Ep. 166 Monty Waldin interviews Angela Maculan (Maculan Winery) | Discover Italian Regions: Veneto

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello, is the Italian wine podcast. My guest today is Angela Macoran, and the Macoran family is one of the most well known producers in Italy. I think so. One of the first wines I came across when I worked in London ages and ages ago, because you make a delicious dessert wine or sweet wine called. Mhmm. I remember that. It's one of those, you know, one of those wines that really stands in your mind. I was, you know, much younger then, and, that was one of the, you know, just, wow. This I've never had a wine like this before. I've been working in bought over so term, which was nice, but the sweet kind of little bit buttery and fat wines. And, oh, this is like a wine that's got a real backbone. How did they do this? So let's talk a little bit about first about the family history. Which generation are you first, second, third, fourth? I'm officially the third, even if also my great grandfather was a little bit involved in wine because he had a little Osteria, a little restaurant, and he was and wine for Jostiria. What was his name? My great grandfather name was, Gaitano. And where where was his osteria and where was his Vignor? Yeah. It's region of Italy. We are in Venetor. Mhmm. And we're in the center Vennet at the foots, at the footstep of the Altopiano Diaz Diego. We're about an hour from Venice and are from Verona. And what's the main town called in Braganza? So Braganza is the name of the town and of the diocera. We are in the province of Vicea and so we are very close to Basana del grappa, which is usually more famous, andreaganza. So what are the main grape varieties that you have there that the wines are made from? Red, white, sweet wines? So we produce white, red, and sweet wines. The majority of the grapes are known as French arching grapes. So a a little bit of pinot noir, sauvignon, but we have a very unique grape variety called Vespayola. That is really, really local because there's no other place in the world. At least that I know where they grow vespayola? Where does the what is the name Vespayola? Vespayola? We've all heard of the Vespayola, the little motorcycles. Yeah. This is why is why is this grape called Vespayola? So Vespayola in Italian is Wasp. So the bees. And this grape is called Vespayola because it's really sweet. And it's also the last of the white grapes that we harvest in the area. So the skin of the white grapes is thinner than the skin of the reds. So it's easier for the wasps and for the beads to go and buy the white grapes. So this is why it's called vesp Biola. And also, the Vespa, the little scooter was named Vespa because of the sound, like, very similar to the real wasps. When you make a Vespayola, are you picking the grapes? Is it, more for nobody? Is it noble rot, or are they just shriveling a little bit, you pick them early and dry them. How does that work? So to make the dessert wine that you mentioned before, turcolato, and also achininobili, we picked the grapes on time. So usually it's the third week of September at the same time as Merlo. They the grapes look like normal grapes. They're not shriveled or No. No. No. They are, like, just fresh grapes. And then we dry them at the winery for four months. Naturally with air, or was it did you put turn heating on to dry them or No. We, just have a big Groma with fans. So we have two fans on the walls, and we put three among the grapes. We have big windows and use the outside air. So it's really natural and slow. This is why it lasts for four months. And being so natural, we can have almost the same humidity and temperature as outside. So we can have or treat this, developing on the grapes. And if we get enough, we will make a handpicked selection of the rotten grapes Which is called. Called achininobulin, and we use the cribe with a mufa nobile to make a chino nobile. So just tell me the Italian word for a chino. What does that mean? Acino means, bury. Mhmm. And nobili means noble. So basically a a nobly rotten berry. Exactly. And that's what, sir. That's a nice little, tie in the name, doesn't it? Actually, you know, but it's a lovely name. And what would you drink that with? I mean, is it really, really sweet? Does it have good acidity? So it's the acidity is the quina dessert wine, and this is why we use the vespayola grape, not only because it's traditional in the area, and also it's a really, really historical and traditional to make dessert. One with the vespayola, but also because it has a very nice natural acidity that is pretty high. So it balanced the residual sugar. In, we have intercalato, at least one hundred and fifty grams per liter of residual sugar. And when I tell these two people, after they taste the wine, they are shocked because you don't really feel that much sugar because of the acidity. Right. So what about, a good food match either for the achi knee, nobody, or for the tokolato? So you can definitely pair them with dessert. Not too creamy, not too sweet. So I would go for something like Cantucci or something. Cantucio is not originally and typically from Veneto, but it's probably the most well known biscotti, the most well known cookie outside of it from Italy, outside of Italy. Tuscany, isn't it? It's it's originally from Tuscany. It's made with almonds, but it's, it's dry pastry, so it's perfect with dessert wines. Is it a very crunchy biscuit or a soft biscuit? It's, it traditionally it's crunchy. And it's the shape, is it long or round? It's, it's long and kind of flat. So it's perfect to be, dunked dicks. Yes. Into the wine. So that would be, something or, if you feel brave, you can go with the blue cheese or with eight cheese, like an age, we are in the a Zago DOP area. So you can have an Is it a cheese cheese or a cow cheese? It's a cow cheese, a Zago is a cow cheese. And is it what is it? Creamy, rich, hard soft? So there are two a Zago DOP cheese. One is the fresh, one. The younger, it's only sixty, days old. And that's more for white wines. Right. But the extra long aged? Yes. It's two years old. And, if you are black and get the one made with the summer milk. So it's also a little so with when the cow eat the fresh grass and all the flowers of in the mountains, it's also a little kind of spicy, pretty sharp, and it's perfect with dessert wines. Okay. The other I mean, super classical pairing, that's more French, would be with foie gras. Right. These are the pairings. We don't talk about France on the show. Not that. No. That's it. That's a good model. You can see what you said that rich foie gras, that kind of lovely city of the sweetness just comes through. I mean, You know, I've had foie gras with so-turn Mhmm. Which is a classic French pairing, and I always find it a bit hard work because you've got the foie gras which is pretty fatty, obviously. And the so-turn often they lack acidity for me. They don't have, they're sweet, but they just clawing. And I think what you're saying for the ones that you have, the fact that you've got this vestibiala, which has a lovely backbone and spine of acidity to it, is what lifts rich, really rich food like foie gras. So that's a good mix of sort of it italo franco mix. Yeah. French foie gras with an Italian white wine. Why not? So, I mean, how far you talked about the mountains? Obviously, you've got these animals grazing, not too far away. How what about your estate, organic, biodynamic, very biodiverse? How does that work? We are traditional Viticulture we are trying and see if we can go a little more organic, not organic a hundred percent. Unfortunately, we are so close to the amount. So we get a little more rain than usual. So we are considering to go as much organic as we can, but we, unfortunately, again, because of where we are, we couldn't probably go a hundred percent. So just explain the terrain again. So you say you've got, I mean, you from your vineyard, you have can you see the mountains that have got snow on the top or? We can't get snow on the top of the mountains. They're not super high. The Altopiano is a high lane. So it's about a thousand meters above the syllabus, so it really depends on the weather. They can get a lot of snow, like they did this year, but they don't get as much snow every year. So what what are the other influences of the vineyard? I mean, lakes and mountains and breezes and winds have being at the very full step of the mountains, we get mainly during the summer. We get a nice breeze, during night time. And so we get a very nice difference between day and night temperature. So that's perfect for grape. We are not closing up neither two lakes or or sea to get, the influence. The area has mostly volcanic soil. The DOC is not a huge DOC. It's about six hundred hectares. It's quite small then. Yes. This is a DOC Breganza, is it? Yes. There are sixteen wineries with six hundred actors, so there's pretty small properties. The soil, so thirty percent of the DOC has mostly gravel, white gravel, and seventy percent is volcanic soil. It's mostly two foam, So Tufasho's origin with some, basaltic every here and there, and we prefer definitely the grapes from, from the hills, so with volcanic soil. When did these French grape varieties arrive? Obviously, the best Biola is a a native Italian grape. But you say earlier on the yellow light merlot cabinet, that kind of thing. When did they when did they arrive? Was it French colonization, or was it Italians going over to France and bringing back cash? So the history of Veneto. So we got the French Napoleon in the late seventeen hundreds that arrived in the area. So there are two theories how we got the French west. One is when Napoleon conquered the Veneto, so the northeast of Italy in the late seventeen hundreds, the after Napoleon, we've been Veneto has been traded to Austria. So we've we've been under the Austrian Empire for over a hundred years. So probably these two dominations helped us to have the French charging rates. For sure, in eighteen fifty five in Vicienza, which is the name of the city of the province where we are, It was a kind of farmer's fair. They sold the producer of the Arab, brought their product to the fair, like, a little in Italy, and they printed the catalog of the fair. There were more than one hundred and twenty different red grapes, grown in Vicenza at that time. Cabaneseuvignon Metllo and pinot noir, are in that list. Really? So they were there for sure in eighteen fifty five before Philock set up before World War one. And then people of the area just kept replanting them. So day by day, this is what we have in the vineyard and the everyday wine in Vaneto, if you don't consider Balicella, but all the of the northeast of Italy will be definitely a cabernet Merlo blend. Cool. Thanks a lot. Thanks for explaining Best Biola and the sweet wines and also the little history of Breganza's, French colonization, but those are French varieties. We'll say thanks to, I guess, the Angela Macron of the Macoran wine free. Seems like a beautiful place where you live, there's got a mountains and lakes, and all the rest of it. They love it. Little breezes and the wasp flying around. Look forward to seeing you, so Boston. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. I'll wait for you on the weekend, sir. Thanks a lot. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.