what pinola is all about. Well, that's a really nice description. Of course, I'm not going to spoil the experience or steal the experience from the people. I just want to warm up, let's say. Do some do some warm up. Well, due to my professional life, due to my job, I do taste a lot of wines in Italy and from other countries also, but I was really surprised with the average quality of pineal wines. And this was really unexpected to me, and this is something you don't quite expect from the land of white wines. Which Freally is definitely is, due to the reputation of last years and all, but in yellow is definitely a surprising variety. It it's deep. It's quite powerful but powerful in a very Italian way. It's especially interesting to discover the variety of pinolos because as far as I know, as far as I now learned from being in on this festival on this pinolos day, I discovered that You guys, the wine producers, you did not agree between yourself about the style of pinola wine. Every family, every state has its own approach with this grape. Which is very challenging, which which is very hard to grow. And Pignolo, if you read the special literature, the books, it is often described as a challenging grape. So what makes it worth the effort for you, for your family? That's that's a really good question. I think it leads back to the reason why all of the pinolos you've tasted were of very, very high quality. Pinolos is everything but a necessity. Let's be honest here. We don't need piniello in our winery. I can very easily pay all of the wages of the people working here, pay all of the bills without making piniella. And I think this is part of the beauty of piniello. You don't need pinolo. You want pinolo as for many other native varieties, and of many other things in life. This is the beauty of it. What I really like about pinolo, as we said before, is that it's unexpected. So I like a good challenge in life as I do in business, and Pignola is is a great challenge for me and the winery and the vineyards because it it's a game of patience. It's a game where you have to be very, very accurate, very, very precise when it comes to caring for the virus, finding the perfect time to pick it, and so on, finding the perfect body that complements the pinolos. So it's a good challenge there, but it's also, I think, a challenge for the person who then has to taste the wine because it it's, again, it's unexpected, but it also tells the complexity of free willy, which I think it's one of the strong suits of free willy. As we said, when you look for a high quality pinot grillo, you surely think about free willy balance with Julia and the hills, especially of free willy. When you want to drink a good sauvignon, surely free will is one of the regions of the world that you are considering. But what are the regions where you look for a big important rich red wine Tuscany, quement, why not, but not necessarily friuli. And one of the reasons why I think Pignola is worth the effort is surely because of that because it shows that friuli is not just about whites, that furries are rich land. It's a complex land where we can make great white wines. We can make great red wines both fresh and aged. Then we can also make great sparkling wines and sweet wines, obviously. So that's what I like about it. Well, that sounds, really interesting. And that sounds like a really wide, palette of friuli wines. From my discussions with your colleagues with other winemakers from friuli, I realized that a lot of people now thinking or questioning what is actually the face of, freely nowadays? Because it was famous for white wines. It was famous for iconic wine producers from your area. But now a lot of wineries having the new generation like yourself. And it means, new perspective, new horizons in the winemaking for the industry. So my question is, as a president of Pignola association, what are your goals for the promotion particularly in your variety and how you see the future of your region? Yes. The the soil is quite literally shifting in real time below our feet. Everything is changing, and we have to understand why things are changing and how to adapt to those changing, changing balance, changing a type of clients. There is also a big generational change within the winemakers in Fudoriva as there is in the consumers. Around the world. So everything is changing, and we have to be very fast and very precise in understanding what is changing and how to be always relevant within the wine industry. I didn't mention it, but also weather is changing quite a bit. So that's that's a big factor when making wine, and I just forgot about it honestly. The goal with the the pineal association is pretty much that to adapt to something that has changed. To adapt to new markets, to adapt to new trends, to adapt without, obviously, forgetting about the heritage of of a specific vine and a specific variety. The Pignol association, the way I see it is an instrument, to both promote the variety to people that don't know it, but also to, have a place where we, as winemakers, can talk about these topics, what is good, what is bad You've mentioned before that we, as producers of Pignol, we didn't get together to decide which kind of style we wanted to adopt on making Pignolo. The Pignol association is also a place where we can discuss this kind of these kind of topics where we can discuss, I don't know, what's the best training system for the vines in the fields? What the best placement is? Is it still a good idea to plant vines in the highest part of the hills? Maybe Pignol is best in the lower parts of the hills, what's the best type of soil? It's it's not just about promoting the variety. It's also about us learning about the variety that Pignol is. Obviously, promotion is a big part. The goal for these past few years is to have as many people as possible know about Pignolo within the region of fluidity. Anna, you've met many people from Freewood. You know that we pretty much like our region. If you if you go in or a village, like, and you ask, to a random person, where are you from? They will not say I'm from, Italy. They will say I'm from When they go abroad, they carry freely with them the number of free rein importers and distributors around the world that carry only free rein wines is unbelievable. Is unbelievable. They always have disconnection. We, as Frulian always have these connections. So I think the best ambassador of Rioli, of this very traditional native variety will have to be the Frulian people. But in spite of that, not everyone knows about Pignol even within the boundaries of our region. So that's also why once Pignol day in the past few years has always been catered in Udina. It's because we wanted the city and and the people who live in Philly to know about Pignol so that they can share the news of Pignol and obviously not just about, you know, feeling people. We had you. We had many other Pignol lovers from Europe and, and abroad as well. I would say that we have these two souls within us. So it's about promotion, and it's about increasing, always improving the quality of our production. Well, I visited this Pignola Day on March twentieth, this year, and I'm definitely going to be there next year. And, I would like to share with our audience. My recommendation, if you ever thinking of going to freely around this time, of the year. Please do plan put this in your calendar to come to to visit Pignolodi. I again, due to my profession, due to my job, I visit a lot of wine events. This is pretty much all I Well, I get to see when when I travel. I was very surprised, and I was very happy with what I experienced in because it was special. It was something I did not expect. As Fabio mentioned, it's unexpected you definitely got me there. It was absolutely unexpected for me. The quality of wines, the quality of conversation, the quality of guests. Oh my god. There was there was such a great floor, such great speakers, the location itself, the food, the wines. Fantastic. So it's not an advertising, but it's my strong recommendation to those of you who would like to experience something new and unexpected. Please plan your calendar and So, Fabio, I have another question for you regarding some experiments and researches that you do with Penolio, vineyard, or a seller, or maybe with an association. Can you share some data with us anything you lately discovered? Any results of experiments that you were witnessing? The main focus for us as a winery for these past few years have been experimenting with different types of corks to find the best way to close the wine without leaving space for improvement. So without without blocking the wine from, evolving and aging in a beautiful for way Pignola calls for aging. Pignola strives for longer aging. So finding the right closure and the right type of closure wasn't easy. It surely wasn't easy also because it takes a lot of time because you have to see how the wine evolves with different types of of corks, but, but this has been, let's say, the main focus for the time being for us as a winery. For the association, we will see we have a couple of plants. We have a couple of ideas, and then we want to, put on the ground and start working with on, both research about the variety itself and also on finding the best techniques and the best let's say styles for these these variety and the way in which, you know, we can get to a specific style with, some techniques according also to the placement of the vineyards and and whatnot. In wine is complex and there are many, many factors involved into making a great wine, but, this is this is what the association will do in the coming months and also coming the coming years. Well, thank you. That's that's really interesting. And regarding the new generation of wine producers in free only, looking ahead, what is the hope of next generation and what you're building upon it or or what you do differently? So I think the association is a good let's say it's a good flag. That's a good example of what I hope younger, the next generation, my generation, inferiorly will do. Partnering up collaboration, finding ways to work together. We are already and have been for many decades at this point, facing a word that is increasingly big. We are facing increasing competition from bigger regions, bigger players, bigger importers, bigger producers. It doesn't matter. Whilst freely, as we said before, it's a bit odd. We grow, many, many, many different varieties, but native and international. We don't have a focus on a specific type of grape or a specific color of grape, even. So it's very difficult to have big players in the hills off freeway. So the only way to be always relevant in the worldwide, stage of wine, I think it's to work together and never one against the other. That way, we will not, find any luck at all. What I hope is to have newer and younger people into winemaking in fewly owning wineries and managing wineries that will be able to share the results of their research. As people did in the past, That's how he really became a great land is by sharing the knowledge, sharing techniques, sharing what they experiment within the winery. And, in all honesty, I'm pretty positive in that regard. I know many younger guys working in, and birds also, working in winemaking in Frioli. And we had great conversation, very open conversations about what works and what doesn't, what they focus on, and what they don't focus on, what they learned, and what they made mistakes on as well because you never learned without mistakes, things that are not, necessarily that you cannot overlook. It's not always as straightforward then. And sometimes, It's not obvious. I I don't think it for granted that people will share these kind of things with a colleague with what is technically a competitor. At the end of the day, I I'm technically a competitor of another producer in the region. I'm making the same wine from a similar region, from a similar area, or I'm making at least similar wines. So it's you you could see it that way. You could see it as a competition, but what my generation I think is doing is not seeing each other as competition, but seeing each other as colleagues, which is a totally different thing. Well, this sounds, really promising because sometimes the face of the region, the image of the entire region becomes more important than the image of the particular producer, especially when there are number of smaller producers, not some big name, not some big brand, not some big state, but a number of smaller producers here, I agree with you that it's important to have to to work together on the image of the region. So so you know what you communicate to the customers who don't know about they barely know of freely in general sometimes, you know. They don't know about or or or or or or or or they barely know where this part of Italy is on the map. You know, the world is so big. And, sometimes we, we leave in our spot, and we think, okay, everybody knows this and that, but it's it's not the same. And, uniting for, forming a particular language, the style of wine, the particular way of communication about your wine is is actually very, very important. Well, thank you so much for mentioning that because, I think it's a very perspective talking and communicating with with other producers. It's something something really valuable. I was surprised, when I learned in this event that, for many years, people didn't even discuss with each other. They worked, you know, neighbor with neighbor, but they didn't really even talk about the style of wines or the difficulties, the challenges, and things like that. Yeah. Surprisingly. Yeah. No. It's true. Also, and I think it's the only way to move forward. Again, Fruri is so complex to explain. It's so difficult and unexpected. A big group, a big producer. It's impossible for them to convey this kind of complexity. They're not interested in that kind of complexity. And this is something that I learned also in university. What a big producer will do is find a key product, a key variety, easy to explain easy to sell where you can make high margin, and that's gonna be it. But that would impoverish the land. That would destroy what Furi is all about. Furi is about complexity. And in a day and age where you know, numbing down, numbing down everything is the keyword. You make it as simple as possible because the because it that way everyone will understand. It's all only a small producer. Always only a bunch of crazy people can hope to change things and to really explain freely. Well, thank you so much, Fabio, for this, insight. Here, I'm completely on your side in this dialogue. And really looking forward for the changes for the bright future of free will, I love quality wine from the days I learned about this region about grape varieties, about till now, the more I learn, the more I'm respecting your labor and your, input in your land and the science and, collaboration. I would like to ask, well, let's switch to something different, not to wind up production, but to some touristic attractions so freely. When you get to recommend the area to the foreigners, what are the main things they need to know or visit once they are in freely? Very difficult question. So Frioli has the mountains. Frulli has hills. Frulli has lakes. Frulli has rivers. Prulli has flatlands, but Frulli has also the sea. Frulli has a bit of every Like, even here, we go back to the complexity point. So there is something for everyone, I think. I would recommend in terms of places what I usually recommend are two places, actually. One is surely Udina because I think Udina is a lovely city. Beautiful buildings, very livable place. So I really like it, and I always recommend people to go to Udina to walk into a bar, not be afraid to talk to people in front of a glass of wine or, I don't know, a plate of charcuterie salami for manjo cheese and so on. The other thing, the other place I usually recommend is, Cheviddale is this little medieval village that is, let's say, northern from Udine. It's fifteen minutes drive from Udine. So it's not far away. And again, carries a lot of histories already since the Roman times, but there are multiple things that I could mention I could talk about Aquilea, for example, where you find the basilica, the Aquilea, the church of Aquilea that has one of the most important mosaics in the world. We could talk about trieste if we wanted to go closer to the border. This is another beautiful city with a castle of Miramare, which is an incredible, incredible building. My favorite place. I love it so much in theory yesterday. I was on the fence whether to mention it or not, but it seems like I did the right show. I made the right choice. One experience. See, you know, I mean, I live not so far away for me it's one hour drive. And also, I think in my neighborhood, people a lot of people know about it, but, there are people listening to us from different parts of the world. So it need to be mentioned for sure. No. That's a hundred percent true. It's really nice. It's really nice. Literally on the sea. It's something else, honestly. And I had to say it in spite of I'm, you know, that between friuli, entries, between Udin and Theresa, there is a bit of rivalry. Let's say, I had to mention Miramara in spite of this rivalry, in spite of the fact that I am clearly on on Uvines side, but it's really something else. It's really something else. The last thing that I wanted to mention more than a place is an experience. And I think it's something that people should really do if they happen to be in free within the right time of the year. I don't even know how to say it in because I don't know how to translate this word in English. Maybe you can help me, Anna. It's a. So, basically, throughout the summers, every village in Freuri, every town and city in Freuri has their own little festival in a way. Everyone is focused on a local product, whether it's, I don't know, Radicchio or wine or, I don't know, cheese. Each village has its own, let's say, spin on the thing. And they basically have stands where you can eat. You can sit down. There is music. There are people there It's a big party of the village, let's say. And I think it's a great way to learn to truly learn about Freuri and especially the people of Freuri. One of the things that I love about my job is that I get to travel around the world and not just travel because I I don't just go sightseeing, you know. I live and spend my days with people that are, local, whether they're American, Canadian, German, from the Netherlands, England, it doesn't matter. You breathe and live their culture. And I think one of the best ways to live the culture of Freuri is go to one of these Zagreb. You can look it up online. They basically happen throughout the whole summer from probably June up until late September maybe even early October. That is something that I always recommend. Not necessarily fancy things. You won't find high end Michelin starred cuisine, but, you find truly local products. Well, that's fantastic. I didn't know about this Sagrass really. I should be checking, online, and, are they mostly happening on the weekend? Yes, mostly, but not all. Only. They usually happen for a couple of days. Usually, it's always a Saturday and a Sunday because everyone's always a bit more free. Let's say. They're not too risky attraction. Most of the times, it's it's a local thing. So it's it's a place where I would go not necessarily like the American, tourist that comes from abroad. I think it's worth checking out. There are multiple ones again. You you basically pick and choose my recommendations to pick and choose there are websites online that list all of the different festivals that are, in in theory throughout the summer. And you pick and choose my recommendation is according to what you want to eat and what you want to try, let's say. And what is the best way to search for this kind of events, just type in Sagra, Sagra Freuri? I think so. I'm in front of my computer, and I think there is a website that is called the Sagra Online Freuri, where you find a list of all of the different salary that you can find. So, Fantastic. Thank you very much for this recommendation. So I think the time of our interview is running out So I have a couple of more questions for you, and I also welcome our audience to ask, questions if they have some. So my questions to you, Fabir, would be you already speak about the events, but which food you particularly recommend to try once somebody travels to freely. Of course, I expect you to say maybe your favorite foods from the area. This is I've said it several times. You've asked very difficult questions sometimes, but this is a very easy one if you ask me. Okay. Really, really easy. I would go with Frico, obviously. Frico is this kind of Let's say it's a mix of potato and cheese, basically, montazio cheese made within a pan, and it comes out as kind of a small cake. Let's say it's it's obviously not sweet, but it's delicious very easy. Pruely has never been a rich land. So, you know, potatoes and cheese were things that everyone had, and everyone could afford. And they made this beautiful dish that is called Frisco, very local, but very, very good. I had people from all around Italy and all around the globe really tasting it. And I've never encountered someone that said, I don't like it. So easy recommendation. You cannot go wrong with Figo. Yeah. Well, potato and cheese seems to be the world's famous food. Yes. Exactly. You know, some brands even build a menu out out of these two products. It's definitely very appealing and it's not something of high cuisine, something of miscellaneous tourist. It's very easy. It's very approachable. Is there a way that people season day free call how you eat this potato and cheese thing. Usually, you season it with something or you add some toppings, or which wine pairs best to your choice? No. Usually, it's, like, the traditional version of Rico is just potato and cheese. You can add other things on it. Oftentimes, people add onions, for example, sometimes, it really depends on what you want to do. There is a place in friuli that does forty different types of Frico with, tomatoes, various types of meats. So you cannot toppings. The traditional one is just potato and cheese because, you know, it's the same, like, with food, it's the same with wine, basically. Adding things doesn't make something better making something, let's say, look more difficult doesn't mean that you make it better. Sometimes it's more difficult to improve on something that seems easy that it is to make a very complex, very beautiful looking plate, very beautiful looking dish, and it's easier to do it that way rather than take a couple of ingredients and make a great dish, great tasting dish. Fantastic. Which wine would you would you pair with franco? What is your favorite choice? Let's say. You like sparkling. You like white wine, you like red wine, any particular grape variety, maybe? I forgot the most important question or the most important part of the question. So another question that I get asked oftentimes is what's my favorite, why? And I never know how to answer to that. So same way, I would not really answer to your question with one answer. Let's say I'm lucky enough to be able to drink different types of wines pretty much every day because it's, again, it's part of my job and it's is my passion. So I would recommend probably a rifle scope Rafosco is a native variety from Frulli. It's a right great variety from Frulli. Very common. You can find it in many, many wineries. It's surely one of the most common native varieties that there is. And I think it can go very well with Frrico Another wine that I would recommend, if you're not maybe a red wine drinker, and refer your wines could be Malazier strijana. Malazier is also pretty powerful wine that go that can go very well with Figo. Those are, let's say, my my two recommendation, but then as you know, when it comes to pairings to each their own, also because there are, like, even within the varieties that are multiple types and multiple types of styles of winemaking. So there is no there is no fixed rules, which is what I think is is enjoyable when it comes to wine and food pairing. Well, absolutely. But at least, to give some, of your choice, it's always interesting, okay, to That's, let's say, what I would drink. Okay. Perfect. I know that some people would prefer sparking wine also and and freely there are some sparking wines, also made. Thank you so much, Fabio, for your time and for this conversation. I enjoyed it a lot. And, Carla, I think I'm ready to give floor to you. Thank you, Anna, by the way. Thank you, Kat. Have a for having me here, and it was, it was a really great talk, honestly. It's been fun. It's been extremely fun. And now I'm really, I really wanna eat that free go with some. Thank you so much, Fabio. It was a very interesting conversation. I enjoyed it a lot. And I hope our audience would also love to listen into this interview and would plan their trip to really sometime soon, and also ping yolo day on March twentieth. I'm not. Thank you for the time, and see you soon. Bye, everyone. 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. 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