Ep. 16 Monty Waldin interviews Karoline Walch of Elena Walch Winery | Discover Italian Regions: Trentino-Alto Adige

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. This is the Italian wine podcast in today's episode, Karulina Valk. Will be talking to me, Monte Walden, about her family estate, Eleanorina Valk, which is named after her mother in Alto Adije in Northern Italy. Welcome Carolina. Hello. Hello, everyone. Just explain a little bit about your your family history and, about your vineyards, please. First of all, we are in Altawadija. So that's the, not the most wine growing reason in Italy. So bordering to us rents, Switzerland. My family estate is actually one of the most historic and most ancient in in in the region. So we have been found that the win win winer was founded in eighteen sixty nine with my great great grandfather. So fifth generation for me now. A lot of things to have changed when my mother Elena married into this family. And she actually was an architect. She was born and raised in Milan, and she soon realized that in Tremine, which is the village that the winery is in, There is nothing else but vineyards surrounding her. So, she realized also that the family already back then in the early eighties had some of the most unique vineyards in the property. But they weren't perhaps quite making the most out of it. So her idea was to winify all the different vineyards that we have separately. Focus on the highest quality possible. So she brought a lot of innovation to the vineyards and the winemaking. To finally, nineteen eighty eight, start with her first wine, which actually back then was a chardonnay. That was that was bottling her own wine for the first time. Right? It was. Yes. Nineteen eighty eight. And, How was she seen then as as a woman bottler? Yes. No. It's a difficult being a woman. People did not like it at all. Really? Not only was she a woman, but also she was didn't have the training. She was an architect, but, right, and by profession, And she was from Milan. People did not like people from Milan. So it's a very alternative back then, and and maybe still is sometimes a very traditional region, and people like to stick to what they're used to. So show show winistic region. Is that what you could say or male oriented? Or It is. Yes. It is. Is it not is it not changed a little bit since then? I mean, how do you feel when you go out and sell wine? And You know, I think, it has changed a lot. It has proved a lot, but I wouldn't say it's it's equal yet. But I don't mind, you know, it's it's all about what you do and and what you think is right. And and if you're sure about what you do, then I don't care whether you're male or female, but I wouldn't say it's it's it's equal now at all. So tell me about the region you're in. It's a looks idyllic. You're surrounded by mountains and lakes and the sun seemingly always shines when if I go through the region on the train. So it must be really easy to make wine there. Very easy. No, it's not. We're in Altois, northernmost region in Italy. We're lucky to have a lot of sun. Actually, they say three hundred days of sunshine. So, yes, in that way, might might be easy, but, It is very, very steep. So we are really at the foothills of the dolomites, which is this huge mountain range that you find in Northern Italy, in Northern Italy. And we're just there, meaning we work on extremely, sea vineyards, and actually one of our one of the most cheapest vineyards there is and one of our most cheapest vineyard is the vineyard of Castelots, which is actually sixty three degrees in steepness. So sixty three, that's a lot. That's like going like like in Moz and even even steeper. When people work in the vineyard, did they have to have, like, little, wires to We no. We do not have that because we're lucky enough to have all the vineyard terrace. So, obviously, though, we we cannot work with machinery. So everything you do there is by hand, handpicking obviously, but it's terrace. So that it kind of makes it a little bit easier. Nevertheless, you have to know your way because and and because it is dangerous because it's cheap. It's steep. So never forget that. Yeah. So how easy is it to find people to work in the vineyard when they're having to work on even if the slopes are terrorists to be out there? You said three hundred and three hundred odd days of sunshine years. It's obviously hot. It's steep. It's Stoney and Rocky. Mhmm. Do people really wanna, you know, get outside in a vineyard and work, or do they just wanna work sit in an office? You know, when they are out there and to see the view, they all want to work in the vineyards because it's gorgeous. So it is Steve. It is warm, but it is beautiful. And, so people, I mean, it's people still do it a lot, and it's not not difficult for us to find people working the vineyards, but they know what they're in for. You know, it's it's in the end, it's it's hard work. Tell me a little bit out some of the the great varieties you work with particularly those that are sort of Italian rather than say French or Yes. And now we can get get into an argument about Givert Straminer, but we call it our variety. And we are in the town of Tremen and Givert's Chaminar meaning it's spicy off the town of Chamin. So we really believe this is the birthplace of the variety, and we have been planting this variety for generations, really. So this is definitely one of our icon wines. It's it's a very aromatic wine, though, what makes our one very special is that, and it actually comes from the vineyard of custardats that I was just mentioning before. It is that because of this side that is so unique, we get a lot of minerality in there. So, yes, it's aromatic on the nose, but on the palette, actually, it's the minerality and desoltenant actually comes through. So what's special about the Castonat's single vineyard? It's our, single vineyard castanat. We own the whole hill. So it's really a monocle as as you you could call it. Sixty three degrees in steepness. And the only hill in the region that is actually a hundred percent south facing. Now this is unique because if you know Alto Adija, Altoadija follows the valley, which runs north south, and most of the vineyards are, hence, either follow the valley under either southeast or Southwest facing. Well, this is a hill on its own that was formed, at them with the the melting of the glazers, and was basically formed as a side wing of of the melting of the glazers I water. And hence, it's an agglomeration of different kinds of soils. Mainly harder rocks will be fine there. Granite a little bit of porphyry. And and hence, the microclimate that we have there is very unique too. So a lot of sunshine during the day, but very cold at nighttime. So it's every day, we got the a very strong wind there. So it's a very aerated wind. It comes down from south, very dry wind, which we hate if you work there, but the grapes love it. And So what what effect does the dry wind have on the on the skins of the gewirtztraminer grape and on on then on the taste of the wine and even the color of the wine. Yeah. It's it's it's it's drying. It's very much drying. And hence, you get the wine even more intense. Do you do you just call that Fletri, the the grapes? So they triple slightly. Yeah. They exactly. So does that that make it difficult to press them to get the juicer? You probably get very low. Exactly. Yes. Gewirtztraminer is one of the varieties that is harder to press. You're totally right. Completely different to say a chardonnay, but we do quite a lot of cold maceration with this wine, actually. So before doing the pressing, we do, a cold maceration for up to eight, nine hours to extract even more from those harder skins. And, and only then do the pressing, which yes, is more hard than for other varieties. Cold mass ration just means bring the grapes into a cool, so let them cool down. Correct. Before they before they get pressed and the juice is released and the juice it ends up as well. So that's one of your single vineyards. Tell me about the other single vineyard. The other single vineyard talking about indigenous varieties would be the La Grne, and that is a hundred percent indigenous to Altoadiza. So is that a red or white grape Lagayan? It is a red grape variety. It's a red, very dark color. It it's probably the most beautiful color that you ever see if you see crushed stripes. It's, very deep purply and very, yeah, deep. Flavors on the grain? Yeah. They can. It's it's difficult like, Ryan does not have the identity because you get a lot of different styles. You get the lighter ones, but and then the the reserve are the deep kind of more robust wines. Nevertheless, I would say it's it's still more on the on the plum earthy mushroominess Some call it a nice funkiness to do wide, and it's really, really great wine, a great wine too, especially with food because you have a high acidity. At the same time, you have strong gripy tannins. So it's definitely more of a rusty quine, but made in, elegant way, I would say. In terms of sustainability, Twentino is is is making some great strides in terms of sustainability. How does that impact on you? What are you doing that's sustainable? And how does that impact on cost seeing as you're on these really steep starts that are very expensive to farm anyway? It is expensive. So we farm all of our vineyards, sustainable and on about, we're now on ten hectares that we actually do, completely organically too. So it's it's increasing, but meaning it's a lot of hard work. It's a lot of hard work also because we don't only have one one vineyard, where we have, say, all the machinery and all the work there, but we have we work on a lot of small parcels of land, which is spread out. Just like in burgundy. Yes. Meaning, you know, on a rainy, just if you know the rain is coming to to do everything in just the day before, it's it's hard work to to manage it from a management point of sight. Obviously, also cost increase. We have though a very, profound, I would say, so sustainable program that we do. First of all, we have realized that the soil is the most important factor when it comes to making high end wines. We have realized that you have to give the soil back what we have been essentially taking out for the last decades. So soil, the work of the soil is is very important for us. So we do, for example, we planned a lot of different kind of, legumes to increase mineralization, to increase also the, organic organic matter into the soil. Exactly. They got it. Yeah. So sorry. So in between the vine rows, which are not eaten. They're just plowed into the soil every so often and they release food and the and the vines love it. And the vines love it. Yes. And so we do that. We have actually we do our own compost, which sounds easy, but it's not. First of all, you have to find a farmer who gives you everything, but then you have to make the compost yourself, which you can. When you say everything, it's like cow cow manure or We we use cow manure, and we also use the green parts from our own vineyards. And then, yeah, and then we use that, which is most of the people would nowadays, they would just buy, you know, they'd accomplish, which you can, obviously. But we do it ourselves. Again, that's that's something that we do. Obviously, we don't use any herbicides anymore. So everything is done mechanically. Again, much more work was so easy just to go around and spray everything off. But are your customers asking for that? Was that something that you as a family have you you've made the change because of your own family views, or was it partly the market, or is it a bit of both? You know, I think it's probably a bit of both, but really, it's it's a family estate. And I have to say that, I have been lucky in the fifth generation to be handed over this very pretty and, and and very still healthy vineyards that I see it as a must to hand the vineyards over to the next generation just as good. So it's it's not a company that needs to make revenue or, I mean, profits right in in in the first year of making it, but it's we know it's it's if you're in a wine business and if you're a family estate, it's all about the long term. And then if you buy a vineyard today, actually, Altarija is one of the most expensive vineyard lands in all of Italy. You go up to one one million dollars, euros for one extra plant. That that's a lot of money that you put there so we know it's not only for the short term. It's all all the investments are done on the long run. Yeah. It's good to hear someone who's talking, thinking long term in terms of, I mean, it's a long term business wine production. It's high cost. Mhmm. Big investment, and you can't control the weather. Right? You cannot control it. One property, that sounds a good thing. I mean, it's good that we leave some things to who knows it better out there, but, yes, it's something we cannot control. But again, we have been lacking away in Alta that we're blessed with sunshine and and the key part there is that though we have very cold nights and the temperature fluctuations are huge. Leaving our wines always with a slightly higher acidity and kind of more crispiness than compared to say the whites talking about whites to the other parts of italy. And, so it is a great region to make wine. We love it. It has a challenge as as any other part of the world, I guess, too, but it's it's picturesque and unique. Yeah. Adelina Wulk from the Allina Walk Rinery. It's great to hear about your history and also the projects you have in hand for the future. I look forward to visiting you and you can maybe stick me on one of your terrorist vineyards for a couple of hours to do some weaving. And be prepared because we have just planted a new vineyard very stream on a thousand meters. So we're going higher. So that's, extreme why I'm making up there a thousand meters, south facing. So we're waiting for you to come and visit it. And do the weeding now. And do the weeding. Alright. We're ready. It's a deal. Thanks for coming in. Thank you so much. Thank you. Follow us at Italian wine podcast on Facebook.