Ep. 28 Monty Waldin interviews Elena Pantaleoni of La Stoppa Winery | Discover Italian Regions: Emilia-Romagna

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. You're listening to the Italian wine podcast with Monty Warden. Today's guest is Erlena Pantaglione of the La Stopa winery in Northwest Emilia Romagna. Eleanor. Hi. Hi, everybody. Good to see you. Good to see you. But where should we start? Natural wine, your career, when you worked in a bookshop, your family, the history of this day. We've got seven hours to do the interview. So we're we're really not gonna be rushed today. Okay. So let's just let's just maybe start with a little bit of the the history of Lastopa and how your family got involved in Lastopa. Okay. Yes. Lastopa has been founded at the end of, nineteenth century by a lawyer from Geneva. Named the Agenon. That's why we make a wine called Agenon. And my father bought the estate in nineteen seventy three. He always, told us that, during the second World War, he was in the countryside because of the bombing in town. So with his bicycle, he was a young boy. He was going down LaSopa, and he was dreaming about this place. And so in nineteen seventy three, he could afford anybody. He was a printer My grandfather was a printer. We are from town, from Piacenza, which is about fifteen minutes from LaSopa. So he didn't have any agriculture, farming, knowledge, but he he started with a lot of passion and, it was very ambitious. So he always said that, he wanted to do the best wine ever of the area. He knew that there was a potential to make a good, long aging wine despite of the fact that the area is most renowned for, mainly sparkling red and whites. But our soil and our climate is slightly different from the rest of the province. So even a general, the previous owner always made more, age the wines and they didn't make any sparkling wines. So one of the things that's happened at last stop over the years is this move away from some of the historic bordeaux grapes that were left by the previous owner and a move to indigenous Italian varieties. How hard was that for you in terms of selling the wine? Do people just wanna buy Bordeaux grape wines or were they into the Italian grape varieties? When I started to work at La stope in nineteen ninety one, and I also I don't have any farming, studying before. I always asked myself why to do things and why people should buy my wines. So in order to have answers on these questions. I think that, identity is, something very important. And since I'm not, in a strong appylation, Coli Picientin is really unknown area for quality wines, I thought that, the best challenger would have been, trying to give more value to local grapes like perbera and Bernardo or Malvasia Dikander Romatica for white grapes. I think that, with these grapes, we can tell a unique story. And we've, international varieties such as chardonnay or sauvignon or pinot noir or carbonate that they were planted at LaSopa before, What we can do is always a copy. Maybe a wonderful copy, but still a copy of something that has been produced for many, many years in historical areas of the world. So maybe it's more challenging to sell indigenous varieties, but I think that now more than before, it's easier. People are looking for, most unknown varieties from Italy. Instead of, as I said, a copy of something else. And I learned this working. Why why people from all over the world, they would buy a sovignan from Coli Picientini when you have create sovignon more or less at the same price with the same philosophy from sincere or from other historical areas. That's why we decided to take them away. Should we talk a little bit about your style of working? You're often just described as a natural wine grow, a natural winemaker. Are you happy to be called that? Right. If it's useful, it's just a name. I mean, it's not if it's useful to define, style. Okay. I don't call myself, a natural wine producer. I call myself, a wine producer because, I learned to make wine, in this way, in ninety one. Julia Armani that still works with me. Started with my parents in nineteen eighty and he learned to make wine like this. So very low intervention, no selected East, very low sulfites, filtration, if it, if it needs, and that's it. So for me, this is wine. What happened, in the last, maybe, I don't know, thirty years has changed so much the style of Italian wine, not just Italian mice, but since, I mean, Italian, I I speak about Italian wines, and to me has always been astonishing how the style of many, even more much more important wine producers or wine areas of my area has changed so much the style of the wine. For the market to sell more bottles in the United States, for example. I don't think that there is just one market. I think, that there are different markets for different wines, but, in Italy, we are we also have the responsibility to keep our very strong. And our wines have to tell a story that, for example, a new world wine, of course, can't tell. It was an easy decision to take because, I grew up with this type of wine. And then, of course, in, two thousand and two, we released the first vintage of Agena, which is the wine that, is presented here today. And it's a white with skin contact maceration. It's what, in, you know, in the US or UK, you call orange wine. And the and the grape varieties for Agenovus white wine are. Malazietic and aromatica now is mainly, like, I would say, eighty percent, and the rest is, Ortrigo and Trebiano. And what does this skin contact white wine entail. How do you make it? It's vinified like a red grape. Exactly like a red grape. We make a long Like a red wine. Yeah. Like a red wine. We make a longer maceration, like in the last vintages, about free four months. It depends on the quality of the grapes. So that means you're leaving the clear juice inside the grapes in contact with the skins. Yes. Because usually the whites are unified without the skins. There is direct pressing. In this case, we treat the the white grapes exactly like a red variety because, if the goal is to make a wine that really expresses the terroir, there is just one vinification that is suitable. It's not according to the color of the grapes that you you should change the type of unification. What's the effect on the taste and the color when you make a white wine? Normally, when you have a white wine in a restaurant, it's almost like water. Yes. In this case, more orange, That's why you call it orange wine because the the white grapes are never white. So they are, like, amber color and the tannins because, in the skin, so there are tannins. So even the service temperature is very important for a wine like this because, it hasn't be served like a white wine, so chilled. We suggest to, to serve it at about fourteen, fifteen degrees. Many people see you as a hero of the natural wine movement. Are you happy to be called a hero for it? A hero for what? I don't know. I mean, I make my job. I do it with passion. I chose to do this even if when I was younger, I had a bookshop, so that's my other passion books. If a hero means, to be responsible, to do things with passion, to maintain a very open eye towards everything, towards, otherwise, I'm very curious. I'm a drinker. I wouldn't say I'm a drinker before a producer, but I drink a lot because I I like the wine and I know. And I learned so much drinking different wines. I like to meet, producers. I share experiences. And I found so many good friends, nice people in our work ambiance. So, yeah, but I don't feel myself a hero. I just do my, my job. And my job is making wine. We don't have to forget it. We are not saving lives or We make wine. We are farmers. You're very much a non fundamentalist in the natural wine movement. Do you sometimes get a little bit, not annoyed, but, when you see some of this, some of the fundamentalism that can surround organics, biodynamics, natural, even conventional wine, does that frustrate you? I'm aware of that. So, very happy to be here. Very happy to go out from my comfort zone to let the people know about my wine, my job. And I don't see any differences between me and other bigger or more conventional producers. Who will be the next generation at Lastopa when you hang up your winemaking boots? I have a nephew, my my brother's son who is already working with me, and, who knows? His name. Rafael, and I have other free, nieces, nephews. But I feel myself very young, I wanna stay here for a while in Julia too. So we see. What I like about you is you're the, epitome of a wine grow, a lot of wine growers don't actually spend much time in the vineyards. Just looking at your weather. I don't mean this interview with your weather beaten face. You really are a lady. Is it, I would say a country woman. You live and breathe the country. You can see that in your in your demeanor. Everything you say is coherent and ultimately the proof is in the pudding. You make some outstanding wine, and that doesn't happen by chance. Lovely to see you. Thank you. Thank you, Monty. Thank you very much. And you're gonna have to teach me how to speak proper English because your English is such an expensive education, and your English is better than mine. I don't think so, but it's okay. Thank you. Italian wine podcast on Facebook.