Ep. 120 Monty Waldin interviews Matteo Basili (Benedetti & Grigi Winery) | Discover Italian Regions: Umbria

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. This is Italian wine podcast with me on ordered today's guest is Matteo Bazili. Matteo is the winemaker for the Benadetti and Grigi winery in the Montefeld region of Umbria Matteo Welcome. Hello. Alright, Matteo. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Are you fromumbria? No. Actually, I'm from Tuscana. I came in umbria one year, and a half ago. And, yeah, now I'm really happy to to work here in this, quite new winery. I tried to do all of my best to to have good wines and could, result. So, mate, where are you from in Tuscany? Actually, I'm from, Pestoya close to Florence. Anyway, that I'm sure I'm sure everybody know. Where did you study winemaking in Florence? And after you graduated, what was your first job. So my first job was in, in one area, on the south of, of Tuscany close to Groseto. Yeah. Exactly. In Marima. And I was working for, Frisco Valdi. Okay. So that's obviously a very famous winery. What was your next job after working in the middle? I did, many job around the world. So I've been to Australia, and I work in, in two wineries there in South Australia. One was Kili Canoun, and bikes wines that are quite famous over there. And after, and what grape varieties were you working with mainly there in Australia? In Australia, it was a region famous for the riesling, especially, but they had also really good red, like, Shiraz and So you're going from riesling in Australia to, Segrentino. You know, yeah. Exactly. I can't think of a bigger contrast. So, they say after Australia, where did you go? After Australia, it can make to Italy after, I've been to New Zealand after France. So you're rid of a nomad. Yeah. No magic or no no magic life. So where did you start with Benadetin Grigi? So I started last year after the vintage. So now it's, one year and a half. So it's quite younger in, in the region. Obviously, the second Antino grape, which Montefalco is famous for has a reputation for being very tenic, very tough What are you doing in the winery to soften those tenons? So at the beginning, we work a lot on the on the vineyard. So we do a hand like selection of the grapes that we have, we're for the harvest. And after in the vineyard, in the winery, sorry, we do a lot of, technology work. Like, we use, the cold maceration before the fermentation begin. And after we do, a fermentation at, no much, high temperature to don't distract all of the green onions, you know, the Sacramento is a full of it. And after for the maturation, we prefer to use, the big, barrel tank, like, five thousand liter two thousand five hundred in order to have a good extraction in, turning from the oak flavor and a micro oxygen as soon. Okay. So let's go back into the vineyard. Obviously, you're the winemaker. How much contact do you have with the agronomist? And what do you tell the agronomist in the vineyard? Listen, this is the these are the kind of grapes I want. It makes my job easy as a winemaker. Can you do this for me in the vineyard maybe talking about pruning, the ratio of leaves to shoots, that kind of thing. Yeah. Actually, I'm always in touch with, the agronomist because it's really important to bring to the winery really good grapes. The quality must be high to have a good product. So we begin from the, from the field. And after, we continue the winery. With the agronomist, what I want for the grapes is, at the beginning, we are pruning actually now in this period, and we decide since, two years to Alura. So for the white, we prune in with the Guio for the red variety. It's just a normal, cordless spur because we prefer to have, this kind of pruning them, actually. To have the vines pruned, the second tier vines pruned to spurs. Does that make spacing between each bunch easier or more complicated? Yes. Because we have, like, four thousand five hundred, vines verectar. Vines per hectare. So, yeah, we can have, more space from the vines. So you get good airflow. What about soil management? Are you using cover crops? Between the vine rows, what are you doing? Are you taking away all the vegetation or are you sowing a cover crop? So we use cover crops, because give to the soil more stimulation, for the micros, organism, so it it work better for our wines. Okay. So you get more microbial microbiotic than that in the in the in the bins. So does that help drainage? Of course, because of what we have, a clay soil that it's, quite tough for the sorrentino. So which cover crops are you saying? Can we say that it's a traditional herbs, like, is a soil halts, and, we have also some trifolume. So clovers. So clovers good for, provides nitrogen. It's a bit of food. Yeah. Exactly. And then what else? To have an aeration of the of the soil. Do you what about, so cereals, chiliali, like a bar. C b l o or, yeah, barley. So barley, and barley, and, yeah, most of the barley we use. Yeah. Okay. Barli is very good for grating organic matter in the soil. Very fine, which is good for drainage. When you work the the the soil after, give more, irration to the to the soil, yeah, it's really important. So that's one thing. So you're you're looking at cover cropping between the the vine rows to provide organic matter and micro biological life. We've talked a little bit about pruning. What about the date of harvest? Cause we always think about segmentino. It's a very tenant grape. How do you decide when is the best moment to pick your segmentino grapes? So we do a lot of, analysis during the iteration, in, in the field, in the viners, and we check all of the sugar, moderation, but also the polyphenolic maturation. And one important, really important thing is, the acid of the grapes of total acidity. Because, without acidity, we cannot make a great, you know, that have really long life. So it must have, between the six, six point five, total acidity. That is really important for us. Yeah. So when the grapes are harvested, how do you ferment them? Do you ferment them in steel or something? So the fermentation actually is in stainless steel in oxo, tango. Do you ferment cool or hot? So the first three days, we put down the temperature five degrees. So you do a cold maceration. Yeah. Exactly. Why do you do that? Because we we saw that we can extract more, flavor, more flavor from, from the grapes. And I remember? And then what happens after there's a bit of a cold soak and then what happens? You warm the tanks up? Yeah. We warm the tank, the tanks up and, we do an almost fermentation. Up to how up to how high do you go? Twenty eight, thirty four? No. No. No. No. That's twenty six. So quite so that's quite a cool fermentation again, isn't it? Yeah. We just, at the end of the term, of, the fermentation, we put up the temperature. We turn off the the cooler and, yeah, that's good. Okay. And but everything is destemned? Yeah. Everything is destemned. And then the end of the fermentation, you run the wine off from the skins? Yeah. Exactly. So we wrap the tanker. We extract all of, the the skin, and we put in press. So the, how hard do you press? Not that, that hard because we have, a really brand new press. That's what that can work with, low pressure. And, yeah, we have really good result for, for the practicing. So when you say good result, presumably what you mean is you compress to get a little bit more wine from the the skins without too much aggressive tenant? Yes. Exactly. But this one, we don't put in, in the Sacramento. Okay. We use it for, the normal IGT, for example, or for, other we have low wine. So the press one doesn't actually end up in the second one. So so basically what you're saying is you publish your Sacramento, you ferment it. You take everything that you need for the Sacramento, and then whatever's left goes to other wines. Yeah. Because that's the tenants of what would be a little bit more rustic. Yeah. And green. Yep. So, so what about aging? Once you've got your Sacramento, fermented and off the skins, how do you age it? So we age in, in big oak, butter. Yeah. Five thousand and two thousand five hundred liters. So they're large oak vats. Yeah. Exactly. And, are brand new, one year old. So we are working really, really great in, in French Oak with different tester. We have a medium, light, medium plus, So in order of, the ears and the type of, segmentino that we have, we can decide which, testing, give to the to our wine. Yeah. And it's really nice and important. And we see the difference. Okay. So when the wine is in wood, do you keep it on on the yeast deposit? The lees, is that important, or do you try and keep everything really, really clean? We like at the beginning to have some of, we taste the lees. When we do the the first ranking, we taste the lees, and we decide to left to the wine, or to take it off. Anyway, after if we decide to keep the lease together with the wine, we could release for, other maximum per month and after we wreck. So that's so in spring when you do maybe your first Yeah. Wracking. Exactly. Then you can clean the wine up. Yeah. So what flavors are you looking for in a in a Segantino? So you say you have quite clay y soils, quite clay root. What does that give to the Segantino in your case? So all of the red fruit cherries and, red fruits. Yeah. So like raspberry, Yeah. Praspori, lampon, you see. Fragolo. Fragolo de Bosco. Wild strawberries. All of, this kind of flavor that are, typical from, the Sacramento, honey. What is your favorite dish with a Sacramento? So my favorite dish with Sacramento, is, Jerry Cubins with, pig that is a typical dish from, from Montefalco. It's important that the dish will be a bit fat. Otherwise, the Sanarantino overpowered the the dish that you are you think? Okay. One final, question for you. Do you think Sacramento could work well in Australia as a great variety? You know, I think, I think, yes, actually, because, it's really, in, in Australia, it's really unknown, the Argentina, but I know for sure that, they are looking for a new wine, variety, grape variety, I think. So not just carbonate. Yeah. Exactly. Cabinate and carbonate. The Australian are really open minded about the, especially for the Italian grapes variety. So why not? Seventeen, I'm sure, it will work well in Australia. You should go back. You should take a flight and put some Segrentino cuttings in your boots. I should. Hope that you don't get busted by the Australian customs because they'll put you in jail for twenty years if they catch you. Yep. I think I will be careful. It could be worth worth the risk. Mateo Bazzilli, winemaker at the Benadetti Agrigi winery in Montefaca. Thanks very much for coming in today on the Italian wine podcast and sharing some of your observations on winemaking in Lantino. Thank you very much, to call me here and, to have, this pitch with you. Great. Thanks, Mateo. Thanks. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.