Ep. 80 Monty Waldin interviews Gian Maria Bonini (Emilia Wine) | Discover Italian Regions: Emilia-Romagna

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. This podcast has been recorded during Vivete, an event organized by the Alianca de recuperativita Aliano, the alliance of Italian corps. Hello. This is Italian in my podcast. My name is Walter Gordon. Yeah. My guest today is Jamoria Bonini. Jameria handles the sales for a cooperative called Emea wine. So obviously, you're in Emea. Emea. Emea because we are located in a regimilia, the city of our cooperative. Okay. So how big is the how many members do you have? The immediate one? We have like, seven hundred and twenty nine members today. We are bringing to introduce new members in two thousand and eighteen. We have the second group in the province of, Virginia for numbers because we have three different wineries, seven hundred members that they said, and, more or less thirty five thousand acknowledisons of production for years. So what are your main wines? We're talking Lambert not only Lambrusco, because we are producing a special wine called Spergula. Okay. It's out of big, bunyards located in the hills of French Media. The Spergula is a native grape variety. It's a native. Yeah. Red or white. It's white. Okay. It's white wine. We produce black de blank from the, our Spergula in a Shermat method. So the fermentation is in tanks and both, yeah, like class is method because our winery that call it Casalevidicothori is a part of the group, Amelia Y, was the first one in, nineteen seventy nine, to do, Mato de Chlasseco, Champpin West in, Virginia area. Really? Yeah. Is that So it's, six year, today, six year in, in the bottles of fermentation. And, for example, two weeks ago, I was in Marano, wine festival, wine hunter, and I was Percula, Meto Locico, Cabizena, was the oldest of warfare because he's nineteen eighty four. As a as a normal one, as a still wine, what are the characteristics of spare cooler? It's not steel. It's sparkling because we are from the city of sparkling people sparkling. Never make us still wine from spare. In, yeah, in the past years, but it's not the origin of the spherical one. So why why is spherical is so good for sparkling wine? Yeah. Because our heels is full of gesso, which is chalk. Exactly. Like the heels of ramps in France. Okay. So in nineteen, between the years of nineteen seventy, seventy one, seventy two, the oldest property of Casa de Chultory went for six year in France to study out to make that. So Traditional methods, Bartling, what is happening to our Because it's not very used and popular in the early of, in nineteen seventy to do that in, in our region. Why? Because it's a much slower process than making, say, Lambrusco, which is great. Very quickly. It is it's quick to to to make a rambusco and sparkling wine. Quick to get to market. Quick to get your money. Yeah. The production is still, a lot. You know, that, a lot of production sometimes doesn't doesn't it's a conflict between high quality. So, right now, we are very lucky because our members are located in the plants of Virginia in the center and in the hills and the mountains. For example, our Spergular Viners are located in between two hundred meters for six hundred meters. That's quite high, isn't it? We always think of Emilio Romagna or in that whole area as being very, very flat. You're saying the Amelia part, it's got is is more hilly. Yeah. Because in the border between Amelia and Tysotuscany, there is up in happen in it. Apple nice. And our baniels are located also in the appearance in the early, part of the afternoon, but, yeah. So how far away are you from bologna? Like forty five minutes in Highway. Okay. I love I love how Italian to always say how much it takes, how long it takes to drive somewhere. Nobody always says, oh, it's fifty five kilometers. It's all about the driving time. Yeah. Yeah. It's, sixty, sixty kilometers. Yeah. And you and you motorbike in your spare time. Is that Yeah. It's alright. But now I understand why you gave me that. Yeah. I I love motorcycles. In in my blood, there is wine and a motorcycle. Okay. Not at the same time, I hope. Exactly. So we talked about, how you do the market in Italy? What is the market? How receptive is Italian market to the wines that you're selling and wines from cooperatives in general. Is there a positive view of cooperatives? All the way that I know, it's just gonna be cheap and high production. In the in the past, the the idea of the vehicle from a cooperative, especially in our area, is is that cheap wine. U huge market, huge numbers of hectoliters for years. But right now, we are a perfect, example of that. We are changing something because So what are you changing then? Are you telling your growers who give you the grade? It's usually because our bunyards are very, very big. Okay? And for our bottle, we selected with, agronis and analogy is the directory in the vineyards. So when I want to make something special like a classic metal or a a a premium, Lambrusco, I selected directly the vineers. This is the the the fortune to work in a cup operative because, for example, if I have, winery, private to winery, I can I must buy the wine from a cooperative? Yeah. You have more choice with a cooperative. Yeah. But how easy is it convincing growers? If I'm a grape grower and you say Monte I think you've got a lovely vineyard here, lovely hillsides, old vines. I want you to maybe reduce your yield so that I can get your wine into x supermarket or x restaurant. How are you gonna convince me to to make that sacrifice to do the extra work to lose some yield and maybe wait longer for for you to pay me the money for my grapes. Only one word for the future. For the future. Okay. So you say you gotta you gotta invest in the future Yeah. Short term pain but long term gain. Yeah. Is that the quality But you're young. I mean, how do you mean some of these grows? I imagine you're dealing with quite should we say senior members of the wine growing community older? How do they react to some young guy? Because also the the members exactly. The members, normally, the old is within five fifty five and seventeen. Right. But That's young in Italy though, isn't it? Seventy is like a teenager. Right? Exactly. But these members are children. So for the future of that is it's not a choice to make quality. We must make quality. Yep. Are are the younger generation interested in growing grapes, or do they want to be sitting behind a desk going online? Do they wanna they wanna farm? In our in our area, yeah, the people, the young people want to rediscovery that work directly in the farms. Okay. So you make a you make a Lambrusco as well. So that's a a red sparkling wine, Charmat method. Charmat method, fermenti also fermentation in bottom. It's not the classic method. We call ancestor method. Okay. So which great variety? Which of the Lambrusco family you're using for that one. All the grapes of Virginia area. So, Lambrusco Maestry, Lambrusco Marani, Lambrusco Salamino, Monterico, Marblegentilla. We make a special wine called a mini lungo like long miles created in collaboration with the University of Virginia that rediscovery twenty one different bio types. Biotypes of grapes of Lambrusco, except that three three years in the laboratory to discovery, plant in the farms. It's only twelve years ago. We make that. It's very special because in only one bottle, you can find the kind of the the the the year and the vineyards, seventeen seventeen and twenty one grapes of Lamusto. Okay. Now interesting. Now final question, if I'm having a sparkling spare gola, what is what is a great, dish for that? A local dish from your area. A local dish from our area is mushroom. What? Like with that pasta? With pasta but without nothing. Only mushrooms. So sote, basically, with a pretty ball roll. Is that is that way? And fish fresh fish? And for for the Lambrusco. For Namusco, dinner with very huge fat. Fatty dishes. Yeah. Like, in our area, we make, lasagna. Yeah. Okay. Salami, mortadella, Lambruschka's perfect, and it's the reason why Lambruschka is located in, in the area because our dishes are full of fat. But you're the exec, you're, Streto, you're thin as a rate we say in English. So Okay. So you survived the Amelia Okay. And the the terrifyingly, heavy, Emilia was in. Jammaria Bonini. Thank you very much for coming in today. Thank you to tell us about Amelia wine. And, I look forward to coming to see those high altitude spurgle of onions. Okay. Take it easy. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much. Ciao. Ciao. This episode has been brought to you by Vin Italy twenty eighteen, taking place in verona from April fifteenth to eighteenth. 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