Ep. 210 Monty Waldin interviews Michele Faro (Pietradolce Winery)

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. This podcast is brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey. Native Grape Odyssey is an educational project financed by the European Union to promote European wine in Canada, Japan, and Russia. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast with me Montewood. My guest today is Mikeli Faro. Mikeli's family's estate is Pietro Dolce in the region of Sicily, Mikeli. Welcome. Yeah. For your invitation. Thank you. It's my pleasure. So, miketty, tell me a little bit about the family history of, Pietro Dolce, because it is an iconic Yeah. No winery now. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. The it's a long story because my grandfather a small wine producer on the, on the southern slopes of Mount Aetna. What was his name? Michele, like me. Okay. Yeah. So it's a traditional, you know, in Sicily to give to the nephew, the the same name on the grandfather. So it was a very small one because he just cultivating one extra vineyards on the southern slopes of Mount Aetna. Then, my family has always been cultivating land in, even in different kind of agriculture business. So that's why we abandoned for a while I mean, the vineyards, I mean, the the wine business. And, something like, thirteen years ago, I decided that, we should go back to the roots of the family. And so I decided so it was in two thousand and four, wasn't it? In two thousand and five, exactly. Yes. And I decided side to found Pietta Dolce, which is, a family estate owned by my family, and, with the deep roots in the wine business, but with the with the new soul. And, Pietta Dolce is located. We found Midpia Dolce on the Northern Slopes of Mount Aetna, which is the very iconic area for wines on, on Mount Aetna. And we are, cultivating a twenty hectares vineyard and most of them are preveloxera. Means from one hundred till one hundred thirty years old. This is because because we have a deep, deep passion for this teruar. We love Mount Edna as a magical teruar on the high it's volcano in Europe, three thousand three hundred meters. It's magical because you have such a great volcanic soil. You have such a great microclimate in that specific area, and, you need to obtain great wines, all about Hellegans, finance, mineralib. So it's, something that was discovered twenty five years ago, probably twenty years ago. Now many people coming on Mount Edna. We were, in the group will discover this, great opportunity. So there was a sort of a boom. Wasn't there with people investing in, Aetna, particularly from the from outside, but you are a local family. Yeah. We are a local family. We are a local family, we know the, we know the area. We believe in this area, and, we have deep passion in what we do. That's why the choice to cultivate the profiloxera wines, which is not easy. Because, to which great varieties have you got then? We only we are really, really extremely traditional. We only cultivate Narello Moskaleza and Karicante, which are the typical bread variety of Mount Aetna. So what's your Karicante white wine called? We produce, an entry level in Edna Bianco, and we produce a two crew. Let's say in area, trabianco, which is, one of our crew, one hundred and thirty years old vines. And this is this is the only wine that we produce on the eastern slopes of Mount Aetna in the teruar of Milo, which is a small village, a typical known for Atmerbianco, for white wine. And, from the inconvenience, we do a parcel selection of vines, so we choose the best wines, and we produce, since last year, since year, this is the second vintage released in the market. The two sa the twenty sixteen will be released this year. And, we produce a Santander, which is like, what they call a Grand Crew. So it's a parcel selection of the Best binds, which is died in, in a two thousand liter hulk tank with the long skin contact. So that's Karicante again? Yeah. Again. So you have, for the white one, you have the Arcineri, Karicante. Yes. Then you have Santandrea. Santandrea, which is a parcel selection. Which is a a selection with the long, long skin contact, and Etrna Bianca, which is at our entry level. And that just takes the name of Petrololce. Yeah. This is the, like, what what I like to call classic, you know, yeah, take the name of Petrololce. And red wine? Red wine, we have, a wider range of wines. So we have, our entry level. So, Eterrazzo, and then, we have, three kind of crew, which are which are determined from, by streets, single vineyards. So we like to go deeply in studying the terroir. That's why we decided to produce each crew from a single vineyards. It means that Mount Aetna can express very different wines, depending on the terroir. For sure, it's always Narello Mascaalese, but with different expression, one can be more elegant, one can be, one can be more captured. So you never know you never know what the soil can give to your wine. This is because we have many different lava flows that came down from double can in the past years. Each lava flow general rate different minerality in the soil. Different minerality in the soil give a different character to the wines. So that's why each vineets give a different character to the wine. So what are the names of the single vineyard at Nauroso? We produce, contrada Rampante, we produce a contrada Santospirito and arcanary. Okay. So three different single vineyards, three different groups. So what to do? So Santospirito means holy spirit. Yeah. Holy Spirit. What is that soil type? What soil type? The soil type. Yeah. Yeah. Santospirito. In Santospirito, there is, there is, a very sandy black soil, but the biggest difference in Santospirito compared to the other ones is the exposition. It's a larger terraces preferred loxera vines because all our crew and grand cru are prephy loxera, and more open terraces. They are not closer. They are not like a clue. It's more closer. So more windy and so more freshness in the wine. And and another one? Rampante is like a closed. So less windy, special microclimate and different soil composition, different mineralizing the soil. And the altitude, roughly? Ramante is eight hundred and fifty meters. Some hospital is in an hundred meter above sea level. Wow. That's pretty high. Yeah. It's we have a special condition because we are in Sicily, which is extreme south of Italy. So people who doesn't know amount that, and I can think, well, wow. This is south. So it's body wines, jammy wine, structure wine. This is not like this because we are on a mount. So we have a positive connection of different things. It means we have character structure of sicilian wine, but in altitude. It means elegance. It means finesse. So can you give us some food recommendations to start with the Arconetti white, for example? Yeah. Kinetti white, it's ideal with the our they call seafood salad. I have a friend who is pre who's preparing a small trattoria, a great seafood salad. This is the the best pairing. So what does he put in the seafood salad then? How does he do that? This is, what I call the best seafood salad in the world, because it's warm pre preparing express. At the moment, it's warm. It put octopus calamari shrimps. And a small shell called Okeydibua in Italian, which means, Bozogne, yeah, exactly, and which is great. I suggest to try it. I'm sorry. Okay. And what about, a good pairing for Anet Narosa? Etranarosa, our Etranarosa is, for sure, a wine that you can really easily better with the, and his grill meat stack. But why not we the soft grill tuna steak because Enerosa and Narello Masca is not a body variety. It's it's light. It's elegant. So with one or two degree less in temperature, you can also pair this wine, especially the entry level with a nice tuna tuna fish steak. Brilliant. Your eyes of Lita. You did you have lunch today? How much after small lunch? Yeah. I know the word small. I will have a dinner because, Mckeli's eyes lit up when I asked her our food. Mckady fellow, thank you very much for telling us about Pietodolce. It was my pleasure. And, you've really brought Sicily to life in your descriptions about these, terrace vineyards and the volcano and all that sort of stuff. Plus, of course, the food. It's an incredible place. Yeah. And as if one thing you do in your life in the wine trade, let let go to Aetna. Let me say as a sicilian who loves this region that the sicily is like a continent because in sicily, you can really find everything. You can find the mountain. You can find the sea in the center is more headed, mid more desertic. The west coast is more, let's say, arabic style, and the east coast is more green. It's an unbelievable place. And Hetna is an island in the island because it is an rather worth as we say. So it's, I really suggest everybody to visit Sicily. Yeah. And he's not exaggerating here. You think, oh, you know, he's historically, Sicily was the same kingdom, the kingdom of Sicily. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when people say, oh, Cecilians always think about how Cisley is. Do you remember that it was their own country effectively? So, and as he says that it's got the variety of terroir that was is is incredible. And it's a land, it's a land that is, improving more and more here, but here. So many people come in visiting and it's a it's really something special. Yeah. Let's hope it doesn't get overrun. Yeah. Anyway, thank you very much, bugatti Farley, for coming in, telling us about Pietro Dorce, and my pleasure, and I wish you and your family every success. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. This podcast has been brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey, discovering the true essence of high quality wine from Europe. Find out more on Native Grape Odyssey dot e u. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Follow Italian White Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.