Ep. 228 Cristian Ridolfi (Cantina Santi - GIV) on Lugana and Valpolicella wines

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. And joy. It's from Europe. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast with me, Montewood. My guest today is Christian Aridolfi. Christian is the Antina winery manager for Santi. Yes. Group. Of course. Winery or brand owned by Gurupo Italian Novini or Gdiv. What is in brief Giv, Guupitaliano Vini? GIVi is an important company because GIVi has, fifteen wineries from, Lambert, where, near Vatalina to Sicily. So all over Italy basically, it's one of Italy's most important companies. And in terms of under the Santi brand, there are various wines of through the one by one. Let's start with a white wine. Yes. Luggana. We are, a brand, very famous, very, very traditional, around the BIPriceli area, but also scientist produces white in, in this case, is Luggana. And Santi has a very long history. He was born in eighteen forty three in Badilazzi Ballet in the east part of the Vipricella winery. My immediately later, Santi started to produce, whites. And, for Santi Lugana is a very traditional label because in the seventies, the lugana production for Santa was very important. And also today is very important. We are in a beautiful area. We are in the south part of the garda Lake region. So lake garda? Lake garda. Yes. And it's very interesting, especially for whites the area because it has a particular soil. It's very rich in clay. It's very difficult, the cultivation, this kind of soil, but it's very important, especially for whites because we have a very high acidity, in the meantime, is a very rich and fruity aroma and taste. So Ligana is today a very interesting white, not only for a parrot, but especially for food, fish, or the main cause. So what's the main great variety for the white lugana. For lugana, it's Trebiano di Lugana. Trebiano di Lugana has the same genetic, genoma, the same genoma, then Ferdicchio, and and then the Trebiano de sojave. So the Vedikea meaning the Vedikea that you would find in Verdicchio D metallica or Vedikea is in the Marque region. So it's very important in the same area, they also the soil barrier reaching clay. Okay. But there is a strong clay. We produce a very interesting white from Verdicchio or from Trebina. Lake Garda, obviously, is a very popular tourist region, and it's quite a wealthy region in its own right as well because you have, you know, a little luxury tourism outlets there. So is this white wine seen as a premium brand by your company, the Lucana, or a super premium brand? For White is a super premium brand. Yes. Of course. Okay. Let's move down back into the valpolicella area, and and you say this was really where everything started. Just give us a brief detail about the range of valpolicella wines that you may. Yes. Yeah. But Priscilla is a is an area where the wine making important when making process possible, centuries ago. So it means we are very, we are very good today to produce different kinds of red wines from the same area. From the same grape, from the in being. Yes. So, in Vipulietta, we produce, a plain wine for a parity for a taser. It's the fresh white polytella. It's the fresh red wine. It's a fresh red wine. It's a fresh red wine. We use a blend because Vipuricella. There is not only a specific variety. We use different indigenous varieties. The mainly is Corvina and then Corvina on the nail and the oscillator, but we have other varieties. So it's a blend, from this blend is possible to produce a fresh wine for every day from a fresh grape, not a late harvest, but a normal harvest. The repasso means to repeat the fermentation is a red wine party important where we do two fermentations and the amarone from the dried grapes. So it's a very specialized if I put potato to produce rats. And the reason is not only the indigenous varieties, ma, is the kind of soil is a very rich in limestone. It is a cicario soil rich in limestone. So it's very important to produce fine red wines with a soft stainless, good acidity, high acidity, a long taste. It's a hilly area, and especially the vineyards on the top of the hills where we have a very important sun, exposition, and a good ventilation, it's possible to produce a very ripe ripe grape. So we produce, for, for Sandy, most important by Priscilla. It's a ventales by Priscilla superiore, where we usually harvest the grape in the middle of October So, and we do the fermentation in the big vase made by Oak with a conic shape called teeny. It's a very traditional fermentation for around forty days. And then it's an area where, of course, we, we, we, we are different kind of threats, for different use, for different combination, different pairing, with the food. So what's the altitude level for this, for the ventilation, different pairing, the altitude is around three hundred meters. Is it called ventilation? Is that a linked with the fender. It's a windy, it's a windy place. Yeah. It's a, it's a windy valley, but the last day where Santa was born. It's a windy valley because at the end of the valley, we have a very high mountains. We reach the two thousand, three hundred meters. So we are close to the first part of the Heights mountains. For the Alps. Yeah. Yes. It's a very interesting, especially after the sunset, we have a very strong ventilation. Okay. From June to October, it's very interesting, not only to increase the aroma and the column, especially the taste in the grapes. A part and difference between night and day in temperature. So the ventilation is a characteristic of this part of I put each other. Do you make a repasso volop, Vapolito? You also produce a repasso. Is it what's it called? Yeah. The repasso. The repasso is called, Solane. Solane is, one of the most traditional, the oldest label for sanity for anti winery. Repasso means to repeat the fermentation. The first is at the end of September when we pick the grape from our vineyards, and then introduce the first fermentation. And then, the wine stays for four months in the concrete pots to do the baroletic fermentation. And then in the same period, we are trying the maroon grapes in our trying sheds. We usually crush the maroona grapes in the middle of January and then starts the fermentations at very, very slow around forty, forty five days And before finish the fermentation, we move the amarone a little sweet around thirty grams per liter and receive the sugar, and then the amarone finishes the fermentation, the virus. And we to reduce the viper retailer in the amarone fermentation tank, but where the viper retailer finds the amarone skins, the amarone juice, and yeast. And so there is the second determination to consume for the yeast. Yes. And there is, it's a fermentation but lasts around a week, and the alcohol increases around one percent from twelve point five to thirteen point five, but this especially the new fermentation releases important aroma, and the amount of skin in the same time released a part of a marooned aroma, a marooned taste. So the buripaso is called Solani. That's where you add grapes to a wine that's already fermented. Edipaso. Yes. There's a wine that's already fermented, then you, nearly fermented, then you add some fresh to it. No. No. No. We use only the residual fermentation of the marrone. Okay. And for the amarone, is the brand is perennial. Brandio in Sanartico. We produced two marrone from the classical area. Stantico, comes from three different valleys, negra, Marano, and part is, Fumane. The altitude of the vineyard is between one hundred and fifty meters and three hundred. So is possible to select a beautiful grape from different attitude, and we produce the sanitico every, every year, every, every vintage. The perennial is a particular vineyard located on, top of the heating Marano Village of around three, five hundred meters. So it's a very high. We don't produce premium or everything that we need a lot of sunlight during the summer period high temperature. So only when we have the weather conditions, so particular, so strong in temperature, and, in standing exposition, it's possible to pick up very ripe grape, but roller side is an amarone where we have more acidity, more taste, more aroma, more spiceroma, different kind of aroma is richer in taste than the Santaco marrone. It's a particular place. It's a single vineer marrone. So it's our top. Okay. So just to cut, I know you're, the, one of the sort of the winemaking, but what about international markets? It's how are markets changing for lugana, Varpolicello Maroni? What are the trends? The trend for us is to produce a wine, very soft instantaneous, with a soft stainless, a good roundness without to receive the sugar. It's not easy, we need a very ripe grape. So this is very important to have the vineyards, on the top of the heat, and, to take to pick the grape when we are very ripe. So we need to stay in the more time than the user in order to avoid some particular, disease or to take the leaves around the branch. So it means a lot of time, in the Venus. And a very long fermentation, especially in the big cracks made by oak, a very long eating, using, not only oak, but a part of the eating is made in the chestnut and cherry, very popular in the past especially in the Vipuricello area to this kind of woods. What's what's special about Cherry Wood in the, Eugene. Cherry, so around the Vipuricella, close to the Venus. We have a lot of chari cultivation. Yeah. And, the chestnut is not close to the vineyard. The chestnut is between the his and the intestines. So the chestnut is especially the free the aroma. Okay. Is that kind of wood where the density is less than the oak. So it gives a lot of micro oxygenation in the cherry. So we have the one ready before in the cherry, but where the fruit aroma are more interesting, more strong. The chest not emphasized, especially the spicier roma, and gives a lot of things very interesting. So it's possible to increase the body of our wines. So we, today, we use the charring and chestnut for our mentality. Perfect. Okay. So I'll say thanks to my guest today. For telling us a little bit about his, wines from Vanicella and also the white from Lugarner. Thanks very much. Yes. Thanks a lot. Thank you. 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