Ep. 70 Monty Waldin interviews Valeria Quagiotto (Cantine VITEVIS) | Italian Wine Coops

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. This podcast has been recorded during Vivite an event organized by the the alliance of Italian corps. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast. My name is Walter. Today's guest is Valeria Well, that's a very easy one. Valeria, you are the export manager from the youth DB cooperative in the province of Vinchen's where is the property? Vinchenza is in the middle of, in the heart of Veneto regions. That is one hour from Venice and half an hour from verona. So just in the middle of a beautiful area for, especially known and famous for vertical sure. Okay. So explain fifty b t. Does it got hundred years of history or is it a recent, recent creation? It's a recent creation. It was created in two thousand and fifty. Thanks to emerge, among three corp, a leading corporate in the province of Echensa. So one is Colimicentini. The second one was, continue to gamble, which was all so the oldest the corp in the province of Echensa found in nineteen forty seven. And the third stop was, Cantina Vallegra, located in Malo in a very, the predolomiti area, very close to Chicago. So that, I mean, that must have a very different microclimate compared to the other day. If you're not near the dollar mites. The dolomites, everyone knows for skiing. Right? So why would three cooperatives merge together? Why would they get married? Why would they have a sort of cooperative threesome when they could all be individual, you know, cops doing their own thing having fun on a Friday night. So main reason is because together, we are stronger. Okay. And, we have a bigger portfolio to promote and to send all over the world. And also because of this way we have, of course, tried to maintain costs and try to, be more competitive. Okay. So when you talk about the the different offer of product that you have, let's just go through those three properties one by one this, the, what are the specialities of the Cantina de Gamalara? What what is the wine that is produced in Gamalara? What's it made from, what's it called? So we have one thousand five hundred VINro West and two thousand two hundred ectal vineyards, mainly located in fifty, six counties all over the province. So the main fair fair to before the merge was our vine grower don't want to merge at the beginning because they they want to not to lose their identity. So actually after the merge, what we try to do was to enhance the diversity, the characters of the three cobb. So we try to give a role, a leading role of each cobb. So Colvícianini is mainly, red wine and sparkling wine. So what are the red wine grapes in the wood? You have, Thai also, which is grenache genetically. And then we have Malo and cabernet, of course, but we have also a very good, production of pinot noir. Then we have the sparkling wine, and sparkling wines are very, very important in our portfolio. We have, prosecco, but we have also of top ton varieties like Lecini Duralo, which is a very interesting grape variety, volcanic soil is located in the Monte, Lecini, the mountain range that divide the two provinces So I've got two questions before we go on. And the first one is, why does that particular area have so many quotes, French, great varieties plus the Dorre not? Because Napoleon was there. We can't interview him today. He's a bit he's a bit busy today, but we'll try and get him in the future. And what about Dorello? I mean, why is it called Dorello? Because the the Italian word Duro means heart and the the skins of this grape variety is particularly hard, harsh. The the old Roman worth for this grape variety was Durasana. And there was a lot of, document and evidences that this kind of grape variety was using very, very ancient times. And, Dorello means Duro because it it is a white grape variety that has a late harvest. We will beginning of October. We try with are the harvest beginning of October, and, the soil was a prehistoric sea. That's a beautiful museum in Boca where they found the shark, shells, that was beautiful area, and very unique soil that gives this wine a structure, like, I I see that this one has the elegance of a white grape variety, but the body or and the structure of a red grape variety. So when you talk about the soils, they're white soils. Right? Because carriers. Okay. Alright. So that was, Gamballaria. Gamballaria is, one of my favorite place because it's, basaltics. We have some vineyard that, well, you can go and see the basaltic columns coming out from the soil. And, Garganaga is one of the most versatile grape that we have because it's very good when you when you use a sparkling wine. When you dry the grapes, we produce also vin santo, we produce a chatto de gambelara, and also very good that as we have tried now to add this Gambelara classico, or we will launch this Gambelara classco all over the world. It's very aromatic. This grape, this clones over Garnaca that we use is mainly located in the Monte of Sanmart cool. And this, tends to become pink and red when ripen, and it's very, very, very, very nice grape. So and and what if you do at the base hot soil, the these columns, how how did why would the how were these columns form, what was the mechanism? It's, only the the the time that create this beautiful, so it's something that, we discovered. Okay. So the second one is the Cantina Vallegra, Vallegra de Malo, founded in nineteen sixty one. This was the youngest crop of the group continue with this. Size ninety sixty one by sixty people. So, see, sixty people, mainly checking, sixty eight hours. So very, very small if you compare to the other two. Why is that? Is it is the terrain very difficult built. It's a very hilly. It's a very hilly, and mainly these people are also busy with the cows and because there's a very interesting place where they produce milk for Ziago cheese. So most of the people has both type of businesses, so Viticulture, but also production of milk and What's the altitude then? More than three, four four hundred the meter. It's not that high. It's not that high. No. It's not that high. But also, yeah, it was not that high. No. I gotta I gotta go to it. I love cows and I love wine. So, I'm into my biodynamic. I'm afraid. So I love anything with a cow in it. It's gonna get me excited. So vote if you wanna go and see some cows, go to the Valle de ogranate tomorrow. And so it's still quite small. You've got sixty crores of this detector. And we convert the entire production to organic production. And what's the main grape? It's mainly it's less so because we are on the edge of, Boca and Montilisini, and then we have Pino Grijo, of course, and San Barlo. It's definitely my pleasure. You know, so he's about cows, Yeah. But the soil isn't volcanic, though, here, is it? Or is it? It's more, precarious. So the the the volcano is in is in. Yeah. Okay. Right. And so what are your main markets then? I mean, how easy is it go to the market with co op wines from a very, generally quite small Italian cooperatives, even if we have heard of gamboa and things like that, how easy is your job? It's not that easy because what we try to to do is to balance what we try we sell abroad. So, I mean, of course, we have Piningrijo. Of course, we have Casseco, which are both most of the popular grape variety Italian variety around the world, but, our goal, our aim is also to promote unknown not so famous grape varieties, gardena, or and we are actually very happy about that because we we try. So our main markets at the moment are UK, Sweden, Russia. And so we try to, at least, to convince customer to try. Does it No. We we we need bold buyers first day that believe in our job. But isn't, I mean, isn't storytelling part of that as well? I mean, you've also got Garganagisa's all a very well known grape. I mean, a lot of people probably won't have heard of it, but if anybody's drunk a bottle of Swave, I know I shouldn't mention that word in this interview, but That is the main Swate. Right? Is it difficult for you quotes to have just tiny little regions that no one has really ever heard of to come to compete with a behemoth like Swate, which is just so powerful in Italy? I know and it's it's not easy and of course it's it's tough and it's difficult, but, I'm lucky because, the quality of the wine that I use to present people speak by themselves. So I don't need to convince anybody. They try the wine if they are happy about the quality and the price, of course, the the price and quality relationship must be must be there, all happy. And so we, of course, it's a long term, relationship that you you must create with your customer, but, it's something that, it's something that we try to build every day. Great. Thanks very much for explaining to us what you're doing in the in the Venadog, with your cooperatives, your threesome of cooperatives, all on very different terriers and doing different things. Great to talk to you wish you every success. And, I definitely wanna come and see those cows. Okay? I'm I'm interested in the vines. I just wanna go see the cows. Okay? And try some of that cheese. Okay. Thanks for coming. Yeah. To use. This episode has been brought to you by Vinita Lee twenty eighteen, taking place in verona from April fifteenth to eighteenth. 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