Ep. 19 Monty Waldin interviews Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga of Tenuta San Leonardo | Discover Italian Regions: Trentino-Alto Adige

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. You're listening to the Italian wine podcast with Monty Walden. Today's guest is Anselmo Guarieri Gonzaga. Oh, you got it right. Okay. We can continue of of a Sunday in Trentino Alto Adije in Northern it's you're welcome. Thank you. So again, you know, a historic estate, give us a little bit of history. How did you come to get it? Isn't it? It is a long story that starts more than a thousand years ago. So I'll try to make it very short, but it was a monastery. Actually, the the church sent some monks in a little valley in Centino to, civilize the region, and they built a little church entitled to this saint called, San Leonardo. And then slowly a monastery grew around that, and then my family came in in the laid sixteen hundreds managing this land for the church, and they fell in love with it. And they tried to buy it for many, many years. Finally, they succeeded in renting it in seventeen twenty four. And then the church had a terrible financial crisis in the in the seventies of the seventeen hundred, and we were very happy of that, and we bought the estate out of it. Does that make yours take one of the longest one of the Italian estates with the longest family history? No. No. I I wouldn't say that. I'm sure there are families which have even longer name stories. Actually, this comes out of my the female line of blood of the family. So it was under another name, and it became Wrigue Gonzalezaga just in the late eighteen hundred when my great grandfather married my great grandmother. So I'm sure there there are many families who can trace back stories on a single piece of land, which are older than this. So what what are the typical grapes that you're growing up in trying to come out to why did you? Well, you know, Santino is a region known for Teroldigo and Marzimino, but we have always had an international, I would say, standard in Saliano. We, we grow Carmenier since the 1850s. It was sent to Northern Eastern part of Italy during the Filoxera. And, it was mismatched for a very long time. For a very long time, it was called Cabernet. Then it it became Cabernet franc, and then my father finally discovered in the seventy nine that it was Karmenair because he bought some new cab franc he planted it, and then he saw that it was a completely different variety. And then he really understood that he had the treasure in his hands. And we have been preserving that, a variety for a long time, and especially the ways we grow it is quite unique because we do it both in pergola style and Rio and spur corden. And this is really something I would say unique. So you grow the vines quite normally like, sort of long hedges as well as purchases over the hedge? Yes. It needs a very, a lot of leaf structure, carbonate, to produce. If not, it's very complex. And then we we we we we don't So what does a good, sorry, what does a good common air taste like then? The carbonate has a very typical taste. It has a, a bell pepper, pepper, pepperoni. It's a red wine. Yeah. It's a red wine. Sorry. Yes. It has a wonderful, very Venus structure, very dense, very I would say also very central if you want, in a certain way. The color is beautiful because it has these violet, nuance. So they're very, very nice. And, it's, it's very peppery. It's very spicy on the nose. And it's not easy as a single vineyard, but it is a great grape, to which to blend other ones. So what's your favorite dish with that? Listen, I'm, at this stage, I'm trying to change my diet. And, lots of people would say red wines, big red wines meet at every possible condition, but I haven't, anymore this, kind of inclination. I would say that for example, in our home, we make this pasta with, fried, milanzanes or, over gina. Eggplant. Eggplant. Yes. And with tomato and mozzarella, and it works incredibly well with that. So you wanna return regime, are you? No. Not. No. No. I'm not vegetarian. I'm just somebody who eats less red meat than before, and, doesn't like, have to have to blend red wines uniquely with, red meat. So you've also preserved some tradition in the wine who, why do you ferment your wines in stone tanks as opposed to say stainless steel. Exactly. That's, that's a peculiarity. We we've always done that since, the eighteen hundred, which was one of the only ways of doing it because stainless steel definitely wasn't there on the market. So it was made of bricks and stone and, concrete. And it always stayed this way. And then my father has always seen that the result was extraordinary, so we kept continued on this, way. And I would say that we add the concrete vats to, very natural fermentation, which we, we never add selected yeast. It's all indigenous yeast. And we don't have any control of the temperature. So this gives birth to a wine which has identity. Then if it's good or bad, this is left to all the consumers to rate, I would say, to judge. How was tourism developing in It's one of the most beautiful areas of Italy mountainous. Yes. Great blue skies, lakes. Yes. The light is is very special. You're very right. The skies are very beautiful, but especially the purity of the light. This is something that that a lot of people remain very struck by. And I am definitely convinced that this influences as well the ripeness of the of the grapes. The ma the region is fantastic in the mountains. The valleys are still struggling to try to find an identity as well. I would say also, top restaurants and, top hotels, but slowly, slowly things are changing. And, we have now Touskita, Michelin restaurant, which is very nice in Tento. It's a it's a very nice, area. It's small tentino. It's not a huge region, but the valleys are are incredible. So is that lack of identity to do with the fact it's been fought over for many years? The sort of, hungary, I'm sorry, Austro Hungarian. Yes. I I I think that this has much to do, and the mountains keep people closed. And keep them from exchanging. And exchanging is a vital, lymph of life. You have to go outside. You have to see what the world offers and then come back. And I think sometimes, unfortunately, people are very lazy in our region. I haven't really looked what the world has to offer. We have wonderful things. We just need to repack them, I would say, for the new century. But you're interested because your family's been there for so many years. It'd be easy for you to be closed in and not outward looking, but you are an outward looking person and the stars are one that you make a very not saying international, but you're aware of what's going on in international markets. What can you do personally to try and change that closed mindset? Listen, yes, tonight, we were awarded the clinically international price. And this was for the merits regarding trying to bring the culture of wine around the world. We try to bring the best of our region, which is beautiful, and they are beautiful people, they're very simple people as well. I don't think I'm so important that I can change things on my own, but definitely our name, which sticks on the bottle goes around the world. So I hope that it was a quality of the wine. We can attract other people to our region and that other producers can maybe be stimulated by the kind of vision my father had in the sixties of changing this estate into a very boutique winery, a real boutique winery because everybody says it's a boutique winery, but this is still a very handcraft, small production, and, we care a lot. And, I think this is the secret today, or you do huge productions or you take care, and you give an identity, and you give stories to your products. And this is what Centino should do as well because it's beautiful. It doesn't need anything more than what it has. What about what about tourism in the region? Do you get people turning on to point one directly? Yes. Yes. Yeah. We we You were the first sort of wine bars, didn't you? To your father? Actually, yes. It was my father in fifty nine who who built this little house called the the the the the barrel outside of of the estate. He built it with the craftsman of the estate when he was eighteen. And, it's So what was the barrel then? It was of just a simple place where from it was so small that they had to sell the the wine through a window. So it was a glass. And and then it developed. And actually, we're even thinking of making it become something slightly more bigger in the future because it's, it's a place where lots of people, different people meet, and it's the beauties that still the farmers come there at night. And, it's tiny, and you open this door, and you wouldn't believe how many people are packed inside. So if you make it bigger, what will you call it, the tunnel? No. No. No. No. Always always Labote. Yeah. That won't Okay. Well, I look forward to, having some eggplants with you, and a glass of your wine, in the barrel in this tiny little room. You're a tall guy. I'm not particularly tall, but we'll just about squeeze in there. And share a glass of wine and celebrate the joys of Trentina. Thanks for coming in today. Thank you. Thank you very much. Follow us at Italian wine podcast on Facebook.