Ep. 51 Monty Waldin interviews Paolo De Marchi (Isole e Olena Winery) Pt. 2 | Discover Italian Regions: Tuscany / Toscana

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Oh, this is the Italian wine podcast with Me Monti Walden, and this podcast is the second part of my interview with Paulo Demo de Marqui of Isolay Eiolena in Kianti Glasgow. So Isolay Olena is in Castelina in Kiente, in the western part of Kiente Classic. What's different about the western part of Kiente Classic? First of all, thank you, because I I believe that it is in the area of Castelina. It's a geological, will be to the to the platform of the iPad of Castini and Kean. We are in the commune of Barberino Valdes. Not there's nothing wrong with Barberino Valdes. I'm a little worried with the, all the discussions about the village relations in the absence, because the villages in Kianti do not reflect anything, which is connected with specific soil, situation. Their political, divisions rather than the future. Terwater divisions. Okay. And I know it would be clear. It would be easy to understand, but anyhow we are in the in that part of the western slope of Kianti, hills of Kianti are the highest, the high part of the western slope. It's the one which still gets, influence from the military. So you talking about rain or wind or cool breezes? It is more breezes, and, it is a little milder, which means, milder in wintertime. So a little warmer winter and cooler summer. Unless, hot wind from the sea. Sometimes we have, so we have to be careful in pulling out the leaves, end of August because sometime, I because of experience, I know that could have a summer strong wind from the sea, which could, and it is, you know, it's it could be salty. So dehydration at sunburn, at the end of the summer sometimes might happen because that wind and wind might become a problem. But usually a longer growing season because the backbreaking is a little earlier, and we tend to have rest of late. Is that what your family wanted when they came from Pyeon Pyeon Pyeon to to buy him? No. No. It will be, again, they're wrong interpretation of history. At that time, people couldn't really choose, the place because of knowledge or experience, my father knew the old owners, they wanted to sell. In the family, we had the small vineyard in the north of Pemont, which had been abandoned after what were two. It was all around with sharecropping. It was not a business, was, something which was running on its own. The events, determined what, we did. Okay. Your benchmark wine for most people as you're Canti Classico Normale. What makes a good Canti classico for you? Canti Vintech is a wonderful wine, because it's a wine. Sometimes they call it the greatest table wine, not thinking again of the legal appellation, but the table wine. The wine for the table wine to be on the table to share with friends and with good food. The way I would describe it. My effort in making wine is always the same word as balance. Chanti has a lively acidity. We have to work around that. And, purity of fruit, I think my vintage count is known for the freshness and the purity of fruit. The balance, the tannins, we should not be harsh. So we tend to harvest as late as possible, to get the acidity in balance with tannins are not too green. The length length comes, with lower yields. To length meaning a wine with a nice leaves a nice long aftertaste in the mouth. Yes. How are you changing things in the vineyard to maintain those cante clasicos with lovely freshness? We do a lot of work with with the green, work. With the leaves and the shoots, shoots. Do you leave you're leaving your vines a little bit more sort of hedge like, a bit more shady now? Yes. But what is, very important in my opinion, to understand the age of the leaves, all the leaves and young leaves. Because, what all the leaves produce is different than what the young leaves produce. Young leaves have a much more efficient photosynthesis, which means sugar. But as long as the leaves are growing, they produce a lot of sugar, but they need what they produce it. Actually, they they need more than what they produce. So they are our allied in keeping the sugar a little lower. As soon as they get to full size, the balance is completely into a lot of sugar available for the vines. I see the tannins have to do with the old young leaves. So we we put a lot of attention in that. So you're taking the older leaves away? No. All the leaves are tend to have. We take away the young leaves from the laterals, which we expected to get to full size, three or four weeks before the harvest because those will be the keyword for the balance of the wine. The young leaves which will still be growing in the last month, they actually help us. They keep the shade and they use the excess of sugar, which is available in the fine. It's an awful lot of extra work you've given yourself. It is. It is. But, you know, often, the best vineyards are becoming the ones who are also ready to produce higher sugar. So it's very hard to see that in the best Venus, it is it is becoming difficult to have balance. So at least in those Venus, we are extremely careful in the in the managing the canopy and, the leaf canopy and the leaves. The sunlight is life. Direts and light is bad if we keep it shaded and then we pull out the leaves and all of the sudden it gets too much. But if there is a right when you see a knot see, the right amount of leaves to keep a shade without really covering since the beginning that that's the important. So when we pull the laterals, we normally pull the laterals on on the side of the morning. Then the virtual is low and the light is very beautiful. So what what you mean there is the side shoots, on the side of the vine that's exposed to the morning sun. So that's the cooler side of the vine. That's the cooler. And but we want to cover the the side of the vines, which get the The afternoon. Light. It is hotter, and it is a different kind of light. So it's the one which is, has to be kept out So on one side of the vine, you want grapes that are ripe, and they're getting the morning sun on the other side of the vine, you want grapes that are ripe, but not overripe, which could get sun burnt by the hotter afternoon sun. And, by the way, considering where we are, it is also the side which gets the wind from the from the sea. So it's So those leaves are protecting from those sea breezes. From the breezes. So you are you good at gardening, vegetable gardening? You're very precise only. I have no time left for the gardening because we are farming our best vineyards like a garden. So I love the idea that you've got a eat a day or later being a vine garden and your wine being is is food almost. It goes on the table. You're meticulous in what you do. Well, you have an tremendous amount of knowledge and you share it beautifully, and your family has a fantastic history, and you make an absolutely mark, Canti Clasego, real credit to your region and to Italian wine in general. If I may add two little things, so I start feeling that, it is the end of a cycle, and they call the this cycle is the end of sharecropping times. We cannot think that in five years, the sharecropping finish. It was a long time to adapt to the new situation. To adjust. Yeah. To adjust. And now my new project is, what I call, the end of the end of the sharecropping. This trouble this over. The estate has a balance. I'm going back to what made the sharecropping beautiful, the ability to produce food and in producing food and building a beautiful landscape. So I started to produce again wheat, the university Florence is working on all varieties of wheat since September last year, we don't buy bread, at home. When you harvest wheat, is, the feeling is is is pristine. He's, I saw the first wheat and the first reaction was we have food for next year. And we forget about these feelings. I'm planting fruits. We have the olive archers, and we have missing olives. And I always thought when I finished with the vineyards, I will look at the olives and plant the missing plants, apricots, plums, figs, almonds. I want to retain the memory of something, which was, what has built the beauty of candy. The beauty of candy is nature, but this nature where the work man has built something. And, we have been very close to make a disaster. But of it has been done. It's still a beautiful area, but we have to go back to it and think with a little sense. The second thing is, in my personal, he story has always been my dream to replanting pigment. And now the beauty, because I'm replanting it with my son. My son got really taken by that project. So he's building on his own, a little project towards my dream, but he's doing it. Different problems, different history, but again, something to rediscover if not have been. So Do you think having a vineyard, which is like a farm? Like, how it used to be is gonna be more attractive if to younger people who are unemployed in the cities and eating unhealthily perhaps and not getting any Absolutely. I think that it would be very attractive. Yeah. I think is the key. Of course, these are wine stage. Wine needs to be sold. So there there will be a lot of work around wine about sales, about traveling, about, being on the market, but we should be very aware of, what makes the place special because the risk of passing the border and serious border between the wine of origin again, which is not the appellation. And wine, which is a food technology is a risk. There are wines, with having an appellation and our food technology, deciding a priori how the wine has to be. The beauty of wine, you have different vintages, different winemakers, but the great wines which come from a specific place, they have something which makes a good taste, a reminder of the place, even in mintages where the wine express in completely different way. What has happened in Kiante with the French variety let us call. The strong reason in the problems we had with the new Venus. So I'm not, yes or no. It was useful. It was useful because, we could not replant the media, sir, because we had to do a lot of work, and the work which has to be done cannot be done overnight. So you're saying that these French varieties, when they came in in the seventies work, was sort of almost helping the San Diego Sanjay Vazis. To give them a bit more structure, a bit more color, make them a little bit softer. And now that these Sanjay Vignards have grown, and we've got more experience, we can gradually phase out or minimize at least the merlo's and the cabinets from Absolutely. And now we have Canada. I'm working cannoyola. What I did for Central Bay is a beautiful variety and they see a lot of potential in improving canoyola and will be the natural blend. Because I known for the men of Central Bay, I known for You're my famous wine. This is the most famous wine, but, Chapariello, when I started to make a pure sangio Viso, I had no idea I would have bottled it. It was really the need at that time and Venus which were kind of a mess to understand the potential of of the Vignas and the variety. But apart from Kanai Olinera, what else do you think you'd blend San Giovanni with Malazianera? Malazianera is, there's a big question there for me, Malazianera, because Marazianera is not a variety is indigenous. And so how better should we go to say that it is indigenous? Colorino? Colorino might not so fond of Colorino. For your thunder? Maybe probably a little bit of everything. Why not? But to be good that we have to work on there, not just plant because this, it sounds good. Because the name is unusual, and it sounds good to say that it is a indigenous. Some of these varieties are indigenous, have been abandoned for some reason. It's too radical again. You know, sometimes we go all way one direction and the reaction will go away the other direction. And you wanna be in the middle? No. Let me I want to understand why we do things. Often people are, like, have tasting, and people always ask, how do you make the wine? And how much new alcohol it is? I've got And once, in the tasting, my my my reaction was, that's enough. Why do you ask me how I make the wine? And why don't you ask me why I make wine? So what is behind my brain? So wine is, a wonderful crafter of men. Parla Demarkey, thank you very much for coming into the Italian wine forecast. We have a lot in common, you and me, and, always a pleasure to see you and, to hear your wisdom, not just about what's going on today, but about why you're doing things looking backwards in terms of history and looking forward to the future with your family. A real pleasure. And I hope to come and see you very, very soon and taste some of those apricots really. Said, it's it's always great. Thank you. Thanks, Pano. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Follow Italian White Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.