Ep. 535 Daniele Proietti of Abbia Nòva Winery | Monty Interviews

Italian wine podcast. Chincin with Italian wine people. Hello. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This is Monte Walden. Welcome to part one of my conversation with Daniel Prietti. From the Avia Nova winery in Latio. Welcome. Where in Latio are you? Or is the vineyard? It's a little town. So it's the south of Latio, but north of procedental province, near Rome province. And, the town is called Pidio, and is the first red, DOJG operation of our region. We obtained it in two thousand and eight We only we mainly produce wine from this ancient wine grape just called cesonese and then we other we have other ancient wine grapes that our me and other producers are trying to you know, regain and try to to check if they are good for wines of modern times. With the vineyards in your family, or did you personally buy them? All all the vineyards came from old winners came from my family properties, especially my grandfather, and brother of my grandfather and my uncle. I I can say that my uncle was while the most important person in history our family because he started, in nineteen eighty one to replant some vineyards in our family fields and then buy other vineyards in some good places, some good cruises, the tradition ones here. And he was the it was the one who restart the ancient tradition on making wine, you know, in my family. So why was he so passionate about it? I mean, was he, was it always a wine growing family or was he a businessman and he was successful and he decided he wanted to enjoy wine and, these great varieties? My patient about wine grew up when I was at university because I started studying agriculture agronomy in parliament University and then in the Terrible. About my family and my uncle, they were involved in wine in wine as everyone here in Pego. There's a lot of parasols, so the the the the it's really hard to find great properties here. So everyone, every citizen here is involved in the culture. And our passion started in a similar way as other people who are making wine now here in Istanbul. And I can I can underline that my uncle was the one who started a new refreshing passion about making wine because he had another job? And during the the weekends, he started as a kind of hobby of the weekend, but he was passionate about wines because he he had a job who, brought him every everywhere in Italy. So he started checking the renewal of Tuscany during the 80s. And he he he he tried he tried to he tried to bring in PEO this new passion, but we have also to consider that there was greed transformation of this place when something happened in the, in the early 90s because I remember in that period there were only two social wineries here in the video and probably two single two to producers. So only four wineries. In the early eight nineties arrived here, a man probably you know the man. His name is Andrea franchetti, and he checked in some of our old vineyards and the old vineyards of another winery that is located in Anaimi, which is one of the town of the Appalachian. He select the best grades of Chazaneseva Filo, which is one grade we cultivate from the ancient times, and he planted it in tenuta di trinoto. In nineteen ninety five, three actors at ten thousand plants per hectare, and he sold this beautiful wine for three vintages, nineteen ninety seven, nineteen ninety nine, and two thousand and one. It was called and it was a hundred percent of Chazanese made in Tuscany. Danny, he he he decided to cut the vineyards, but those wines are right on the market at ninety euros. And it was a period when the full winery sold wines are three years or two years per bottle. And everything changed from that period. The the then was a second revolution about the the the late nineties when, the organic movement arrived here and there was a second revolution about the way to read the wine grapes we work with. So, some, yeah, I mean, lazio, because it's, the capital city Rome is in is in your region. It is often seen as a, an area of bulk wine of huge production not much quality. You don't have to try too hard because we know we'll sell all of the wine cheaply to tourists, etcetera. Is that is that mentality changed? You know, last I I think that this mentality changed in the last seven, eight years. And I have to consider that there's still a lot of wine, which is sold as bjork wine all around the world, considered the the name of Fraskati, is similar to the European name, or the Verdicchio name, the past times all around the world. But the the the the movement I think that the movement of the moment of the earthisms and the and the organic winery changed this the way to look the wines from Latvia is what I see when I when I work with my borders all around the world, they have no problem when I I tell them the the prices of our of our wine. So everyone in Rome in Latvia in Italy and all around the world is waiting for the real artisan way from display. So step by step in the last eight years, changed this way to look at wines from lots. It's personally wrong with a lot of beautiful restaurants and wine shops, and now the look at the region as a region, not only a region of great producers, great actors and producers, but also region which is trying to rediscover an ancient tradition of the wine grapes. We consider that lazio, I'm not sure, but probably lazio owns one hundred and fifty original wine grape, and almost seventy percent of them are still not discovered in the sense that in the sense that they are still not fermented in the right way. You you can't fine bottle of those, the, of those vine grapes. But I from the from the information I have from the the other places in Latvia from Bolsana, from South Africa, from Plascati, I I see that a lot of producers are trying to recover this ancient tradition of all those wine great. I mean, are are these is this idea of resurrecting or bringing back to life these, great writers, are there groups of people like you, or is it just you and a couple of other people thinking about, trying to promote this? Is that like an organized movement? It's not official. It's not an official movement, but everyone knows each other. And a lot of a lot of us work together to promote our wines. So as a as an example, if I have an important UK and another importer call me, it's, normal that I call my friends and try to check if this employer is good for you and you is good for this employer. So it's a kind of subterranean movement with no official, institution. I mean, you you sort of partly associated with natural wine as well. Does that go hand in hand the idea of preserving tradition, preserving local grape varieties, and also making the wine and looking after the land in the best way possible? It seems to be like a whole a whole sort of movement. Right? Yeah. It's also because, as I said before, when when the the organic movement in the early and then in the late 90s arrived here. Everyone was so personal in checking what could what could be the best, the best way to make natural agriculture here. So, for example, hearing, for example, here in PEO, there are a lot of wine winery in biodynamic, a lot of winery in, fukuoka, methyl agriculture, and other winery other wineries in, in agro homeopathy agriculture. So the the thing that is beautiful about this moment is that everyone try to to to to give an to to give us personal, this personal way to apply a kind of natural agriculture is protocol to his vineyard. And this is beautiful from my point of view that the the you you you you will not find only one point of view, but a lot of people will try to talk each other and try to try to to check the differences between each other. So it's good that there's some sort of organization as well. I mean, do you have do you have any annual, obviously, probably difficult with COVID, but do you have like an annual tasting or an event that journalists and members of the public can come and maybe buy a ticket and taste some wines? Do do do that? Me, as Abianova, I I do that all the online now. About the the movement. We didn't have a lot of chance to do that in the past. So we need to organize more to promote our wine together. And this is what is what we we are we are we are talking about for the future. But is this really, is this about Latio in general or just, Pio or the area around Pio? Pio area, but also other, but also Lazio area with other producers. And intoumbria as well or are they are they a little bit separate? Yeah. Okay. So it's just, just you guys. And what other native grape varieties may be outside of your zone? If if, if I come down to lazio to visit you, and we can't try your wines, but you can only serve new wines from the rest of Latio or Latium. Which, what are your favorite varieties or wine styles that you would try and show me that you like? About my winery or in general in Latio? I think that, the, if we're talking about lazio, the, the, the ball center area is really good. So, the allay article and the interpretation of the, of the allay article in that volcanic sandic soil is really beautiful by a lot of producers. Just like La Coste or Jolulo or Andreoki. Then if you move to, if you move to the Castillo mani, so the Prascati area, now there are two or three ones are really good. The first that I have in mind is Sasopra or Katina rivera. And then you have to move, move south to video, names that I could tell you about the varieties is, in general here, with names just like Maria Barucci or Mario Machoka or LaVishola. I probably am for for getting some of them, but try to to to remember the the the first one that I had in mind. Or, the first the first one who in the the early, the the the the early nineties, try to, replace here the the this artisan tradition of the franchitti meter, which was, which is, Antonello, or then you you get south, I'm thinking about the the the south original wine grapes just like Leixinaro, Pompano, Maturano, Capolongo, and what I have in my mind is two beautiful wine or it's their name. He has DSBO and Palazzo Thromcori, for example. Checking my mind, this is what I what I can tell you as the the the best and simple of what I mean. Okay. Let's go back to, to Pilio. Tell us about the wines that you that you make. The the wine we make. It's it's really hard to describe in few words, but, we we have this family tradition of my uncle traditional cultivating videos in pesos in small purses all around the the the town. We need to ferment each person to sepet it from the other as in Burgundy tradition or in other places where the crews are a tradition. This is my first aim. So I also built my winery trying to spare every bat and every single material of the bats that I have from jar to salmon to to to steal to give to the wine of a person, the soul of the wine grape. Now I have about fifteen persons, so fifteen different crews, not only covered by vineyards. Five are covered by bean and so are my five crews. And then the other the other person are used for olive oil and other culture that I use to cultivate just to, you know, regained the energy also in the vineyard. So I used to plan used to to do a lot of articulture in the other places. I used to plant clover or broad bean in the vineyards and in the olive oil fields just to create a energy balance all around those terrestrial island I have. Let's call cover cropping if anybody hasn't understood It's, you're you're doing a survey. She just don't. I it depends. It depends. It depends. The green man here. I do green man here only in the first year when I when I plan a video. So I mean, many when you also break the soil, I used to do after the balance in the vineyard is created. I used to do only mowing So all we move in power crop by by by clover or by broad bean or by mustard, it depends. Each year depends. The climate change is So when I when I plan a vineyard, I used to do a Sebastian. So I used the green menu. But when the vineyard is balanced, I tried to live, as fukuoka said, I tried to live in a freeway, also in in a pruning way because I used to do a kind of soft pruning, try to let free all the the wild plants, the white the wild herbs and the vineyards. But you mentioned mustard, which is a good, disinfectant. What was the other the other two that you mentioned for your cover crops? The clover, the trefoil, the clover, and, and the broad bean, the broad bean, the fiber. Also for nitrogen as well. And the clover is also for beneficial insects because it flowers as well. So sorry about that. I just had to I just said to make everybody clear what we're what we're talking about. So you're I mean, you're quite an interesting guy because you're, you know, you're you make natural wine, you use organic techniques, you think in a clever biodynamic way, and you are also the collegiate, meaning that you don't want to be acting on your own. You want to have a group to mobilize other people to, to change their, maybe change their farming or improve their farming so that you can preserve both the environment and also your local grape varieties. Is that is that correct? About us, the the thing is that we, me, and my my cousin used to used to create an intersection between, the biodynamic and, Fukuoka method and also the immunopathy. Then if you mean also that that there is a the thing the things that we we we talk about before the movement, I saw that also a lot of people will only own veneers and sell grape to the social winery had changed in the last year, day way to approach to the vineyard with a natural approach. First, starting with a bile simple biological approach. We we also we also try to create, you know, about six year ago, bio district, just like the one in Tanzania, because we all have, collaboration with ruggero Masili. Which is a teacher about the nature as as we say in Italian, as he said, the not the agriculture, it means not natural agriculture, but an agriculture which tries to go to the nature, and we we created a bio district. And this is the the the the probably the reason why other people here moved to a bio approach even if they are not white maker. About our approach, we we try to research. We we we try to research for a lot of years. We read, and we we made a lot of, curses about biodynamic. We did a lot about Rudolph steiner because we wanted to go deep into his philosophy. So not only reading, that his he impulse for agriculture, his conference, his same cover with in nineteen twenty four, all his books about philosophy, about philosophy, but also we wanted to link it with the seeds that we saw in the the natural moment by Fukuoka. So the way to get the domestic plants live together with the wild plants. And this is probably this intersection that is is, it's our, actual research. And the aim is to transfer this natural research to a natural approach in fermenting wine. So the best way the buying he is living into, mythological agent is the best way also to transfer or this language into the into the wine you you you you you may. If you if you do that in a natural approach also in a cellar. Listen to the Italian one podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, HimalIFM, and more. 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