Ep. 93 Monty Waldin interviews Enrico Drei Donà (Drei Donà Winery) | Discover Italian Regions: Emilia-Romagna

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast with me once awarded. My guest today is Enrico Drey Dora from the Drey Dora winery in Emilia Romania. So you're in Emilia Ormania. We are in Romania. You know, in Emilia Romania, this long history of fighting between Emilia and Romania, north side, south side of the region. Okay. So you're on the Adriatic side. South from bologna, southeast from bologna in the athenines fields. So the first round in between forli and that in the adapter DOC subabulation. Which is many people consider to be the best area for San Diego. Historical and best area for San Jose for sure, one of the historic area of Italy for San Jose grapes in of is a glones. Do you get annoyed when we all think of we always think of sangiovese as, oh, it's the Tuscan grape. It's Canti Clasico. It's Rulello. Do you get annoyed by that? Not just you in general, to it that that your region as a whole, the fact that you Well, there most certainly are that there was such a crowd the wind is being to me, the old, the guys, old farmer, because we're Los Angeles and was born, and there's, been fighting about this in Romania, it's in Tuscany, technically, and historically, when if Sancio is really born, doesn't exist from Tuscany is a region, prolific region. So such bases are great from the central part of Italy. It it grows in the central Appenites and go down east side and west side of Appenites. And so in Tuscenian, Romania found a very nice least to be grown. And, for sure, Dustin did a great great job more than us probably at the moment. But you guys are bouncing back, aren't you with yourself? Absolutely. You're bouncing back a lot. Is there is a big camelback or is a So what's what's changing? Is it is it the younger generation with ideas, was it just better clones? Or It was, it was a little changing of ideas, the new generation, my father's side generation in the beginning, and new generation was much more, paying much more potential on the quality on the up and ninth, particularly on the on the on the flat side and stuff working on the selection of the clones on the terroir and the quality really rise up quite a lot. It's not only a few winery that makes good wine, but quite a lot. Are probably one of the one of the really start in the beginning with the new age of Central Bay, Romania. Right? To work in strictly on the clothes, selection of the clones on the Central Bay Green stuff. What about noodlewater in terms of barrel aging, Is there a move away from that now to let the fruit express itself off? Oh, no. You know, there was a lot of affection in the past. Once was very fashionable to be in the barracks. So everybody was, screaming. We are barrel age, barrel age. Now there is a big fashion to be natural. It's right. Everybody's spinning to be natural. I'm a little bit more, wanna say, different. So we do what you have to do to make a good wines. Barrell, aging is a technique. Instruments works to let the wine grow up just the best, organic practice, sustainable agriculture, a smart and intelligent way to managing the unification is, what's, I think what's really the consumer expect you to do to express us the best of the watch. It's not, something you have to point your little bins and say, okay, now I'm very cage. Now I'm organic. Now I'm biodynamic. Now I I'm missing some more than twenty years at my side than my father earlier as well. So you took it. So you're either third generation. Definitely, hang the second because in the the one year, it was in my family hands since nineteen twenty three. But in the past, was run from the farmer that used to live on the states. All my grandparents was a surgeon. It was my father, was the first one that, broke the tradition. He was he's make a novel study, so he was a lawyer. And he quit in the late 70s, beginning of eighties to manage the family winery directly, and I follow him directly. So I did the strange way because it was, it is classical literature at the university. Working in the wine room. So I have a classical heritage, and my technical teams from, road school. So working in the ground, working on the cellar. Yeah. It was lucky you left the classical issue because you'd never got a proper job doing that. Exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. You're not a doctor and a lawyer. Your your grand answer first in a far more sense. Oh, it was easy. It was teasing me when doing classical intro because there was only good women in the university. Okay. What's involved in? I like it. Exactly. So he's a classical teacher. You're talking about like Greek. No. I'm a trio. We did the Greek and Latin and the school, and after we go up to the, the university was contemporary history. So it was more my point of patience mainly, to make the study back. The main effort for me was always stay in the vineyards and the seller working. Learning, I hope learning to make wines. So contemporary history of, of the Emilio Romano region as a whole, how have things changed over the last twenty years? Well, it was great to be changing because, you know, Emilio Romano is very well known from wide to be the stomach of Italy, the food value of Italy, big furniture in high quality foods. And, like, what, a parmigiano cheese. Parmigiano, parmigiano cheese, parmig, Valsamic vinegar, and a lot of the scraperon and DOP. And pass the handmade pasta, top the leading, all that kind of, rich food, and nice, well known all around the world. So famous are in famous bolognese sauce. Exactly. So it's called the stomach of Italy. And there was a big tradition on the wind, and in the last twenty, twenty five years, there was a big big, coming back of small Viticulture production of the hillsides. It really starts showing what's there, your potential that the ride came from. So it was that to do with the pricing. And if if wines from Amelia, Romania were maybe not valued as highly in the market as they should have been, it was obviously cheaper for farmers to to grow their wines on flat ground rather than those. More because there was a big production came in from the flat area because it's a very high, high yield product. It's always, mainly, it's a production for, making entry level wines. The Viticulture on the hillside was much more focused on making high quality grapes to make high quality wines have a production cost much higher. Of course, the cost of the wine is higher than the normal idea of Romania. You may have, but if you look at the quality of the wines and you compare with same quality in Tusstan, for example, in other it makes Angeliza. We are usually at the same point where around thirty percent less expensive than the terrorist, because we are still not well known, and so there is a little bit to get to cover. So what does a man with an interesting classical literature have to do to to promote that I don't know why it's how good. So how do you think you will, you will add value in marketing speech today? Well, adding value is on a matter of for working at the high quality as possible and doing step by step your rope. Of course, you will never cover the gap we had with other Wayne region, but you can show the market the consumer, the quality, the potential of our wines and our water war, and make them passionate and start the ordering and drink our wines. And so get much more close for our production and understand our water war. So if I always says that our work is not only making wine. We try to translate the terroir to our wine making wine growing. If I can translate the terroir in the bottle in the glass and try to show what the potential could be. So some some good things in the past that were quite a bit proud of them because we really start changing, maybe, of course, for mine, it would be. Well, apart from Sanjay, what are the varieties you have, like, particularly also for white wine. Well, white wine because we my family is, half from, Veneto, sides. We decided, my father decided in the beginning to invest not on an indigenous grape variety in the white wines, but we invest making, very top grape varieties. We have Sharpenet, we have sauvignon blanc, and have the rain recently. And we do white wines this piece of rifle. Our, white, crudes for each tourneise. It's a blend of chardonnay and riesling fifty fifty, who's a little bit of wood, fermentation, ten percent of the chardonnay's, barrel fermenting a little touch. And it's a dry wine. It's a dry wine. So it's a dry wine. And the other wine is in a more simple white wine. It's a serving on black with a little bit of chardonnay to add a little bit of structure and body. So our program, our idea of the white wine is much more following our venetian heritage. So by wine a little bit more grapes from the north, northeast side of it. We don't work in a classical tradition and grape variety from Romania. That's Trebillon and Alabama. Well, our work is on sangiovese, and this, will work on this white grape variety from South. So did you have red border grapes as well or cigar? Yes. We have cabernet sauvignon and cabinet fried. Which works best? Does the cabernet from gift carry good results? They are pretty different and the result very interesting. Both are them. We have a single, we produce a single vineyard Cabillion that, to be honest, was the first wine that really have a big, big, especially on the market in the late eighties early nineties. And his name, it's magnificat in the name. The name of our wines came from, the horses we had in our states, we have a horse breeding. We still have, we have, and we still have a horse breeding. And so my father in the eighties when we make a revolution on the winery named all the vineyards after the horses that was there at the moment. So, manifica was one of these horses. And so cabinet Minier was named after the this horse. And so, this wine, it's a small production pretty interesting. It's a very strong cabinet, Sevignon. Our terra will make wine in the great body, full body, great structure, and it's something that expressed our to an international graveyard that to be honest in the nineties was really, really big idea that my father had because when you're trying to approach international market, many consumer doesn't have an idea what's really are the classical indigenous regular activities. So having a cabinet, Subignon, they give a sort of a benchmark of idea, and they can value your weight, work, and the potential of you after a while. Isn't that changing now, though? No. It's strange. It's changing a lot. Like actually. This is they get the consciousness that, it that you have a great variety of indigenous grades that really could make, grits and inspection on the glass of the consumer. So which local grape don't you have in your vineyard now that youth are thinking of planting. Pinolletto? Pinolletto, we are out of the area of pinolletto, so we cannot plant them. We don't have the white grape variety, the traditional grape. We have a little bit, no, we don't have any old manor too. We have, we have a little bit of negreto longanese, that we use in, one of our granco de blend. That's quite interesting. That's a very strange grapes, much more of our blending rate. One of the older tradition bend blending grapes. Okay. Tell us a little bit the uvaloganese. You know, this is a strange grapes to introduce the idea of what Flubenone Ganese is in Romania. Like, in Tuscany, it was, colorino, Canada, indigenous river. To blend with sangiovese to add the color and structure of the sangiovese. In Romania with sangiovese, they tend to use this boulevard organizer. They tend to use the Malbogen teal. They tend to use out a little different grape variety to have the color and extract to the sangiovese that sangiovese in the past when they were really, really was pushed the production, tend to be very pinkish and lightly. And so they need some blending with another individual regularity. And Uvanese is a lot of black pepper notes, very rustic have a big, big bunch. So it's a great, it gives satisfaction to the farmer when he used to harvest him because when you cut this bunch, you have two kilos of grapes through one bunch. We are not more impressed now about the kind of things, but in the past, it was. And it's an interesting grapes for blending. We could really add a little bit of, a touch of particularity. Little bit peppery. So it's easy to pick in a blind tasting then. If you know it a little bit how it is, yes. If not, you could confuse it with, a rustic seras, just to give you an idea that could be something you can confuse with. But it's, it's, it's not it's not that. Probably, I think that because I have a little bit of hurt on that. So it's, something that really made me curious to to to sit out to at and particularity to our additional paper. Right? So where do you see the winner in, say, ten years time, ten, fifteen years time? Do you see just indigenous varieties? A hundred percent organic? I think because of the size of our winery of the moment, we cannot really play too many games. We try to do a to improve step by step what we are doing the best. I hope we would be able to expand a little bit of the business growing up. We have some program who buy some extra vineyards and, the idea in ten years, we would like to to double the production. We had the production out, but given India, it's around, twelve thousand cases a year. We hope to be able to reach two thousand cases a year. That was our goal. So we're still talking about the small number, family boutique winery. We work completely organic, so we continue doing through this idea of managing the wine in organic way. Did it for many, many years without any certification or the famous bins it was talked about. So it's a way to have the best grapes to work in the wine. So it's not a marketing point. It's a technical point. So that that's a part of the work we are going to have the best grapes and expresses the best of their wine. The dream, of course, is tried to be recognized as one of the top classical Centralese from Italy and and the seats in the group of the important winery of Italy. That's sir. Well, you're, I mean, you're a very well known name in your region. No. I mean, yes. That that that's the the the the the the what I'm happy that we was really able to to to build in the last thirty years. I'm very good reputation on what we are doing. That means we are poor in, straight very well. And I'm lucky that that the market recognized that. And step by step, the things that really would like to see a million romanian romanian wines get a little bit more, popular and fancy and the consumer. Because much more now, they are very well known in the, in the art of the wine geek. The people who are very little deep from the wines, I would like to see the romagna a little bit more appreciating their terms to little bit order a little bit more the spirits now in the rest of the world. I mean, it's a fascinating region considering that it has got so many internationally famous technology brands. Absolutely. Absolutely. And most of motor racing cars and fast cars, but you've got this incredible agriculture, which is a duper Yes. We are a huge university in Italy center in bologna, and and you are probably the home of Sanjuiy, which is one of the great It's one of the great varieties. I think sometimes in joking, I say, wait. I mean, it reminds the side of the moon of the sangiovese because we have the other side of happening. He's from the famous Tuscany. There's a lot of this topper. He's not a a sangiovese. We have to compare with Tuscan wines. San Jose, that he has his completely own, let's say, spirit, second, own, definition in terms of, his own personality, and it's fascinating to taste it because it has much more because of the terwari head is much more rounder, more fruity, It's got a weird full body. Yeah. It's got a fantastic capability, but ring ability is is not something some people to tend to confuse ring ability with an easy, cheap, and fresh wine. Ring ability means that even our reservable wines They're very structured. It's, nice to read because it's very velvet and round. Our area of the productive DOCs of Appalachian is a much more expression of attendance. It's more harder than other parts of normal is from a more intense to one. There's more intense to one and more entertaining. That goes very, very well when you're looking for a one and that could really age very long. We have a personal library of more than six thousand bottles produce since nineteen sixty nine till now, and eighty nine ninety three is very nice and drinkable today. So it's a wine that can really age twenty, twenty five years. And we make a big work in store all the vintages to to taste, and retaste, and show people that visit us to see what's the potential because I always say that when I wanna say that everybody can make a good wines, but if you are a great wine maker and you work very good, the vineyards, you can have great grapes and make a great wines, but a great wine that's stayed in a long aging in the bottle. It's not because you are clever because the terroir is a great terroir. So that's, the eligibility of the wine. It means that terroir have the potential to be something to be looked at, not only my wine, but also my colleague working that. And so dream as we talked before is to see the romagna and the productive, you see some population procedure. One of the top San Jose you can pick from Italy. So you can choose one you drink a Pronelo, one you drink, romagna, San Jose with the same, consciousness that there is a greater war with a personal What's interesting about Prudapio, I think with the Sanjuvezi there, you would think that they're gonna be these big wines. I mean, what brunello wines can be quite big. Yeah. Canti may be less big and Prudapio's sort of wines that are even less big if you like than Casatucci, but they've got the best of of the brunello in terms of the smooth and start the exotic flavors, and they've got that structure that they can't see particles. Friginous, still much more fruitiness in the in the mouth. I think your time is coming. I really do. I hope so. Especially for sending, as you can also put I see in some some instances that came out because it's, I live in US twenty years ago, and it was working as market or in German. Now, there is an interesting. So if we're gonna go in the United States, for example, in New York, people look into it, look in some more different wine region, and they have more interest in, like, to be involved in something different. So, sometimes but I think it's, I hope in the next ten years that could be a new a new reborn. Yeah. If not, there's always the classical literature you can go back to. If that doesn't work out, there's always the classical literature. It's like Oh, classical literature and philosophy helps you to take, the success and success with the same, impact. You know, I don't get mad for one thing or for other things because I'm conscious that I'm doing the best I can do with the top of the passion. I have running my little family business in a better way. And, I dream to be as much successful as I can do, but if I cannot reach what I'm looking, I'm still conscious they did all the best. And so I would not get mad at that. So, you know, you see, you also say, there is a bad news open a bottle. It's a good news open a bottle. So, like, we have wines to celebrate or to be consulate after that. So Erica Draydona, philosopher and wine grower. Thank you. Pragmatist as well. Thanks very much for coming in today. Thank you very much. Talk to you telling wine podcast, and I hope to see you put it up you something. Absolutely. We wait for you. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thanks. Follow us at Italian wine podcast. On Facebook.