Ep. 30 Monty Waldin interviews Edoardo Falvo of Masseria Li Veli | Discover Italian Regions: Puglia/Apulia

This episode is brought to you by wine to digital, the home of Italian wine podcast. Italian wine podcast. Chinchi with Italian wine people. Hello. This is Monte Walden hosting another episode of the Italian wine podcast. Today, my guest is Eduardo Falvo of the Livelli winery in Pulia. Eduardo welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Mati. The Falvo family is a famous name in Italian winemaking initially in Tuscany, and now at Livelly in Pulia. Briefly, Eduardo, how did your family or how did you end up with your brother in, in Pulia? Oh, it was about ten years ago when the my family, especially my uncle and my father decided to sell the, their winery, their business in up in Tulsa. And, Alfred and I, which we grew up in a wine business, we were looking to do something new. And, so we saw this opportunity. Actually, La Bailey was already a property in the family portfolio. And, we decided just to buy out and, start a new project in the south. So many people who said, hang on a second, you could have bought some more land in Tuscany, you and your brother, you know, Tuscany's world famous Pulia, completely unknown on the international market. Why would you wanna buy something in Pulia? Because we felt that the marketing and it was a little bit saturated. For example, Canti Glassico, you already have, I don't know, maybe a thousand a producer at that time in, Montalcino, the same two hundred and fifty or something. One type of channel already pretty crowded. You know, Tuscany at the time was very much in the sense of isa talking about Indigenous for adults. And we were looking for something more dynamic, something to to develop as well. And so we found and pulled a tremendous opportunity because the winery is actually pulling us very big. The land from from north to south is about six hundred kilometers and it's a huge region for the production of grape, many, many indigenous grapes, and, and no many wine So we saw a really great opportunity to start in something new and develop it. So the winery is called Masseria Lee Betty. What is a Masseria? What does that mean? Masseria is the local name for a state. Is the kind of the state that you see in this part of Italy. It's a white building forty five farms created in the fourteen, fifteen hundred, and then developed it to the sixteen, seventeen, eighteen hundred, especially massively was founded in nineteen ninety five from a an aristocrat family in Lecha and, developed the business in the first part of the nineteen the twentieth century, and then they quit when the owner died in nineteen fifty five. Okay. And so you've taken over the property in which year with your brother? The was the original bought by my family in nineteen ninety nine and they replant most of the property and they're Fred and I took over in two thousand and eight. So you have a fantastic range of indigenous Italian grape varieties. Can you tell me a little bit about them? When we started, we didn't know through him a lot about the, you know, the region, the the history and the varietals as well. So, basically, we started with the Negramar and Primitivo that are two the two main and most important varieties planted in the region. So they're for red wine, those two? For red wines. But soon, we discovered some very interesting varietals like, and Susan Manuel for red, Salayatico, which we is, sweet wine, and, Verbecca, and Fianna Minuto for the whites. So how easy is it if you're selling wines from grape varieties that not many people at that time had heard of, how how difficult is that in the market? At the beginning was quite difficult. I remember the first year that we presented this wine actually in Italy. And I remember most of our clients to be quite skeptical about this new project. For example, the Susan Manuel and the Verdeca that today are the two most important wines in our portfolio and the two most successful for wines. We just made a little bottle just to try. So most of our distributors were not refusing, but I remember them being very skeptical and, you know, nominee like, geeky wines and not giving my chance. Where where does the sussumanello get its name from? There are various sort of theories about it. The sussumanella is a quite fine grape because then the grape actually is a is a quite late grape, that peaking grape. That means that. Late ripening grape. Yeah. That the skin of grape is quite strong. So we are bested in, the first decade of of October, and the bunch is very, very big. Yeah. So the reason why they call it, a little dank susumaineering, in the local development. Little little donkey. Don't worry. Yeah. Tell why is that? Oh, because the bounce is able to bring, so much grape. So very high yielding. It load up the donkey. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. That's just a and what about, you mentioned fiana, which is a white wine grape. Tell me about Fiano. When we started in, Pula was, I think, maybe ninety five percent was about, red grapes. Now the white grape are growing and becoming much more important. Originally, the two oldest Star Bartekah and Minutulo that comes from, the Valle Ditra, which is a different area than Salanto, Salrento, is a low hill area between the two seasons. It's the south part of, pulling up one of the hottest places in Italy isn't it? So that's where you are. It's it's very warm. But, you know, thanks to the weather. The weather is also very good for the wine growing because we are just in between two seasons. That means a lot of wind, especially in our area, which is close to the Adriatic sea. So you get a lot of wind from the north, and it's good because it dries also the all the humidity that comes from the sea. And, also, the rain is not matched during the year, but it tends to the fact that the ground is quite soft the terrain and, and full of water. We don't need much rain. What about the you mentioned the Verdeca grape, which is a white wine grape variety. What's special about Verdeca? Verdeca was a grape, planted in Valodetria in the seventies to make the vermont. Basically. To make vermouth. Yeah. And, we discovered in, two thousand and eight. We discovered Bajale Ditra in two thousand and eight. I remember me and my brother traveling for the area. And we saw this beautiful vines, very well keep it from the local growers. And, we were lucky to find a good relationship with a couple of them and be able, you know, to develop a project with them and finally ended up with a great wine that is, the Verdeca. We we don't use much oak. It's just a very natural approach in the wine because it's it's a really brilliant wine. And, for a region like Pulia where, it's all about cost. You know, you have a lot of restaurant in the course with fish. It was a great for us to find a a really very interesting, local varieties for white wines. Mean, you mentioned the coast and obviously tourism that really is taking off in Pullio now, isn't it? Yeah. It's growing, it's an industry that is growing, every year. It's a quality industry. We don't have, the most important part of the clientele is Italian, especially in this year because of the terrorism, they travel less you know, to countries like Morocco or or a Gita. And so they discover Salentes. Salentes, I think it's growing like ten percent every year in tourism. So when Italians come to, say, from northern Italy or even from Tuscany come down to the Salentes, to Inpulia on holiday. Do they want to drink Chardonnay and Merlo and international varieties or they or they're happy to to try Italian grapevine? They've never heard their names before. Yeah. This is not only Italian tourists. This is happening to every tourists. You know, also the foreigners wanna come to Boulia. They really want to taste the local wines. And thanks to this fact, Boulia was a market that really grew fast for us in the last ten years. So you, but you, your bet of not staying in tuscany coming down coming down to Scelentos. I don't wanna say that. I I can't say that definitely was, was a good move to to look at Salent to and to really to plan to to do this project. Yeah. So when you're when you're looking at say, go going back to Vadeka, you're working with with grape growers. Obviously, you have certain standards of quality and people that were possibly growing grapes for the vermouth industry initially would probably be trying to get as many grapes as they could out of their vineyard. How do you try and get them to rain down their I think this is the only thing you have to be careful about Pulia because, the, as I told you, the, you can do a really great quality wines in Pulia, but the problem that the market was oriented to big volumes because they don't, bottle it, but they just you do bring the grape to the cooperative. So they get paid on the weight, not on the quality that they produce. So our base, part of the agreement was that, we pay the same amount of money no matter the the quantities, but we were able to select qualities through through the year. And and the result is great because if you if you're able, you know, to control and to reduce the quality that you make for plan, that that's how you really get the real quality. And then in, likely in other winery, we don't have to work on much because we really get fantastic fruit every year. Do you think that message of quality rather than quantity is getting through to producers saying this in Southern Italy? Yes. Not a very fast battle, like, he did in Tuscany, maybe you're in the north, but definitely if you compare it to twenty years ago or ten years ago or even five years ago, you see a big difference. Are you seeing as it when you go south, are you seeing as a Tuscon or a Pullian, or how do people view here? It's, people are great there. They're really open, and, it took me a while, you know, to get used to. But, at the beginning, I saw the value just as an investment and, but in the last few years, especially two years ago, we decided to move there and to live in lecture with the family and, lectures of fantastic city. It's a beautiful city that you, isn't it? Fantastic architecture. It's a fantastic area, all the surrounding area of lech, the sea is beautiful, the onion, and dramatic, very different, but, both great. And so a couple of years ago, we would decide to move them down there with family. So when you cook at home, you're cooking tuscan dishes or you're cooking brilliant dishes? I could still tuscan. Really? And speaking. Tuscan. You can take them out of the tuscany, but you can't take tuscan. Also, also, my children, they go to school and later there's this big taskman because Really? So they maybe will change. It's just been, you know, a couple of years that really down there and Yeah. They're they're probably still I think it's, yeah, when you're small and you you learn to speak a certain dialect, then, then it sticks with you. Yeah. You could put that on. And my wife is, from the same village I came from from multiple China tasking. So that's probably why. Okay. Edward, it's been brilliant to meet you. I hope to come and see you and leave lily and see the, that your building, which is a fantastic building. Yeah. I look forward to that. And, fully honest is one of my favorite places at the best mozzarella I ever had. Yeah. You've got a fantastic project going. Thank you very much. You definitely bet you bet the right horse. Thank you very much. I hope so, but, we're really happy we'll get down, really. Thank you very much. Well done. Well done. Thank you, Monte. My pleasure. This episode has been brought to you by Wine To Digital, the home of Italian wine podcast. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.