Ep. 1393 Riccardo Cottarella | On The Road With Stevie Kim

Hey, guys. Check out Italian wine unplugged two point o brought to you by Mama jumbo shrimp, a fully updated second edition, reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from across the globe. The book also includes an addition by professoria Atilushienza. Italy's leading vine geneticist. To pick up a copy today, just head to Amazon dot com or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to another episode of On The 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. Okay. Today, we are on the road. Not too far away from Verona. It's Rome. It's one stop away. Actually, there's a fast train that it used to take forever to come down. But now I think it's only about three hours on the fast train from verona directly to Rome. Here with me today, we are at the event called wine queue for partezza. We had done this in Milan, and now it's the Rome edition, Roma, and we're in, which is, as you know, the more the institutional part of town, And here with me, I have none other than one institutional person, if you will. He is fairly an iconic. I call him the but he doesn't like it. So we won't call him that today. I might call him something else today. For audience who have never met this gentleman, his name is Ricardo Cortare la. Today, we're going to chat a little bit about your life as an analogist. My last How much how much time do we have? Faminos. My first of all, I'd like to present me, like, a rainmaker. You are a winemaker. You make some wine, right, a little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Around the world. At the moment, within my team, we follow more than one hundred one hundred around the world. How many? One hundred. More than one of them. One zero zero. Yeah. One zero zero. Yes. But not just in Italy, right, all over the world. What are the other countries outside of Italy that you? Japan. Japan. Romania, Romania. Yeah. Israel. Israel? Palestine, Spain, French, United States. Where are you making wine in in America? In the north northwest in the in the Washington state. That seems like a lot of winemaking activity. Right? So you're clearly not by yourself. Right? You're you have a team Yes. You know that my secondary job is a teaching university. Where do you teach exactly? Is a province of the Latin region. I had the opportunity to to take with me the best of my students. Now I had eighteen collaborators directly with me at the same time, more than find fifty percent of the one that I follow are managed by many foreign students. Oh, okay. So you actually recruit your students Yeah. To become part of your team? Yes. Yes. Oh, that's very smart. How long have you been doing this? Seventy five years ago when you were born. When you were born? Yeah. Yes. So what was the first one you made? The first one that I made from another one, it is very organized or glassy. But by Vasili Wani, a very important one that just nineteen sixty eight, my first vintage, exported more than one medium battery in United States. In this one, it was very important to me because it is so much experience But in nineteen eighty one, I decided to stop, like, Wamek or the WANnery, became in consulting Wamek because I want to go around the world for knowing the marketing, the market, the people, the different producer, different graves, different territory, different climate. Who was your first consulting winery? My first consideration was in Morruvio Henry. Mhmm. It's the complimentary in my country. My not in my country. Your town? My town, little town, little village. Mhmm. Because, I was born there. I already produced a friend of mine, basically, we we went to the school together and very is in my heart this morning. So you started with your friend's winery as a consultant. Yes. And then quickly you became a huge, huge consultant. How how did that happen? When did it happen? So you started consulting nineteen eighty one. How long did it take you to become? Well, in the first years, maybe the first three or four years, I spent to study the territory and the producer. Basically, I start to work like a real way maker after four or five years. We're the one that's staying there around the Murabe one. So on day by day, yeah, by, during the new people, they are large by territory from West to to East. From north to south, not just in my country and the world. 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. And then when did you become the international winemaker? The first one we outside my country was in nine in nineteen eighty eight. French. Oh, okay. Hold on. And do you are are you still consulting for that wine? Alright? Yes. Oh, so you have a very long history. My problem. My very nice problem. That I get with the the one with the property, with the manager, very nice relationship. Solar related, a very nice friendship, you know, that is we between me and the other people. Listen, I want to just talk about one more thing. So, of course, you're a very important person also for Ven Italy, and you always organize this huge, huge tasting. Right? Can you tell us a little bit about give us a little bit of an anti prima as to what you'll be doing? Every here, they need to be asking me to work on a very special testing. Now the famous wine, the story k? Last year, for example, we had another big testing from father to son or to daughters, old and new generation with the pleasure of the old and the young generation. This year is maybe not the most important amount. It's very important. Basically, the ten states that create the story of the Italian wines. And they're not you're not consulting for these wineries? No. No. Just for one, but within a chat soon. Okay. It's a a challenge. I put in the middle of the beginning, beginning, and, you know, rebuild this, anti Valentini, Chirito, Sasekaya, Pieroban, one cup. One co op? One cooperative. Yeah. Coa. Because, Which coa? Laverdeans. Ah, okay. We've been Southfield. Because in Italy, we are very, we remain mistaken, consideration the copper one. My conviction that the importer of the country doesn't depend the name or the fiscal situation, coop, or private, even from the people. There are so many familiar and private company of soft light and a very important family vanity that are a very big success. The same thing in the complimentary. Even from the people, Murrubio, for example, is a very big one. It's a very important president. The, one of the most important one in the central feeder, like, so I will create, a challenge. It's great to say provocation. Yeah. Provocation. Provocation. In the middle of the lions, one, So one last question. Right? You've been working since nineteen sixty. No. Sixty eight. Nineteen sixty eight. Well, it's two questions, really. One, are you planning to retire soon? You know, like, you say working is like your vacation, but are you thinking about maybe kind of, you know, you gave the wineries to your daughters now. It's called Sorele Cortarele. Right? So are you thinking about maybe retiring? I I know it's like kind of a taboo word. Number two, What do you want your legacy to be? They're related. These two questions. What do you want the people to think when they think of Ricardo Cortarela? You're interested in business. Where, the wife's my life, anti of the life, I had wine. I can take my life without producer, colleagues, wine, vignals, it's my life. So I that I will stop when they stop my life. So you will work till the very, very end. Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Mhmm. What I dream that the people think about me when they Yes. Your legacy, what what will you leave behind? When they hear the words, two words, your name, Ricardo. What do you want them to think about? Well, a lot of things. Well, maybe the first one is that they consider but in my life, I didn't consider the volcano of the Terua life. In this place, you can produce a good wine in that place, the bad wine. In my life, I challenge continually discovering the tell you that the people don't consider, like, place to produce a good wine. In this case, my satisfaction will create a very famous wine where the people don't fast. And now this territory became very, very famous in the world. I can say Montevira. I can say, I can say San Padignano. I can say Monteano. I'll announce the beginning to work in Tuscany Piedmont. Because it was convinced that in my country was reaching many other places, especially in the south center of the south of Italy. So this one is the is my dream. The people consider that Ricardo discovered so many territories that became became very famous in the world. Yes. So so unchartered territories Yeah. To create opportunities. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's a that's a good legacy. And I think maybe you have a small chance of leaving that legacy. Okay. It's a wrap right now with Ricardo Cortarela. And so join us next time. And don't forget to follow us and click below. And that's it. Chinchin with Italian wine people. Until next time. Okay. A chin. Cheers. That's it. 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.