Ep. 2450 Roza Zharmukhambetova interviews Hannes Pichler of Contrada Palui | Clubhouse Ambassadors' Corner

Around two thousand eleven, I started to look for free grounds to, use and set or plant vineyards. That's how I found the meadows up there in Contrada Padui. We are pretty high up for valpolicello. We're at five hundred meters because there's not much land left further below. And, we found this wonderful place on a hillcrest at five hundred, five hundred and fifty meters, totally sunny, ventilated, which is also very important if you want to work organic, and, just very suited for doing, wine, even though the local people said it was too high up, I believe it wasn't. And that again has to do with me being from South rural. So, you know, my a bit, yeah, a bit naive approach was, well, we are going up to one thousand meters. So what is five hundred meters? That's a joke. So I said, we're gonna plant there. And then later on, I realized that it wasn't that easy after all. 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. Hi, everyone. My name is Beatrice, and welcome to Italian wine Klabaus Ambassador Corner. Our clubhouse has been ranking the top amongst Italian wine podcast shows. The show's concept is to let Italian wine ambassadors have the opportunity to interview their favorite producers. This is an episode that gives them a free hand to ask any questions to their selected producer. This session is recorded and will be released in Italian when podcast to reach more listeners and especially for those who cannot participate due to time zone differences. Our guest host today is Rosa Dermocan Vethova, our Italian wine ambassador from Almaty. She started her journey in wine in Beijing, working for a wine importing company focused on wines from Chile. Later, she decided to focus on Italian wines in particular. That's how she's ended up with passing the Vineital International Academy program in verona in two thousand twenty four. And later last year, she joined the Italian WENT podcast team with me. She's also a certified Balpolicella specialist, Lange wines Ambassador, an Italian wine scholar within wine scholar Guild. Today, she's gonna interview Hannah Picchle of contrada Palui in Balpolicella. So Rosa, how are you doing guys? Very well. Thank you. Thank you. All good. Happy to be back. Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's gonna be fun. It's a pleasure. So Rosa, are you ready for our three virtual questions? Sure. Always ready. So how did you discover the wines from contrada Palui? Alright. So the first time I met Janice was during Amarona in twenty twenty three. So two years ago, I don't think that Hannah remembers me from that time, but so, saying here, I took quite a specialist course in Verona, organized by the, Perpocercio, that organizes the course in the anteprima every year. And Hannah was one of the exhibitors there. My fellow colleagues who also took the course with me, they highly recommended me to try his wines. And the wines are super good. And Hannah's also a very, nice person to talk to. So I remembered him from that time. So you have to thank your colleagues, on this, magical happening that is this interview, isn't it? Yeah, for sure. Like, that was a very good recommendation from them. Yeah. And why did you select Hanes as your featured producer? So as I already said, the wines are good. They're wonderful, but for me, it's also important to share an interesting story and people's journeys in wine. And I think Hanus has a really interesting story to share with us. That is why I decided to invite him as the featured producer for the series. I can't wait to hear this story, but before, what are the learning objectives that we should expect from this interview? Okay. So, first of all, we're going to discover the personal story and values that inspired Hanas to create contrada Poulouie from scratch in Wapelluciello Hills. We're gonna know the story of the winery, which is very interesting. We're going to understand the winery's, approach to vine growing and also winemaking and how this approach shapes the character of valpolicella at Namorona wines that he creates. Third, we're going to gain some insights into how Hannah sees constructopului evolving in the future and how it fits into the broader conversation about sustainability, identity, and innovation in Italian Wayne. That sounds like a really nice plan. So it's time for me to mute myself. And now I'm turning over the floor to you, Rosa, and have a nice interview, guys. See you later. Thank you. Alright. Hello, everyone. Hello, Janice. And thank you so much for finding time to have this conversation with us today. Well, thank you very much, Rosa, and thanks for choosing me as a talking partner. And, yeah, you set the stakes really high. So, let's, hope I have really interesting things to say. Okay. So sometimes I have lots of questions and the episodes that I record, they might be a little bit long. So let's go right away to the first question that I have. First of all, let's talk about your personal journey. So can you tell us about your early memories growing up around your grandfather's vineyard in South Terroil? Because This is actually what you sent me. As a little boy, he could not get enough of the grapes in his grandfather's wine estate in Saint Christina, above Paulzano, and regularly returned home with a stomachache. The farm was lost when he was a teenager, but the grapes and wine never left him. So can you tell us a little bit about this story? Yeah. Sure. Sure. Yeah. It, it really was a very nice, period. I was really small. And, my grandfather had this inherited this, wonderful estate. And, in fact, his grandfather was a winemaker and the his grandfather had the grandfather again or the father of his grandfather as well. So it was a long traditional winemakers, but my grandfather actually broke to tradition and became a medical doctor, but he inherited this, estate. And, as a kid, we just went up with my parents, my mother, principal, in particular. And, yeah, it was just wonderful to, roam around to vines. I always love them because I really find vines a very beautiful plant. They have, they're very aesthetic, and they grow. And over time, they, you really can see they become old, and they have this wrinkled skin, and it's it's beautiful. And nonetheless, they have this wonderfully bright green leaves. And, of course, in autumn or late summer, they also make these wonderful fruits. And, of course, as a kid, when you're talking about the seventies, the grapes were all, very well treated at the time with lots of, lots of stuff, I guess. And of course, nobody of us, washed anything. We just ate it from the stem, and that led to the belly eights and a little bit too much of grapes. So that's very fond memories. Unfortunately, I was like ten, eleven. The staple sold because my grandparents had needed the money. I thought that was gone, unfortunately, but I always always had love to to keep it. And, so that's why I sort of, yeah, I've always stayed with wine in my heart and in my in my mind in a way, but I've never really had the means to do anything. Yeah. Sometimes listening to this kind of stories, to be honest, I get a bit I envy people who had an opportunity to grow up among the vineyards because I remember from my childhood that together with my family till I was, like, nine or something, we used to go to the potato field. So nothing romantic about potatoes. Like, graves sound more interesting and romantic So you went and studied in Oxford, work in London, Milan before you decided to return to South Chorus. And was there a specific turning point for you when you realized that you wanted to go back to the land and to your roots and make wine yourself? Yeah. People