Ep. 1684 Matteo Lunelli | On The Road With Stevie Kim

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, my Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at italian wine podcast dot com, or wherever you get your pods. Welcome to another episode of on Road Edition hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, she travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods, as well as the incredible travel destinations. Hello. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast on the road edition. My name is Stevie Kim. Welcome back. And today, we are at this magnificent villa. It's called Villa Crespitz, my first time here. And there is a special event, which is this bottle you see right here. It's called the Julia Ferrari Colizione two thousand and four. And this gentleman to my left, his name is Mateo Lunelli. I got that wrong last time. Remember when I called Giovanni Oviso. Okay. So and he's, of course, the lead. He's the what is your official title of the company? Mhmm. This has been the big cheese. No. And the president and CEO of, Ferarry Trent, a winery. So why don't you tell us what are we doing here today exactly? Today, we are honored to present this, new vintage of Julio Ferarrycolletzione. It is the fourth vintage of this unique label. And, Julia Feraticolletzione, is a wine that we only produce in the perfect vintages. So we started with ninety five, then ninety seven, two thousand and one. And now, we have two thousand and four. So it's a So this is the fourth time. It's the fourth time and But when did you start doing Julia Ferrati? No. Julia Farrati. The first vintage was seventy two. And that was actually really pioneering at that time because it was the first Italian sparkling wine presented to the market with, a very long aging on the lisa. So at that time, Julia Ferrati, the Julia Ferrati de Cervodile von Dattore was created by Maru Runelli, Mianco, and it was presented after seven years of aging on the lease. So nowadays, the Julia Ferrari has ten years of aging. This wine actually ages eighteen years. So two hundred and sixteen months in the darkness and silence of our cellar. That's crazy. So it's a very long aging on the lisa, and that's why we we we say that this wine wants to win the challenge of time. So meaning that, you know, time should give a complexity, to this wine because this wine continuously evolve in touch with the lis, but at the same time, winning the challenge of time means that it keeps elegance, freshness, and finesse. So this is what we think is also the result of our terroir and the mountain viticulture of Taranto. So how many bottles do you produce of this special edition. It's a very, very limited edition. So these are all numbered bottle. Three thousand nine hundred and six bottles and three hundred and thirty one magnums. So it's a very limited edition, which, You basically drink it by yourself. Oh, it was not family. So you're the big big boss, right, the big cheese of the Ferati family. So just give me the number so I can contextualize how limited this is, like the entire production, how many labels, and then how many bottles of Julia Ferrati do you produce, Maria? We are the leading producer of, metodaux Classic in Italy. And by the way, you know, we are Give it to me. Seven million bottles. Yeah. That's It's, the record sales of two thousand twenty two. I have to say that we reached the debt size, growing year over year without compromising equality, and it has, because we have one hundred and twenty one years of history. And by the way, you know, this is really the last step of a challenge that started when, you know, Julia Ferrari, you know, the first long aging of Ferrari happened by chance almost during the second world war. Oh, okay. It was an accident. Yeah. Because Julia Ferrari basically during the war, built a wall closed at the winery, which was at that time in the city of Trento, in the very center of Trento. Julia Ferady built a wall at the entrance of the winery, and the winery was closed for some years. And and when it came at the end of the war, when he reopened the winery, he found all these different vintages and he came out with this longer aged Uh-huh. And he realized that the wine was, still in great shape and actually that, the long aging was actually really beneficial. That taste wasn't too bad. State was excellent. And, and quite a lot. Can you tell me a little bit about why we are here today? Why have you chosen Vila Crespi? It's my first time actually. It's beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful and unique. Actually, we have chosen not only Vila Crespi, but first of all, we have chosen Antonio canaverrol. Tana Vaccio. That's a tough one for, especially for the Americans. Not an easy one, but he is a great chef. He's like the master chef. Right? Absolutely. No. He's very famous in Italy for that, but but he's also famous as a as an amazing chef here. It's a three star Michelin restaurant. Okay. So we we recognize as one of the excellent restaurant in Italy. And, we started a tradition with the first vintage of Julia Collettzione that each vintage is presented pairing the wine with the creation of a great chef. It is a tradition and continues with Antonio Canavatrol. We asked him to create a special dish to pair it with our Julia Ferreco, let's see on it. Okay. Tada. Dada. Dada. Dada. We want to underline that, a great train to dock, and a great bottle from Manta Sparkin wine is an ideal wine to be paired with food. Historically, Sparting wine is considered as a celebratory wine. Right. While, you know, we strongly believe that, the best way to enjoy a great bottle for manta Spartan wine, especially if we are talking about a wine which has a structure, complexity, long gaging on the lisa, So the best way is really to have it at lunch or dinner. And obviously, especially when it's paired with great food, they like today. But, you know, in all fairness, to be quite honest, when you're only making less than like four thousand bottles. There's not much of it to go around. How does it get allocated? Where can you find these bottles? It's gonna be Because it's so tiny. It's gonna be a very limited edition, but I think that, for wine lover, that's also interesting to have something very, very special. So out of our overall production, we have a lot of different labels, a lot of niches, and each of these wine has a history as his own identity and personality, and that's very important. Know, even if, as you mentioned, we are a large winery, still, you know, what we do is done with passion. And when you have passion, you are willing to also to do a lot of small things, which, which are the creation of the talent and of our team. You know, as you mentioned, I'm honored to be the president of the winery, but this is the result of the work of a lot of men and women in the vineyard and in the winery. And, we always emphasize the idea that excellence is it's not an act but an abbot, and this was aristotle and of myself who said that. Oh, really. Meaning meaning that, Let's note. Notabane. Okay. Note. And, meaning that, you know, excellence is not just the result of a single idea over, something of one thing. But, the result of a lot of steps done with care and attention, especially in wine, to create an excellent wine, you really need to put care attention in each step in the vineyard all over the year and in the winery. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp. For fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond. Meeting winemakers, eating local foods, and taking in the scenery. Now back to the show. You know, nowadays, in these days, we're actually in the middle of the harvest. So this is particularly important for us to mention. All the people that works for that, and, we have now, you know, while we are talking, our team is really putting all his passion and effort to manage the service, which is probably in this process, is, the most important and the most delicate part. By the way, speaking of, you know, the team, can you just, for our audience, or less familiar? I feel like when I meet your family, I need a wide angle lens. So can you just tell me, like, Who does what in your family, Marcella, Camilla, Lesandro, yourself, your dad, your father, your uncle, your aunt. I I don't know. Can you give me the skinny of the family organization? Yeah. Okay. First of all, we are proud to be a family business and a family winery because I think the family has always been a a culture carrier. So we our main goal is to really safeguard the values that have made our success in the past. These values like, you know, the link with the territory of Tarantino, the search for excellence in every detail nowadays more and more the idea of sustainability. So the core values are safeguarded by the family. And, the family is, pretty wide. We are now at the fourth generation actually because our sons are at the fourth generation, but they're not working with us. Not yet. So at the moment, it's the third generation who is working in the winery. We are forecasting, which are active in the winery, and then we have other cousin, which are shareholder with us. We need to separate what is our role as shareholder. We as cousin, we are all shareholder. Mhmm. Some of us are also working and as managers inside of the winery. What I want to underline is that, anyway, for us, you know, we attracted a lot of talents, and, we can do what we do thanks to all these people that work with us know, men and women, and we continuously look for a new talent that help us to continue the story of Ferardo and to grow group. So nowadays, you know, myself, Marcello Camilla and Alessandro, we are all passionate about what we do, and we work in the winery. But, we have, an amazing team from the general manager, to the CFO, to the chef de Kav, the commercial director for Italy and outside of Italy, these roles are made by a manager, which are not part of the family. So we are fully convinced that, the future of Ferrari will be brought forward by talented people that share with us these values and this passion. So the family is, very important because it enable us to have a long term vision this is, clear, you know, when you think about a wine that has over eighteen years, having a long term view is crucial, you know, in wine, you need patience, you need to have a long term vision, and this is what the family needs to bring. But, to create excellence, to promote it all over the world, you need a team of, of people, in each role that can do that. And this is what we are most proud of, you know. Yes. The people that work with us. By the way, but anyway, Marcello in terms of, between the family, we have different competence and different roles. As you know, Camilla is, works in the communication area. Yes. So and that's why we've, with most of, journalists and, she's the one who interacts with press and media and is in she's in charge of communication, and and nowadays, she's also coordinating our effort on the sustainability. She created this new sustainability report. Marcello, is, is an analog, is more looking to the quality of a wine, and especially is also, the chairman of the, which is our vineyards. The quality of all these wines come first of all, from our vineyards and from what we do in the vineyards. And finally, Alecandro, he's in charge of, Tuscany in Umbria. So the two estate where we produce an Oferrari, but, our red wines in Umbria and Tuscany. And, he's also in charge of the production of Sujima, Arminal Water. And finally, he's overseeing the big project that we have. He's an engineer and he's overseeing all the new project of, where we are growing our building in, our winery in, Ravena. So there is a very important project where we are increasing the space of, our winery in Ravena. And he is the one who is, who is, managing this project. So as I said, we have different competence. We work together with passion, and we all share this with the team. Okay. Speaking of your team, Giovanni is giving me smoke signals. You have to go now because I do want to, at a different time, talk about your new chef to carve. Absolutely. Of course. So that's it. That's fine. We're now working in Krento for the harvest. So that Okay. So it'll be the first vintage. Yeah. This is the first vintage of cereal, and we are really excited. I'm incredibly happy to work. Yeah. I can. And I can't wait to taste a new vintage. Especially, you know, this is gonna be the year where you will do a lot of new experiments. So he doesn't want to make a revolution. We do not want it and he doesn't want to do it. But, it's certainly is already starting to do a lot of small experiments on details that can be made perhaps in a different way, and experimenting is the key to do some, even more step forward towards excellence. Okay. Excellent. So I we really need to wrap it up. Otherwise, she's going to kill me. Thank you very much. I have So. The valetto da Videz. Okay. So salute. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. And that's a wrap because he's really gotta go and chinch in with Italian people. With Matteo Lonelli. And let's go have that wonderful food for mister. There you go. Bye bye. Thank you for joining us on another installment of on the road edition hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content in the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods. You can also check out our YouTube channel. Mama jumbo shrimp to watch these interviews and the footage captured of each location.