Ep. 63 Monty Waldin interviews Gianluca Garofoli (Garofoli Winery) Pt. 2 | Discover Italian Regions: Marche

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast hosted by me Monte Walden with part two of my interview with Januka Goroffoli. So just tell me a little bit again about the history of, we'll edit all that. The Garruffly family's history starting in, you just tell me we start founded in eighteen seventy one. And Yes. Absolutely. Garuffly winery, started, with the the collapse of the Vatican State. Actually, Antonio Garolfoli, even though lived in Lorraine that is, one of the most important churches for Christianity. He basically decided to, to fight for the unification of Italy with the king of Piedmont and not with the state of the pope. So the king of Piedmont gave him as a reward the license to sell salt and tobacco, the tobacco area, what we see, the blue sign. But this happened in eighteen sixty six. And with tobacco, we didn't do nothing, but with salt, that was the only way to keep a food in good condition. I started to make a good amount of money, and they bought the old vineyards where he lived that was were owned by the, the church. So this is the beginning of a girl for the winery, basically, from the unification of Italy. And, in nineteen o one, his son, George Kino garofully went to the chamber of commerce and legally founded garofully winery. So that's why we we usually use nineteen o one as our beginning because we have a piece of paper to show. But in reality eighteen seventy one is really real beginning. And, and Garoffoli, one at the very beginning was a typical agriculture company firm. And as I said, we were we were pasta makers. They're still the brand garoffoli. Really? Yes. Then we sold this to another person, but it's still existing for the pasta. Then we had the frontoia to make olive oil that, they're still, owned by the family. And then we were making, wine. We were, buying and distributing the the the the tractors, you know, we call a company of the countryside. And, we specialize on wine, a lot among the two words, words. This is, then, Dante Garoffoli, and Franco Garoffoli, my grandfather, they they really focused only on on wine. And from there, you know, from the back line, because we have to remember that Italy was not only in bottle. They they called the fine wines, but it was the the the one percent. And, after the second World War, Garifully, bottled almost everything. We're distributing wine all over Italy. And and from there, it started, you know, in the the amp for a bottle in the fifties. We started to export in the fifties. We have bottles written in English for export markets. Later in the fifties. And the fourth generation, John Franco, and, my uncle Carlo, the computer made the revolution, of the quality, like, it happened in all over Italy, in the sixties, in the seventies. And then now there is my sister and myself. When you're working with your sisters, is it very easy for you to work together in terms of the style of the wines or labeling or marketing, or do you have very different ways of going about things? It took a twelve years to find an agreement. No. It's, as a niche family, it's a family. It's like the the family of everybody, you know, it's the same thing. And in the last three, four years, we we found a a nice agreement among the family. So we have our own role, and, the same project, the same idea, the same vision, but we tend not to, you know, to speak about, your job or my job. So that's, and and form agreement. But you will agree about how the vineyard should be run. You're all very clear about you know, what's going on there because without the grapes, there's no wine. Right? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. What's the hardest part about farming in the market? Cause it's a very rural region in the market. It's very farming here seems to be particularly for for vineyards, pretty high quality. People putting together, people understand and import to us very un industrialized. Is that a benefit for you or or a limitation? At the beginning, it was a limitation because, it was very difficult, as my uncle told me to to convince, farmers to work in a good way, like, to cut down the boundaries on the ground. It was, almost impossible, even though we were the owners of those vineyards. And, so the beginning was was very, very, very tough. But then this was plus because this region is made still today. We have a network of, people that where we buy the grapes, and that they have still the same mentality of, sixty, seventy years ago. So you, you see the roots of this region. You see great, great people. They work every day. And we see that this, you have a support, a real support, no bushes. You have very straightforward people. It's, it's great. Yeah. Because you're Marquis, for anybody that doesn't, is a bit bit off the beaten track. There's no real main motor access and also the population has stayed fairly stable here. It's really since just after the second world war. Yeah. It's been a slight increase recently, but it's been very, very stable. Yes. Absolutely. We are we we are one million and a half people and the eighty percent of those live along the coastline. Because the market is ninety seven percent mountains and hills is tough to build waterways to to live next to the mountains. So we live next to each other, but we are one million enough. We are not many people. So is that also important for the one? You you basically got the the Adriatic sea on one side with relatively small amount of land where you can grow vineyards and the rest is mountains on the on the inside of Italy. Is that important in terms of wind and temperature and day night temperatures? Yes. Absolutely. This is a the the there are rivers that they cut from west to east, and they they create, valleys where the wind, the debris from the sea, continuously goes up to the mountains. So it's, absolutely determined this, this, this, this this thing. How does that affect the taste of the verdicchio? Does it make it more crisper or more aromatic or it's not particularly aromatic grape, is it? No. It's not aromatic. It's not aromatic. It's a but the crispiness, yes, the the the acidity has been writing. This this another factor that is, important. So what flavors would we find in a young verdicchio? And what would we find in older one, say, one that's twenty years old? In the young verdicchio, absolutely the crispiness and minerality, and these are, you see, the almunda taste. These are the typical, things like that. Lemon, citrus man. These these these are the kind of, typical characteristics. And, during the evolution, you can find, anise, for example, anise, licorice, licorice, you can find you can find, sometimes a riper red, riper fruit like the typical honey, but sometimes, they can, they can be balsamic too. Really balsamic, very, very particular. What's that from the sea? Who knows? Who knows? We are uncertain actually, during the very hot vintages, the the the calyptus, the balsamic part comes out. So we don't know. We don't know if, the the the probably the roots of the the vines that go deep, but I don't know. So, I mean, a good verdict here can age easily aged twenty years. What about a a good, red, conoro wine? How long could that age? Well, I think that the ten, fifteen years, we should be fine. And what are the main flavors in a young conoro based on the multiple china group and one that's older, like, I don't know, maybe a year one. We have the plumps. We have the plumps. We have the maraschino cherry. This is the typical, typical taste of, and with age? What comes in the corner? With age, sometimes it's a little bit wider this, ripeness. So some people think, oh, maybe it's an old red wine, but, you know, that's a typical, Marasquino cherry of, of the cornrow. I think that, now, for example, in our case, we changed it a little bit to this kind of style, don't ask me how we did it. I think that my uncle, you know, wanted, not any more a riper fruit that is harvesting before than than other years. That that is what I know. And, we look for really the dryness of the, like, the white trucks, the chalkiness. This is what we are looking for more rather than the Moschino cherry that is a typical component. I love, Joshua, that's quite nice because you get that right, not jamming but that ripe fruit without the wine being really kind of fat and but almost sweet tasting. Yes. That gives this kind of sweetness. When when it gets twenty years older, it can be even bigger, this kind of So savory savory sweetness. Yes. Yes. Instead of we are looking more integrity now we're looking for more, less of this kind of sweetness and, and geminis, much, much less. More subtlety? Yes. Absolutely. Especially we did it in twenty eleven and twenty twelve vintage. Okay. Alright, Jan Luca. It's really a fascinating to talk to you about the garof fully family's history and your and your vineyards in the market, your verdicchio, and your Coronorads, hope to have a little trip around the vineyard with you at some stage. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for, for this, you know, this chat. No worries. It's a great pleasure to speak about the market region, and, and it's beautiful wines. Yeah. I mean, if I had to interview all of your family, I'd need about six hours tape, I think, wouldn't I? Absolutely. No. I tried I tried to speak what they would would would say to you. Great. It's been a real pleasure. Thanks a lot. Okay. Thank you. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.