Ep. 1621 Jeanette Servidio Of Cantina Petra Pt. 1 of 2 | On The Road With Stevie Kim

Since two thousand and seventeen, the Italian wine podcast has exploded. Recently hitting six million listens support us by buying a copy of Italian wine unplugged two point o or making a small donation. In return, we'll give you the chance to nominate a guest and even win lunch with Steve Kim and Professor Atilio Shenza. Find out more at Italian One podcast 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. Hello. My name is Vivi Kim, and welcome to the Italian wine podcast. Today, we're here with Janet Salvidio, and she's half from Calabria and half from Germany. So German Calabrian or Calabrian German. I don't know. Which one would you prefer? I would prefer Calabrian German. Okay. So she's more Italian. She looks more German, however. Absolutely. So she's the general manager for this winery. Which is called Petra, and Petra is located in Suvereto Evardi Corne. Tell us where it is because I've actually been here just once in the past, and I'm not sure. I'm uncertain our audience is familiar where this is exactly. So tell us where we are. Suverita is in Vodicornea, as you said. Vodicornea is south from, Bulgaria, which is a little bit more well known, respect to, and Cumbino, which is a port where you go to Elba Island. Oh, right. Right. Right. So, the valdiconia stretching out in six different municipalities and one also municipalities is Suevereto, which is a little bit more inland, but we have a wonderful view on the sea side and the Paskan sea side with Elba Island and also Corsica Island in front of us, but a little bit closer to the hilly position where obviously also the wine growing is more suitable. So, Janet, you've been here. You've been with the winery. Petka, this is steak for about ear and half. How did you get into the wine business? And how did you end up at Petka wine Let's say somebody rang my bell at home and asked me if I'm speaking German. Mhmm. In fact, I do because I grew up in Germany. And, I saw that it was for some, translations. Instead, it was a wine agency. Called Salizione Pattoria. Very close by, my home. And so I've started. It was, like, ninety six. Mhmm. And then I had six years experience in Antinori. What did you do in entrepreneur and more of the same? Type of job? At the beginning, I was obviously an assistant because I came into the business a few time. So first, I was assistant and expert department and manager for the commercial director. After that, I worked for Arangentiara, you know, Arangentiara in Bolgari eleven years as commercial director. Okay. Then I became tired of traveling the whole word. And, I wanted to retire from this position. So I was hired from, Antonio Capaldo from Felli de San Greg Oreo, who looked for a general manager and, CEO for his project in Bolingari, Campoli Cometer, which I did for five years. Mhmm. And, afterwards, I wanted to make a little break. And somebody called me and told me, oh, they're looking for a general manager at Petra. Right. And so here I am. So, I mean, you had a very long and illustrious Korea in the wine business. And now you're here. You're leading this winery. So tell me, first of all, why did you decide to come to Petra? Like, what was so sexy about Petra after all these years of experience. For me, Pedro was, fashionable already since a long time. I came, visiting Pedro, by myself, when I was working in Agen Kiara, the beauty of the binary and the recognition. I would like to contribute finally that Peter receives that recognition what it deserves. Because for some reasons, Even if Petro wine is really, excellent, there's lacking still this, This recognition. Yes. Okay. So what are your ambitions in terms of making Petro, like forge ahead in its future? You know, being half German, I'm very convinced that we can do a great job. And, before I entered into paper, already the property, the Moretti family, did some changes. So they involved Marco Simunit who handled the vineyards. And actually, the vineyards are in very, very good shape. I'm very happy about this because with good shape of vineyards, we are able to do really different wines than before. And then also in the wine cellar, we did a change from a more traditional winemaking to a little bit more modern vinification, what means not doing any longer, very heavy wines, very oaky wines, and so fine elegant drinking wines, which can suit effectively to everything. Like your I keep on calling entry level wine, but your first wine, right, Heado? That we've tried. And we've tried with different types of food, and it was lovely. It actually went well with every single dish. Absolutely. Or in terms of the price quality. I think it's great value. So I just want to ask you a question about your relationship with the family, the Moretti family. How does that work? I suppose you have a direct relationship with Franchesca. Moretti? Absolutely. So you have a female boss, a woman who's your boss. And then I seem to have seen actually, you have a very, large, I would say female driven team. Absolutely. This is not, because of me. This for sure was, an idea of Franchesca Franchesca was personally here in the past in order to plant vineyards to build the winery then she get married and get kids and so she turned back to Franca Corta. But, for sure, she inspired the winery in, let's say, being female. And, today, we have females in every kind of departments. We have inside of our winery. We have twelve women, which are working the whole year over in the vineyards and are really perfect in pruning and in the particular, sensible practices. Then we have people not only in our wine shop, which are female, but also in the wine cellar, in the vinification team, and also in the the processing team. So we have a women everywhere, and we work very well together. We have about let's say forty percent of our of the whole team is female. Wine to wine business forum. Everything you need to get ahead in the world of wine. Supercise your business network. Share business ideas with the biggest voices in the industry. Join us in Verona on November thirteen to fourteen twenty twenty three. Tickets available now at point wine dot net. So I saw the vineyard team, the harvest team, but they're actually not seasonal workers. They're permanent all year round permanent staff. Yes. Is that correct? This is correct because this one hundred to five hectares through face of vineyards there's a lot to do. So we have additional people during harvest time, but our twenty five people in the vineyards are working the whole year over. So do you think there is a value add or do you think it makes a difference to have a substantial female led work group both in the vineyards and at the company? I think that, females have a very good organization, skills, yeah, skills. So also our men are very happy to have a director, female director in our winery, but, everybody in our, company is working very well together and learn from our female team. I think it's a very nice thing. Tell me a little bit about the winery's architecture and Maria Botta and Victoria Moretti's passion for construction. Especially when it comes to wineries. Victoria Moretti family starts with the construction business. Mhmm. So the wine business is a business which came afterwards. And when he started for the first time to be line sellers, and he was also interested in wine business and started also in Francacorta, with his wine business, Bella Vista. Right. So he's for the audience, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Murekte family. I suppose their claim to fame in terms of wine business is Bella Vista. That is the most important winery that they actually own, but they owe several other wineries. Right? One of which is Petro. Right. One of six is Pedro. Mhmm. Petra is the most important winery in the group for red wine production. So we have two wineries in French are doing bubbles. Mhmm. We have a winery in, Sanjay Muniano doing the naturally Sanjay Muniano white wine. We have a winery in Marima called La Baniella, which is doing Rosie wine. Mhmm. And Petro is specialized in red wine. So we have properties in Tostomy, and then we have, the most important winery in Sandenia, we sell them most. Right. Of course. So, you asked me about my relationship with the family. Mhmm. It was Francesca, together with Masimo Tucci, our CEO, who hired me for this position. And, within a few months, they really give me a lot of confidence. So they leave me great liberty. Yeah. They entrusted it with. Yeah. In order to leave the binary. Obviously, we are always in contact, and I can call, they can call me in any moment in order to have answers on on questions and so on, but they are very, very quiet. Mhmm. They know that here is somebody who is taking care of the property in in toscram. So you've been here for about a year in What is your vision? What are your objectives for the next, I would say, three years? What would you like to see happen? I would like to improve more and more the high end portfolio, incense, until now, we are still doing a lot of Hebrewo, which is a wonderful wine. Mhmm. But, doing a good organization and programation in the time, I would like to increase numbers of our single varietals and, obviously, of our Petro wine. Because nowadays, we start to have a leg in availability of Petro. So, my odd objective is to produce enough Petro in order that we can build up the brand more and more for me. It's very important for the few years I will, still work before I retire, that, Petra will become an icon binary like, several other wineries, here on, on the coastal part of Daskan. So, I mean, we're we're in Suveda. Right? So what are kind of the famous other wine regions that are nearby? Nearby, the most famous for sure is Bolgari, which is about, fifty to sixty kilometers person or Mhmm. Pianti classical is completely far away because, we are about one hundred and more kilometers far away. And Let's say it's not on the sea side. It's in the center part of Tuscany, it's the same as Montalcino. So where we can compare a little bit to what Sabarito and the valleicorne is is a coastal part. The coast department. So from, going down from pizza to, we have in the middle and is the province of Bolivary. It's the province of, Valicornea. It's the province of, suverieto. So very similar, let's say, conditions. So, you know, we've done some wine tasting today, but I know it's a very gross generalization. Right? But if you can make a simple way to explain to our audience, the main difference between your wine from suverto and Volgette wine? What would you say? If someone comes to you and say, Janette, I've tasted bulgari wines. What is the difference between bulgari wines, you know, and Pecha, for example? May I be honest? Yes. Of course. The Appalachian. Yeah. It's an Appalachian, but I don't think. The wines are very, very similar. You know, here, we always, tell that our vineyards in Silverito are based on bordeaux grape varieties because already, Eliza Bonaparte, the sister of Natolian, brought the French grape varieties from France into sudirito. Mhmm. So Saint grape varieties is are grown in Bulgaria. The Saint grape varieties are grown also in the Marima, and they are very suitable. Toyota is very similar. It's not equal, but very similar to the wines of Bulgaria because we're on the coast with low acidity, nice, sapid, and, mineral aftertaste, which gives great balance to the wines, and Petra is different from a lot of wines from the coastal part because we would like to underline the terroir, the soil conditions. So we don't use. We are now in our barracks seller. So I don't know if you have view on it. We don't use too much New York, you know, because we would like show fruit. We would like to show freshness. We would like to show the spices of our vineyards and, all the hints, which belongs to us, especially. And we don't want to cover this risk too much oak. And how are you doing that? What kind of, you know, with management are you doing? Because I see here you see different sizes of the barrels. Right? So tell me a little bit about that. So we use for Petra only, Barrick. Barrick is two hundred twenty five liters, and we use about thirty to thirty five percent new oak. Which means first use of the oak. So every year, about a third the the barrels gets they get replaced. Get replaced. Mhmm. And this means that a surge is in New York. So New Oak releases a lot of additional hints, but in reality, we know, that, we are doing this not in order to add teams. We do this in order to add tenants because nowadays, we are dissteaming our grapes. So we are lacking in tenants in order to have long aging lines. And so this is the reason why everybody is using Oak barrels in order to find the wine. Mhmm. So only a service in New Oak, a service in a second passage oak and maybe in some vintages also in the surge, it depends on the vintage, if how to handle it. We find the wine for about fifteen months in oak, and then we are tasting everything and blending. Pethra is a blend of cavani Suvignon, about sixty percent. Mhmm. Thirty percent is Met law, end of ten percent is cavani Prime. And, when we figure out the the best combination, which every year can a little bit different, then we blend the wine, and we keep it still for a while together before we bottle. After the bottling, we keep the wine at least for another year in the wine cellar in order that we come out with a product which is really pleasant drinking since it's released. Because nowadays, people buy today and tonight, the bottle is on the table. So right now, your chief wine makers caviola. Right? But And prior, when did he start with Petra? I think, I mean, definitely before your time, but Absolutely. Peti Caviola has been involved in the winemaking since the two thousand fourteen vintage. So he was not here during the season and growing of the grapes, but he got the wines in the wine cellar. Twenty fifteen, he all handled the whole processing. Okay. So how did and prior to that, you had a French wine maker. Is that correct? Yes. So do you know if the style of the wine has changed dramatically from the French wine maker to Cabiola? It changed really very much because the French winemaker, was very French. It was very French. It was very bordeaux. Yeah. So, I mean, with the bordeaux lace blend, I mean, you know, that's logical. Right? Yes. And the the understanding at that time was also different from what you wanted from a wine. Mhmm. We wanted very powerful wines. Big wines. Yes. Big, big, structured wines. The wines which filled you up the mouse, very, very heavily. And you said, oh, what a greater taste. A lot of new oak because obviously the French Pordeaux produces still today uses nearly a hundred percent of New York. So, the same was in Italy and the same was in Petro, but then our mind changes. And I think also the consumer mind is changing, with the time that we don't want to make any longer. This very powerful wines, but something really fine, elegant, and pleasant drinking, even if our wines are powerful because they have alcohol. They have structure, but they are not happy. So this is such a beautiful winery. How prevalent is I suppose the no tourism here? You know, already because our winery has been made by Mario Bota. Mhmm. Who's the famous, of course, the Archistar who, who designed and Yes. Built this winery. Absolutely. Only because of him. We have already a lot of requests for visits of the winery because people are courteous, would like to see, would like to know. So it's a destination, absolutely, because out the beauty and the architectural design of the winery. Absolutely. And then I have a wonderful stuff in our winery for tours and tasting, which have increased in the last couple of years, really, the amount of, people coming into the winery because, you know, the best advertising is to speak with each other. So our visitors generate new visits. Okay. So before we go, is there anything you would like to say one last word? How you would like to give our audience. Why should they come to Petrowinery and taste Probably not everyone can come to Petroanery, but to taste and try Petroan's, how would you like to encourage them? People coming to Petro is really a great, great experience. Nobody who is going away don't want to come back. So, really, we have a big feedback, Becker, which tells us that people are very, very happy. And when they go away, they really had an experience inside the winery of knowledge, of taste, and food. So it's three hundred sixty degrees experience, which, I can only suggest to everybody to make at least once a year. And then we have a beautiful seaside. So if somebody would would like to combine a visit to Pedro, also reserve occasion, I think this could be perfect combination. Okay. Great. With that, I would say it's a wrap and Chinchin with Italian Mind People and follow us. Don't forget to subscribe at the subscribe button. And if you are our audio listeners, Don't forget to follow us also wherever you get your pods. That's it? Chada got sick. Ciao. Take it out sick. You good afternoon. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcast. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, and publication costs. Until next time.