Ep. 53 Monty Waldin interviews Enrico Rivetto (Rivetto Wines) | Discover Italian Regions: Piedmont / Piemonte

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. My name is Monte Walden. This is the Italian wine podcast. I'm with Enrico Riveto. Enrique, tell me a little bit about your wine, where are you? I'm located, between Sarolunga and senior in one hill called Lirano. Which Italian region. Okay. Now we had a little walk around the vineyards earlier on, and you struck me as being completely and utterly crazy. Why? Not. It's not it's not it's not crazy. It's quite logic. If we if we think about, system. If you think that we are farmer and not just a wine producer. So what are you what are you trying to create here? You don't talk on the vineyard. You talk to the ecosystem. Right? Yeah. I try to, you know, have more, you know, experience with other things which are a vineyard. Consider that here today, one hectare of Barot cost one point seven million euro. So Yeah. What have what have you done with that? You've ripped up a hectare of preloaded vegetables. No, ma'am. Because because when I what is to, you know, monoculture is always bad. When you have, intensive, culture is always bad for the for the nature, maybe today, seems that we are rich, but in ten, twenty years, we would become very poor because the natural it doesn't think like we think. So it takes time. You think biodiversity is the way forward? Yeah. Also, if the award biodiversity is quite you know, everybody say the the word biodiversity also in the wrong way. Yes, but by diversity is the normality. You know, we try to find a way that vineyards are in balance with the nature, which is not easy, but it takes time. Just tell us some of the things that you've done to create the biodiversity that you have. We were planting weeds. We were planting one hundred and fourteen, fruit trees. We were, starting to to have a green garden canopy, eight hundred meters of aromatic herbs, birds. So we have a small house for birds on the on the on the trees. We were planting trees also for the birds encourage them to cross our our winery. Most people would say you're completely mad, but but thirty wine grapes. What are you doing? What are you doing again? Because, you know, you feel also, you know, I was studying wine maker school. I was studying, you know, how to make wine. But at the end of the story, we are farmers. And when you realize that you don't know how to grow a carrier, to how to grow a potato, you feel a little bit ignorant from what you do. So I started at thirty, thirty six, thirty seven years old to experiment something else, to experiment the the biodynamic up first on the garden and after on the vineyards. And I get confidence and I feel that's that's the way that I would like to walk us through it and go. So you've planted all these, well, you said aromatic herbs, fruit trees, you put even put fruit trees in the vineyards, which was the tradition. Yeah. Some of your neighbors thought that was really crazy. Right? Yes. But it was, the tradition our tradition was was this one, plums and and peaches in the medieval, the vineyard was normal. Also, the people when they were tired of walking the vineyard, they can just catch one peach and eat and was also nice and pleasant. You haven't just been a sort of pioneer in terms of biodiversity. Tell me about the Nachete degree, which you work with. What is that? Nachete is a indigenous white grape variety from Langie Hills after the World War two completely disappeared. And since two thousand eight, we started to vinify planned to identify. And since two thousand thirteen, I think we we found the the real natural, real way of interpretation of the initiative. So we age for two years in, in conflict. Thanks. We planted the north slope. That's very important. So why did you plant your Nacheta vines on the north facing side? Because if you if you read the old books of the eighteenth century, the Nacheta was considered closer with, of some riesling. So the first thing that came in my mind was north. So I put a north So preserve the city, preserve the minerality. So that's that's how I started. And what are the typical flavors of the white wine, Nacheta, couple of flavors? A couple of flavors. It's it's quite tricky because if you taste the Nacheta for one year or six months, it's very aromatic. It's it reminds like a most cattle, you know, very aromatic, but after two years and going farther in the aging, change completely and going more in vegetal, more really riesling oriented, but takes time. So I'm more interested in the second part of the flavors. So you also make a sparkling wine from Nebula made as a white wine. Tell me about that one. Yeah. That's a nibburo, a nibburo sparkly, which is belong to a project because we take just the down part of the grape of the cluster. So the lower part of the cluster. So the lower the lower parts of the cluster, which is more acid. And we make a a sparkly nebulle. Forty five months on the lease, extra root, and it's a beginning of a new project. And his name is. Kaskal. Tell us a little bit about your you love Barbara as well. Barbara Albera. You make two wines, Zeno, which is Uncle Nando, right? What what's special about Uncle Nando? Yeah. Because, Fervynando, the uncle of my father will plan the vineyard in the nineteen forty four, Old vines. You you seen the, you know, the balance after seventy years, it's done. Okay. And the other part about it, Albu is the what's the name of the hill. So probably this is the higher part. This one is, it's a barbera, but to meet the vilification similar to baro, so longer persuasion, longer aging to three years of aging, almost twenty, twenty five days of macylation. So what's the difference in altitude between Zio Nanda, the Baubera for that and the Baubera for Orlando. Yeah. The Zonando comes from all vines. Mhmm. The soprano from, yeah, a younger wines. The soprano comes from high the top part of the hill. Because the number is bigger, like, like, like, vineyard, and usually the soprano we make just in the best meetages. Now you've got a special dispensation. You're in the Barbara Esco region, right? Yeah. But you're allowed to ferment. Yeah. Because Corolla here. Why is that? Because I'm an old winery, so we started in the nineteen o two. So we have a kind of grandfather. So we are able to winify barbaresco in the baro region. And, we were we were just, tasting the Marabaresco marcarini, which is my first year because, that's the only one, wine that I don't grow grapes. I just buy the grapes from a organic farmer. So I'm very happy. Okay. Tell us about a little bit about your barrellas. You make a barolo just called Cera Lunga after the name of the village. What's special about that? Yeah. But also Lunga is, the classic barolo from the village, Sarluna that historically was one of the most important barolo in the in the in the air. Entire region because of the tunnings. The finesse, the elegance of the tunnings of Sarangat, really unique. It's made with the three, single vineyards, with Eastex Portger, and, we will attest to the two thousand thirteen that I think it's express very well the tour of Sarajon. I think you said, people from Corolla love finding vineyards and sell a longer, but people like you who live in Sara longer don't necessarily want to buy vineyards outside the cellar. I wouldn't even know what to explain, but anyway, Sarunga was, you know, we have a lot of calcium, clay in calcium. Historically, our bars were always green, not ripe because we are the culture coldest part of the of the coral region. But with the changing of the the weather and the temperature getting a little bit higher, we took on great benefits. But you're not worried about late picking. You you're very happy to pick grapes late into October. Yeah. That's we try in a con to the vid, the to the vintage, of course. To pick the biolos as later as possible. Do you think organic and biodynamic farming will help you to pick later in terms of vine health and vine balance? I think it will help to have a balance each vintage. So we don't have the extreme. We don't feel the extreme. I think that's what I what I feel. It's almost like a buffer organics and biodynamic. It's a buffer against climate extreme. Finally, I know that you're organic and I'm getting certified in biodynamic. You are are making a wine in am fora. In Orchard. In Orchard. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Which is a slightly different task company. I don't care. Is it the task from people they care? Okay. So tell me, so in a clay pot, basically. Yeah. So what wine is it, and what shape is the clay pot? And why do you use the clay pot? We use this, let's say, terracotta container to age our nebula to make one nebula that was an experiment started in two thousand fourteen to have a eight months maceration nebula, no clarification, no filtration, quite stream. So eight months is basically the juice and the skins are together. So it's it's it's a lot, especially in the Bureau. Believe me. It's a lot. That's pretty extreme. Yeah. Yeah. It's extreme, but anyway, it's not when you taste it, it is not so extreme, it is as as you talk as you think because anyway the attorneys are quite, you know, of course, are more rustic, of course, are more wild, but there's no big defense on that. I mean, because the idea of of making the bill in the in this kind of container was to to try to do something really extreme because you know, there is a trend of these natural whites and so on. So I said, let's see what I can do on that. And I'm very happy. I'm very happy, and I start to study also and experiment the terracotta, which is a, a materials, very interesting, especially porous. It allows a little bit of Very porous. You have a micro oxygenation, but you don't have an ex oxidation. So listen next time I come back, I'm gonna want to taste your bread from your, grains that you've sown. You you you come and help me. Yeah. It's not easy. I probably eat some of those birds that are flying around. Some of your vegetables, you've got an amazing collection of vegetables Yeah. And herbs. I think I think you're really cutting edge what you're doing here and, people may think that you're crazy, but, it's fun. And, believe me, there are much more crazy people who are doing more crazy crazy things than what I do. I think it's that's something who comes from my feeling. I I feel to do it, and I have to do it. And that's my big problems that I cannot stop. It's my drug. Bigger than you. Okay. Enrique, Rebecca. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you for showing me your Vign yesterday. And, sharing your thoughts on, on biodiversity Barolo Barbara. Thank you so much, and, hope to see you guys all here. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.