Ep. 27 Monty Waldin interviews Andrea Pieropan of Pieropan Winery | Discover Italian Regions: Veneto

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. You're listening to the Italian wine podcast with Monte Walden. Today's guest is Andrea Puropan of the Puropan winery in Swave in the Venator region of Northeast, Italy. Welcome Andrea. So you took over from your father who was called Nino, and he was renowned for his attention to detail. Franco Alagini once said that if Nino hadn't been a wine maker, He would have been a watchmaker as he was so meticulous in his attention to detail. How much of a tough act was that to follow? This is a very hard question. I mean, it is, it has been very hard for me and for my brother Dario to get in, in this family business because my father is, as you say, very, very meticulous, very precise in the in the job. So, and he's obviously wants from, damn Son, the same type of, philosophy and the same time of, character. On a day to day basis, how does that work in terms of precision in terms of the the management of the vineyards or the the winemaking, the bottling, the labeling, the marketing? Me, I'm a grown upist. I mean, I I'm also white maker because I've done the way making school in Semicolor Adigen near Trento. But after this study, I have done the agricultural science university, and I became agronomist in the two thousand three. My brother Dario is also a waymaker graduating in a different school and the university. We run together this family business. We still have the big high on the top that is my father that is going to be seventy years old, but he's still full time involved in this business. But technically, Dario, look after the unification and the way making process, and I take care more about the Venus. So how long has your family, the Puropan family been making wine in the Swave region? The family business started with Unil de Puropan on eighteen eighties, in soave. He was a surgeon, but he left immediately the job because it becomes scary about the blood, which it doesn't work at all if you want to be surgeon. He didn't like. He was gonna see who's scared of blood. Was he? Yeah. Exactly. And probably this is one of the reasons because he's the side also to make white wine instead of red wine at the beginning because, that was also the, and a joke, but, was what it happened. And because, he had got a couple of actor of Venus in the Calvaryno's area, start to mix wine and in particularly the sweet wine, the ricciotto de soave. And your company, your your family was the first to bottle a wine with the name Swavy on the label in the early nineteen thirties. Is that correct? Yeah. Definitely. One of the first and for sure the first suave is a finest producer because at that time, was not so easy to get, fine wines from my areas. So when you when you mean fine wine, what do you mean by that? You mean a wine that's put in bottle and that can age? Yeah. A wine coming from an approach from the vineyard to makes a quality in the bottle. Okay. So what you, your company or your family has always been with the pioneers of making single vineyard, so that means a Huave white wine with the name of the particular vineyard those grapes came from. And you're one of your most famous wines is Calvaryno? Yeah. You're right. I mean, my father has spent all his life to get to the center of, our business in the vineyard. And, this is, confirmed from the idea, like, a Pineore Stidea in nineteen seventy one when he born, he created the Cadarinos Vigna in a period where no one was trying to do on a single Vigna for my area, and also the concept about single vineer was very rare. Basically, at that time, Swave was very much a sort of bulk white wine, right? Yeah. During doozy as, Swave was, white wine bought it and commercialized the first January half of the after the harvest. At the same time on nineteen seventy one and later on nineteen seventy eight when he created the Second single Vigna La Rocka. He decided to commercialize the the the two white wine obtained from those specific one year later, which was something completely new for the for the contest and for the time. So the pioneering spirit that your family has, does that weigh heavily on your on your shoulders, that responsibility? My father had got, always, and a character, very independent, fortunately, he never looked at the the trend or what was going on outside. He was very open minded and very free and the approach. And that's permit him to work without sterile tip. And then he did something completely new. For the period. So you're talking about single vineyard wines and things like that? Yeah. I'm talking about single vineyard. I'm talking about, the big challenging of La Rocka, indigenous variety, Gorganica. That's the grape that twelve is made from. Right? Exactly. Laroca? What's Naroca? Was Laroca? Another single vineyard. Yeah. Another single vineyard, where this is is even more panoristically than calvaryno, because one hundred percent La Rocka, one hundred percent organic grapes, peaked very late The Jewish is fermented and aged in the barrel, released one year later in a period where no one was using any oak in the in the area. My father was doing. So what you're saying is at that time, it was very much. Swave was very much high yield bottle it as quick as you can, sell it as quick as you can. Don't waste time or money faffing around with oak barrels or single vineyards or special selection. Just we say pilot high and sell it cheap. Yes. Because the the the concept that we have now about quality wine was very different than what was, at the end of the seventies. At the end of the seventies, and a good wine was in a wine that doesn't make any problem in terms of happiness. That was the idea about good wine. So, you know, like a standardized product a little bit like a Coca Cola, right? Exactly. Standard filtrated, if you want very impersonal, but safe. What is it like working in Swave and making and putting all this effort into your white wines, right? And incurring costs and producing incredible quality wines, and then other regions, for example, say colio, can get twice as much for their wines and possibly aren't quite as complex. How how does that feel in the market? Do you think you get rewarded by the market for the work you put in? Was it difficult because it's a Swave? People think I'll Swave. It's a cheap white wine. Why would I wanna pay, say, thirty euros for a bottle of single vineyard Swave from from the Puropan family? This is very wonderful question. And, in this question, there is, probably fifty years of vintages of my father. Yeah. You're right. I mean, the frustration has been big, huge because, making this sometimes, even more quality than more famous area than mine for my father, but, see that the market, many times, didn't get the same feedback just because you are called Swave was very frustrated for my father. We have attempted just to take the word Swave off the label. Let's call it super duper Italian white wine, incredible white wine, the greatest white wine on the planet, and hype it up a little bit. I would be very polite. My family, not my actually family because now I married with a wonderful wife and three kids, but my father's family. We are four people, me, my father, my brother, my mother. We discussed it long, long, long times this this, this argument because, fortunately and, unfortunately, we are just four many times when we the votes. So we we was a two against two, and then we didn't change it. In the opposite, probably now, we were talking about another story. Yeah. So you probably need an odd number of family members, like five people or three people. For sure. Even one one more probably will be changed completely the story of Pier isn't one of the problems with Swave, even in Italy, people see it in Italy as a wine that can never be really complex. I remember doing a tasting for a well known wine magazine and having a really fantastic Italian winemaker standing next to me, who's from the Swave region, and we were talking about the Gargenerga grape, which is the main grape that's gonna Swavy. And his view was, oh, it's not a particularly interesting grape variety. Almost I almost dug a hole for myself. I mean, how frustrating must that be for you? As you can see, also, in this year in the opera wine, there are already four swaves producers representing one of the top one under wines. So is a good number. But as you say, if you get in the market, the perception of Swave is very low. Do you think things are changing for the good then, Swave, with a move to recognizing some of these single vineyards, building on the work that your family has done for generations? Saying, actually, this suave from this particular field or vineyard tastes different to the one next door because it's a different soil and it's fascinating, it should be fascinating for consumers to notice these differences and show that suave is every bit as complex as say Bordeaux or burgundy. Do you not think things are changing? Honestly, we stop it to be a dreamers. And, we don't see, significantly changing. What we can do is continue to make quality continues to to try to show other people that at least there are another type of suave, which has nothing less than a great, the greatest expression of the white wine from Italy and not only from Italy. Well, another thing that's interesting about your winery. There are so many things that we could talk about, but you actually make your wines in the center of the historic town of Swave. That can't be easy for you. What are the challenges that you face, by actually being right in the middle of the town? The challenging has already started because PiroPana has started to make some a new winery one kilometer far from the center. It will be in a wonderful, winery, completely integrated, in a in a green area of South classical, and this is, was necessary because, as you say, in the center, it's very nice. That's very also very difficult to work. And, this is where we'll be in a winery, very new in terms of, contest because we'll use a lot of, organic process in terms of light, green, an eco friendly winery, basically. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. In terms of light consuming, energy consuming, and also green part. Yeah. We could always power you up the electricity system when we get you on the subject of suave being undervalued. All the energy that you release When you, when you answer the question, you could power several villages with that. What, what, apart from your new winery, what does the future hold do you think for Swave in general and the Pierapan winery in particular? It's difficult to, to see an a better future for Swave in an early future. For my side, we obviously can continue is because the brand of Purapan is, fortunately stronger than the appalachian. And then the people, like it and continues to be our lovers, not because the the appalachian, but because the the brand. Today, we show Laraka two thousand and seven. It could be banal if you want, but, it's ten years old. If we, we think, like, mostly the massive people, suave, ten years old, doesn't work, then I can show you in the glass and see that we're talking about another story. So I'll ask you one more question. When you when you're sitting down, maybe just with your own family rather than with the family in general, and you'd pick up an old bottle of wine that your father or grandfather made. Do you get quite emotional? Yeah. Even yesterday, we opened at a ninety six, Laroca and was gorgeous. And, what what I I do in my mind when we open an old bottle is, comparing the age passage with the age of the person, the people. And, when you open a bottle that has twenty years old, and you try to think how many things did you do in your life in those twenty years is amazing. Think that this bottle can be open and still get on a on a great emotion, because at the end, the wine is emotion. And then in your mind, see how many thing you have seen and done it in twenty years, is makes this glass in my mind, wonderful. Yeah. It's amazing also to hear you talk about, a Swave that is twenty years old and still probably quite young. And it's just a question of making people believe that you're not off with the fairies that you are, speaking truth and that these wines really can age. I mean, they're just so complex and so underrated, Swami. It's, it's mind boggling for me that it's not more valued in the market, but you are a beacon of light and success and quality. So it's a real pleasure for me to meet you. Me too. Yeah. Next time we see each other, we'll be out of this, studio, and we'll have a nice glass one of your single vineyards as well. Next time, I want to show you the single vineyard, the terroir, and open a bottle in a very relaxed way. Okay. Thanks for coming in today. It's been, been a great interview. And wine podcast on Facebook.