Ep. 180 Monty Waldin interviews Andrea Sartori (Casa Vinicola Sartori) | Discover Italian Regions: Veneto

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. This is Italian wine podcast for me. Holding my guest today is Andre Sartori. Andre is the president of the Sartori Group, which is based in the Venatome, in the Val polo cenor area. Welcome. Thank you very much. Okay. So listen. Tell us a little bit about the Sarturi group, what makes up the group? The group is, first of all, I'm very proud to say that this year, we are turning a hundred and twenty. So we started writing now one hundred and twenty birthday, one hundred and twenty anniversary. And, I'm, the fourth generations of the family, and I'm very proud of that. Not many families' companies lasted four generations and not many families' company lasted for a hundred and twenty years. So I think that's, that's, that's a lot for us. Okay. So that's your anniversary in terms of the group, what are what are the origins of the Sartori? The origin, it's coming from totally the other way around. My great grandfather Pietro, which is actually the founder of the company, was a hotelier and restaurator in verona. By the way, I'll tell some Ater weighs few few blocks from here, and, Pietro Boat back in the middle of eighteen hundred, Villa Maria, which is a seventeen hundred century property. And when he bought the the villa, he found the in the villa small wine cellar that was mainly used from the previous owner, pretty much family consumption. And he had a nice thought to use the wine produced in the property to supply the restaurants. He project was to have a consistent supply of quality wines into the restaurants. So he didn't mind a lot about us becoming a winery. The man that really moved forward for us is grandfather Rego, which I never met, because he died very young. He died in nineteen fifty two at only fifty four of age, and he was the one that had the visions that Sartorius would be in the wine business. So what it did is basically sold, the restaurants Nutan and started to put all the money into the winery. This is between, thirties and forties. Not a lot happened during the second world war because the com the the state was confiscated by German troops. So everything was basically stopped for five years. And when the German left in nineteen forty five, he eventually could go back into the business. Although it took a few years, because a unit that was actually occupying the estate, was a into mechanics fixing weapons from the front line. So when they left, they had to destroy all the weaponry that was spread around the garden, and the vibrations of the explosions damaged the winery in the house. So before we became again operational, it took a few years And, definitely, we lost all the pre war vintages because the gentleman stole everything. But eventually, we came back on our feet, and, unfortunately, grandfather couldn't see a lot of his dream coming true because he died like I say, died in fifty two. And also my dad and my uncle took over. My dad was only twenty two years of age and my uncle nineteen years of age. So I think we've been kind of lucky that these two young guys could not only survive the company, but basically brings authority to the next level. So your fourth generation. And four generations, my dad and uncle both retired at the end of the nineties, and my generations took over in exactly in two thousand. So when you took over did the company consist of and where it got to today? When I took over, the company was doing pretty much one third of what we do now. And, since my generations took over, my housing power takes care of the national market my brother Luca takes care of wine and grapes processing, and I'm the I'm the expert, but I took I take care of the expert, basically. So since then, we nearly tripled the company. We are now exporting seventy five percent of our productions in more than seventy countries. So what are your main brands? Obviously, Sartori, the main products under Sartori branding is, of course, the wines from verona regions of Aquicella, soave, Bartolino, and all the operations we have in down, but I must say the pinot gris is also very important for us. Right. And they're all from your own vineyards, would you also act as a merchant? The the big factor that changed our life, and it was, I think, very advanced when we did it back in us, we decided to allow co op for farmers to get into our company, and we sold them forty percent of us. So they now part of the board and also part of us. And that group of farmers, better say co op, represent a lot large platform, two thousand three hundred hectares, which is a great, additions to our strategy. So the fact that they have a stake in the company, does that mean that they work invert inverted commas better? Absolutely. I think we we both benefit from the fact that we are together in a in a more structured way than just just a partnership. And, we both grew enormously in terms of of focus in terms of quality in terms of quality management. And right now, eighty percent of the wine with sales come from our own vineyards. So just give us a little lowdown on some of the brands. You have vineyards also in Frulli. What are your main brands? The reason why we bought that little estate in Furi was, organic wines. That company was born in the eighties. Montalbano. Montalbano. And, the original owner, Malo Brided got to a stage that he was growing, but he had no financial backup, and he had also some, production issues that he had to address. So he came to us and he actually proposed would you buy the company provided that I'm on board as a management for the for the organic wine projects. And it was great for us because into the platform of the co of farmers, we were growing organic grapes already. So we needed like an umbrella to put everything together under one house. And the fact that Montalbano was there for us, it was a great addiction to our portfolio. So we put everything under the put Montalbano umbrella, and, we're very successful where he happy we went forward into the organic wine project. So that's your organic brands. Obviously, you're sourcing, under Fruley and Venator, Apelacios. Yep. So how's that market developing? It's developing nicely. I don't think, to be honest, it's developing as fast as we would like, but I think is a window. There is a window of opportunity into organically grown grapes and organically, wines. Right now, the main markets are still Northern Europe, North America, Germany or better say country that are sensible to the organically to the organic wine's production. More more sensitive. Yeah. Yeah. More open minded to it. Yeah. And I think but I think it's it's you can't go wrong. It's a win win situation, and I think the consumer is recognizing that there is an added value into organically product anyway. Okay. Let's just dig into some of the regions that you work with. You work with, suave, valpolicella, and Badulina. Crystal as well, Ghana, and we also produce pinot grigio. So you've kind of got all of Italy's most famous regional names, shall we say, in your portfolio? I I think we're very lucky to be where we are. Okay. So just give us the give us the lowdown on on the different markets for those wines. It's probably difficult to generalize, but, you know, Legana's a small region, but the wines sell for high prices. Why is that for white wine. Lugana originally, I think it got very high, recognitions, especially from the German market. So lugana is a success story, but to me, it's still limited to few markets, principle, in principle, Germany, and Italy. There are now a lot of companies that are trying to develop, and ourselves too, that they are trying to develop Lugannon out of markets, but it's not, it's not happening overnight. So we need more work on that. So Lugano is a dry white wine from the shores of Lake garden made from the Trebillon Bswavy. And the German connection is interesting because, weekenders from Germany's just to the north drive down. They fill up their cars. It's a big tourist destinations for Germans, especially south of Germany. You can drive from Munich into lugana in four hours. So that's why I think lugana spread out in the German market first. And, but I have good hope for Ligana because I think as a as a model, it has everything that is needed from the market. So tell me a little bit about Swave, another white wine famous I went from Resideo. It is a huge productions area. I think is nearly fifty million bottles per year. It is spread out. Again, I I would definitely say eighty percent of Sohaga is exported anyway. Main market for Soh are UK, Germany, and North America, and italy itself is still a good market for soave. I think soave, it's changing totally the perspective from consumers. Soave, in the past, was considered kind of table wines or more than a table wine. It's quite one dimensional, but I'm very happy because, the soave you can taste today is totally different from the soave, from the eighties. So I found a lot of good quality soave out there. And I think soave might be the next thing after Pina Gridio because got the critical mass and, he's got all the characteristic to be successful. We'd only need to present it in a different way. Okay. Moving on to red. Okay. The flagship. One of the flagship of the country today's day is Amaroni, which is one of the segments we have in Balicella. The three main wines we produced there is Papicella, Repa Palicella, Repaso, and then Amaroni. So very successful operations, more sixty million bottles. So the last year, eighty percent exported in more than a hundred countries, actually a beautiful opportunity for all of us. What other opportunities do you see developing in other regions in the north? I mean, you pretty much you've got the full house really in terms of the both. Are you looking at any other areas, prosseco? Not at the moment. I think now prosseco will be for us and me too. We don't want to be adjusted back copy of the people in prosseco out there. We'd rather focus on still minds, I I think we have a lot more to say of what we have now, before we start looking around. Okay. I wanna say thanks to my guest today, andres Arturi president. Thank you, Matthew. Oh, the Sartorego my mum calls him Matthew, although she's known as Monty Vazaga. You can go wherever you want, father questions, if you want. Hey, good. So I'll say thanks to my guest today, Andrea Sartori from the Sartori group in the Venitor region of Italy. Thanks for explaining the difference is between your main areas of production. Thanks. Thank you again. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.