Ep. 35 Monty Waldin interviews Gill Gordon-Smith (Fall from Grace Wine Education & Tasting) | Education meets Business

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast. My name is Monty Walden, and with me today is Jill Gordon Smith, who's a wine producer based in McLarenvale in Australia. Welcome. Thanks. Welcome. It's great to be here, Monty. Now just tell me straight away about you've got planted in that little vineyard of yours and with Karen Vail? So we have Nera Davala, Montepulciano. We have Karanyan or Karanyano. And just halfway up Petersburges Creek Road up in Kaapo, we have RNais. So why did you go for these Italian varieties? For a pretty good reason, I think that they're an intelligent response to what's happening with climate change in Australia. I also like to make wines that are lower in alcohol, and so I can make wines that are lower in alcohol, and I love acid. So it seemed to be a perfect combination. So folks, if you're listening to your eighteen years old, when Jill says she loves us, and what she actually means is she loves wines that have an inner freshness. That's right. Okay. So this is the thing about climate change and global warming. Obviously, Mcclaren Vail is is is obviously a warm climateed region, but it's not boiling up because you've got oceanic influences. We do. And we're very close to the sea, but I think what we've been finding is we're a very sustainable region. We're really interested in finding varieties that actually work and give us, you know, flavor and a little bit of, an individual and unique perspective. And I think Italian varieties work with our lifestyle. McLaren involves very Italian focused, whereas the broth is probably a little bit more German focused. And these, varieties suit our lifestyle, we're looking for new varieties that are gonna work there. So when you say suit our lifestyle and mclarenville being Italian focused, do you mean that's full it's full of Italian immigrants or it's it's it's full of Italian grapes put there by people like you? No. We actually have a very, very high percentage Italian people who settled in, McLarenonville from Eliza and Abruzzo. And, but we also have a very Mediterranean lifestyle. If you've ever been to McLarenonville, we're right on the coast. We have great seafood. We've got an amazing sort of natural environment And, this is working really well for us. And I think it's giving us a point of difference. So what's the advantage of planting those Italian grapes that you mentioned in terms of how they grow and make a wine that you don't have to mess about with too much in the winery to make something tasty? They handle the heat. They're fairly drought resistant. And I can pick at an earlier well, I can pick with really good ripeness, but at a, an, you know, a lower bome. So I can make wines of around thirteen percent, thirteen and a half percent that still have flavor, have really good natural acidity, and a really good food wines. So what you're you're saying is that you're having the grapes when they ripen, they do two things. They ripen their flavors and their sugars, the sugar obviously gets converted to alcohol. And you say that these Italian varieties are pretty good because the two things coincide with them? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm just finding because I make wines fairly minimally. With minimal intervention, I can pick at a really good level of acidity and a really good level of ripeness and make very, very good food friendly style wines with texture. So Mcclaren Vail for my money is is the most exciting region in Australia at the moment in terms of sustainability. You know that's very close to my hub organics, biodynamic. Do you think Mcclarenville is gonna get copied by other Australian regions? Do you think, well, hang on, if if the guys and girls and Mcclarenville are starting out? Do you think Mcclarenville will lead the way in Australia for people planting more January rates. Right? I hope so. We we have some at the moment. We have Fiano, Verintino, Sanrentino, course, we've had Coriol, who was the the leader in planting those sorts of varieties. Multiple channel is doing really well. We have thirty three Neerodabler producers now, which is pretty exciting. Just to McClaribel. Yeah, McClaraval. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. It's great, isn't it? Yeah. It's really taking off. I was only there about, I know, three, four years ago. Yeah. No. I'm pretty excited about that. And how do you how do you sell those to consumers? I mean, Australia's sell a door wide direct wine sales enterprise. A big thing in Australia. How convince people rather than buying their their standard Sheraz or Murla or Chardon, they will serve in your block. You say, hang on. I've got a narrow dabbler for you today and everything. What the hell is that? Let them taste them, educate them. So, I think we've we're pretty friendly sort of region and pretty open. And, they said, yeah, we're having we don't really we're not having a problem. I only make very small production, but we sell out. And we're in some of the best restaurants in Australia. Do you get Australian producers not going to do as well to ask you, what are you, you know, what are you doing? How are you doing? I do. But we also, if I have a small retail shop in every Friday and I I run tastings for small producers that don't have cellar doors, and we have a lot of the wine community and just the general public come along and try new varieties. So I really give them the opportunity to try those varieties. What's the reaction normally when they just say someone has not tried to narrow a davala or a fiano for the first time. What is their reaction? Oh, that's a bit odd or oh, that's nice. No. That's nice. But they they always try and sort of put it into a a box of is this like a shiraz or is this like a chardonnay. So, yeah, they're usually pretty happy with I haven't had any problems whatsoever. So, I mean, Australia's argue. You are quite adventurous aren't you in terms of Here we are. Relaxed, adventurous. Yes. It's not like a really hard sell. We don't do hard sell very well in Australia. I think we just want you to come along, have a drink, have something to eat. You know, hang around. And these are the sorts of, you know, with our seafood that we have, you know, we have a lot of really great restaurants in the region. Yeah. People are pretty adventurous. I think the days have passed when everybody was sort of stuck in boxes of shiraz and cabinet. And hopefully, people are realizing that Australia is more than that. And McCarrenville with us, we've got a sustainability program that is a world class. We're actually going for world heritage stages at the moment with an agrarian landscape. So, yeah, I think it's a pretty exciting time for Mcarrenville. When you come to Italy, which are your favorite regions and why? Sistole. Just spent some time in Sicily and Sardinia in the Aeolian Islands last year. A lot of time in in Tuscany. I'm pretty excited by most of the Italian regions, but especially Sicily and Sardinia. Could you make things like a repassar, like a sort of Maroni eye of where you are, or is that is that too difficult? No. Well, there's actually a really great producer called Colte Swines, and Mark Day make specialises in Italian varieties. He worked for about eleven years here in Valpolice, and soave, and he makes a true Amaroni style with Sharaz it's called the pagan. It's really good. So and we have a couple of producers doing amorone styles. I haven't really thought about it. It's always good to hear a wine producer recommending one of their rivals and and Oh, of course. Such a new world thing is that you always I every time you meet a new world winemaker that recommending their neighbors, wine, or It's a pretty tight knit community. And it's also, I think, just the Australian way to sort of, you know, let everyone have a crack and have a go. And, yeah, I'm pretty excited by what's happening in my region. Is there a big learning curve? If you plant an Italian grape variety, rather say merlot or chardonnay that you've all gone through university in in Australia, learning about winemaking. You learn with Cabernet Murner, etcetera, Sharaz. How difficult is it to change your mindset, growing something like Fiana or Sanjuvezi or Nebiola? Well, we're learning. It's so new. We're still learning. And and most people will talk to each other, growers, winemakers. We'll we'll all share information. And each year, we just get better and better. So, yeah, it's gonna take some time, but I think we're really getting there. I'm pretty excited. What are the main pitfall's been with the Italian varieties. Is it more about the marketing side rather than the grapes. Definitely marketing. Definitely marketing. The grapes are easy. I mean, I've been out in the vineyard and you see in those really big heaps we get and you know how hot we can get in Australia. And we have, you know, some of our traditional varieties, you know, falling about looking quite sort of disheveled and the Italians are perky and and happy. It's just about it really it's drought and water. That's our biggest issue. I mean, water costs a lot of money in Australia. Water for irrigation. For irrigation. So Italian varieties, you know, they're they're going to be, I think, bigger and bigger mean, we've got Greeko at Langconcreek. We have Fiano. We actually have Sabarantino in McLaren, which is pretty interesting, a very small amount. And what's great when I come over here is Italian producers are really surprised we're actually growing those grapes over there. But as you said earlier on, there are, you know, the the Italian diaspora is increasing over to California, Australia, maybe a little bit lesser in New Zealand. But the everywhere you go, you fight Italian growing wine. Right? So Absolutely. And, I mean, you think about it, usually, everybody makes wine here, it's not have to be a wine producer. And we have the same thing happening in McLarenonville. There's a lot of, you know, shared winemakers. Yeah. I I'm very happy, and I we've just grafted over Grillo, which is pretty exciting. So I think that's really gonna I spent some time in Sicily at Duvartalee and trying palermo, trapani, trying as many gorillas as I could, and I'm pretty excited about that. So you're gonna make Australia's first Marcela. That'd be, oh, gosh. I wish I could afford to. Such a wonderful style and just such a shame that it's sort of fallen away a bit because I I was really excited by masala. It'll bounce. True masala. It's going to. Definitely. Yeah. I love the fact that you you use the word smart with your Italian grape varieties. You can imagine them being in this very well dressed Italian grape varieties. Absolutely. And these Australian grape rival Australian French grover is scruffy and, ripped jeans and shorts and all the rest of it. And the Italian varieties just they they work. Italians. So I'll be tan. Beautiful. Working and gorgeous. No sweating in the heat. Absolutely. Perfect hair. Yes. Little bit of chest hair for the guys. Anyway, listen, brilliant to talk to you. Yeah. Thanks very much. And, we will follow your Italian or italo Australian project with keen interest. I hope so. Hope to see you out there. It is. It is. You said earlier on, Mcclarenville really is one of the most dynamic regions on the planet. And not just because of the Italian, but it's got another string to its bow. And it's such a great opportunity to be here at VIA and actually learn from E. Did you get through the exam? I passed. Not well done. This is my second shot. So I'm really happy because now I can go back and I can talk to our growers and I can talk to our winemakers with a little bit more authority because Ian's just such an amazing, talent and somebody should inform. I'm pretty excited to be here. Great. Good to meet you. Yeah. Lovely to meet you too. What a fun fantastic project. Thank you. Superduper. Thanks. Follow us at Italian wine podcast on Facebook.