Ep. 55 Monty Waldin interviews Lorenzo Marotti Campi (Marotti Campi Winery) | Discover Italian Regions: Marche

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast with me Monte Walden. Today, I'm with Lorenzo Marotti Campi from the Marotti Campi winery in the Marqui. I'm Monte. Hi. Nice to meet you. Now listen. Tell me to live about your your estate, the history of it. It was founded in the eighteen sixties, I think. Yes. It was founded in eighteen sixty by my ancestor, at the time, in a a moment where, the gold of the market was weeds. So we have one on we had one hundred and twenty hectares of weed. Weird. Maruana. You're going very well. This is the this is the marijuana podcast. There'll be millions of storms across North America. Tracking bottles of shit. Sweet. Wait. Okay. Sorry. You would never get to send another one to know the America again. Oh, I'd be able to verbalize it. So I'm gonna sell in color everything in Colorado. So, that was in the eighteen sixties. And so what were they growing again? Grain, and crops, some flowers, still, sugar beads, lots of, crops, like, most of the farmers in the market. But the first vineyard we planted eighteen sixty seven. So we always been producing grapes and selling the grapes for generation. My father is the one who planted most of the vineyards. He was good. Who did? Giovanni. Giovanni. My father is is still, still alive. Today, we have a fifty six actors of grapes, divided between vedicchio and lacrima. On top of that, we're renting a fifteen hectares of lacrima. So total production, seventy hectares of state grapes. Okay. So tell me a little bit about what makes vedicchio such a special white wine grape in the market. Vedicchio is sure, the most known wine from the market. It's a very versatile grape. It can be interpreted in different ways both in the vineyards and in the winery. That's why you have so many expression of the deque. It's very interesting. It keeps you is, exploring a new expression of this grape. Because, the area of edicule itself is quite large, and it covers different climates and different kind of soil. And also because the grape itself, permits you to, have early harvest, later harv later harvest, you can be done in sparkling, POCito. So it's a very interesting grape, itself. Could you call it, like, italy's riesling? Well, I I do not agree so much on this, comparison because Vedicchio has nowhere the acidity of the riesling, on the other hand, Vedicchio has a very nice, big structure, big body. That's helped with Vedicchio in the aging. In fact, it's one of the best aging white that we have in Italy, but I don't think it does age because of the crazy acidity. There are more acidic wine in Italy. But it because of the bone structure of the wine itself that helps him in long aging. So what are typical flavors we'll find in Vedicchio in German, in your Vedicchio in particular? Oh, Vedicchio is not an aromatic grape for sure. So you don't expect from Vedicchio vertical nose or that you have, in a, sovignon or chardonnay. It's a it tends to be a bit more austere in the early stage of life. You have this, broom filled flowers notes, almond. It's a very elegant nose. You you really have to to discover the nose slowly in the glass. It's not something that strikes you when a Vedicure is young. On the other hand, Vedicure relies a lot on the on the aging potential. So there is a secondary tertiary rome of Vedicure that makes Vedicure unique. It comes out a lot of, minerality, a Flinestone, occasionally, some other expression of edicchio, especially on on metallic area. And metallic area is that a slightly cooler area, isn't it away from you? It's slightly cooler. Yes. Same grape, different areas, smaller, and cooler to go towards the mountains. The vericchio that I produce, is more towards the coast, more of the alba as a typical mediterranean climate. So is it is it a little bit warmer down at the coast? Was it cooler because you get the coolness from the sea at nighttime? It it is warmer, but, it's a bit more windy. So it helps, in keeping a healthy grape, and it definitely has a a more impact on the full maturation of the grapes. So when you're picking your Vadicky, what do you look for? Do do you want the berries to be green or yellow or orange, how does it work for example? Well, doing, doing three Vadicky, I want them all. I want the green, I want the yellow, on the orange, I try to to differentiate, the wines that I make mostly on the, picking time. So we start with a very, almost early harvest with four hour basic Vadikio. Albaiano is our entry level Vadikio. Yes. It's stainless steel, humidifier without oxygen. So it's meant to be a bit more ready, a bit more on the primary aromas than the other two. What would you drink that with? Well, Adiana, it's very good with the imperative, antipasti. It's not avedicchio on the on on on the full power. It's a Vadicchio that is enjoyable even alone. I find Vadicchio always more a food wine with the albiano. We wanted to have something a bit lighter that can be enjoyed in a hot summer season like this season, it's particular. Okay. What's the next Vadicchio in the range? The next is sure, the most typical expression of Vedicchio, which is our Luzano Vedicchio superiority. Is a straight forward Vedicchio. Osteer, when it's younger, doesn't have, lots of floral notes, that maybe press in the earlier one. On the country, after one, two years, it builds up nice minerality. It's very crisp, completely dry with the nice almond finish, which is very present in the in the Luzano. Okay. You mentioned that Vodica can make sweet wines as well. You make a passito. I do make a passito. So what is a passito? And how do you make it? Pasito. We do, drying on the field. So we cut the cluster. We leave hanging on the on the on the vines. We don't do it every year also because the market of Sito is not a huge market. It's not something that we need to produce and have every year. Once in a while, we make a passito, we sell for several eels. Here's, we do age the passito long. We, so we've been selling two thousand seven until last year. Then we skipped the several vintages. We are come coming out with two thousand fourteen, this year. So what do you drink a passita with? Cheese. Our passita is not extremely sweet. Dedicure nature is not particularly floral or sweet nature. So we don't want to go too much against the the nature of the you're doing a super sweet potato. We leave our potato very much verdicchio. So about sixty, fifty gram sugar, but with a nice contrast, with the stupidity of the grape and the slightly almond finish, which is still there. So it's not the the surface Cito. I like it very much with ages, cheese. In particular, in the market, we have for Major de Foster, which is a a cheese that ages in the ground on the leaves. You said a white cheese or white cheese? With no. No. It is a it is a white cheese, but a aged one. And, paired with a some, veg who, marmalade. So Okay. That sounds good. Okay. So tell me a little bit about, la prima, what is it? La creama, it's a unique grape. It's a grape that was about to go extinct in nineteen, eighty five. There were seven hectares left, and then was going to die forever. Red or white grape. A red. It's a red grape. It's a red grape, grown exclusively in, in the area of Morodalba village and four villages surrounding Morodalba. So the territory of Laquima is much smaller than Vedicchio. Pay there is we decided to recover the lacrima along with few producers because it is a truly unique varietals. Every producer loves to say my wine as a strong personality. My my wine is unique. With the lacrima, I don't even need to say that because once you put the lacrima on the nose, you recognize amongst many, lacrima is a red grape that country from Verdicchio has, a very strong, aromatic, nose. So what what flavors would we like? Roses, violet, lavender. Those are primary aromas of the lacrim of a clean lacrima. And when it ages, how does it what does it turn to? With the aging, those, fresh flowers, they do not become fruits. If only one fruits may be present in the age of lacrima, which is a blackberry. That's what I which is also a balsamic kind of fruit, but mainly they drive the two spices, pepper, juniper, some clove, some incense. Those are the, the spectrum. This is the spec room of the of the lacrima. What would you drink, lacrima with? Lacrima is a lovely combination with all the white meat, oily, oily meat, the greener kind of meat. We have locally, we eat a lot of pigeon, which is very green, but a chicken liver, duck, gamey, birds, the lacrima really brings back the the green node to the floral spectrum and making the dish much more elegant and and tasty. And so you said age as well. I mean, how how long would it age was not meant, it was not meant to be an aged, red wine, but it doesn't mean it doesn't age well. Latima, as a very nice facility, is, extremely reaching on to sayyans, and it ages potentially very well. We still have two thousand, vintage, Latima. Thousand one, which are in perfectly good shape, and is very consistent in the aging. I presently opened fifteen vintages. None of them was, a tired or or dead. They were all the acidity kept the wine alive. Is it an easy grape to grow? The lacrima? No. I think it's the most difficult grape, in the world. That's that's what that's why it was about to disappear. It's really a pain in the lacrima, and it's very expensive too because you have to replan the vineyards constantly because the the all lacrima grapes were planted on a root stock that proved not to be optimal. So most of the old lacrima grapes after twenty, twenty five years tend to die. So you have to expand the vineyards and new one experimenting, hoping that in within twenty years, you made, the best choice in terms of, root stuff. So if you pick it late, is it a very resistant variety if it rains? Not at all. Laquima itself means teardrop. That's because, Laquima is a very compact cluster. And so in the maturation, tends to burst and release these black tears on the ground. That's the time you have to harvest very quickly. Otherwise, it of molds, and it's not good for the grape. And it's not very flexible. Tears for the wine grower too. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. So you mentioned earlier on that you have your own vineyards and you do buy in some grapes. Occasionally, but just because, I produce lacrima for many other wineries. So those wines, I may occasionally need, more wine than what I need for myself. But my bottle is a hundred percent always, steak grapes. So why, I mean, why bother it, it, it rots, it is grafts really badly. It's not particularly resistant, and it's quite a unique, odd, ball style of wine. Masoques Mahe. Masoques. Yeah. No. I think, this decision usually, you don't make. You find yourself in an area where there is a specific grape, like me, I had my state, we wanted to, to to really produce another value for the state, for the area. And we found that the lacrima, it's true. That is a pain, to grow on the other hand, is a wine, which is so unique. And I thought, if along with the character of the LaKima, we managed to make also a good wine, then we have a good wine with a personality, which is something, a bit rare, in a, in a, in a, in a past, years, and recent years, because they they all tend to be a bit more or more genius, for for the market. And so So it's a win with a big personality. Yeah. So who what are your main markets for the lacrima? US, it's a good market. We are selling UK to Japan. I sell small everywhere. From Peru where I just found that Lachimae is a perfect pairing with a very traditional dish of, chicken, coconut leaves, forest leaves, exotic forest leaves, and to New Zealand, everywhere small because Laquima is not for sure mass market or high rotation red wine, but it's always a wine that makes sense in a wine list because it's so different that it's complimentary to the other red wines. And it's lovely to have a glass at the end of a meal isn't it? The end of the start, turing. So Lorenzo Marothi Capi. Thanks very much for talking to us today on the Italian podcast. Thank you. You are fighting a heroic battle with, Latrimo, and you make, fantastic, especially this vintage, which is like, zero zero production in this vintage, which is too though to further you this which is what, two thousand seventeen, or what's happened in two thousand seventeen. But the lucky myself, it's, very inconsistent in terms of quantities. So this vintage, the flowers, it's themselves were very much less than in the past vintage on top of that, the heat and the dry season. So we are harvesting about, forty quintals, Hector. So Lorenzo Maroty Campi, thanks very much for coming in today. It's been fascinating to especially hearing about, not just your Verdicchio, but also the la crema de Morar alba, beautiful, great variety, and hats off to you for for sticking with it and saving a piece of Italian Venus heritage. Thank you for being here in Lamar. Come back when I'll come back anytime. Love it. Thank you. 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