Ep. 1783 Christmas Instalive Passito Wines With José Rallo| On The Road With Stevie Kim

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, my Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at italian wine podcast dot com, or wherever you get your pots. 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 scenes most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods, as well as the incredible travel destinations. My name's CV Kim, and welcome back. You know, I've had a little bit of wine as well during lunch. It's the Christmas holiday. It's absolutely crazy. Every single day, lunch. And dinner, there's some kind of festivities going on. Of course, it's wonderful. It's end of the year. Today's the very next to last day for the holidays, and then we'll be close for a couple of weeks. But we're talking about Pasecito wine, Christmas holiday wine. And it's going to be a special series because we've invited seven women, Italian wine woman who make Pasita, not Bolicina Pasita. So I think in the end, it will be very nice because it's I don't think anyone's done it before. Right? Seven women wine producers from all over Italy who will join us for this Pasito series. To discuss their pacita wines and recommend the perfect pairing with a typical Christmas dish from their wine region. Sharing their personal, I don't know, nostalgic moments, like Christmas holidays or the new year's, and of course they're wine. So hang on and we'll try to get Jose on. Let me see if we can do this. Oh, finally. Abemos Jose. Hello, Jose. How are you? So there were some problems. Can you hear me okay? I'm fine. Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah. I can hear you fine. Jose. Let me move back. So we are the same head size. So I'm not a gigantic. So, Jose, of course, you're a woman of many things, but you are the big boss, the big cheese. I love it because you're the big boss of Donah Fugatta. Usually, there are many women working in the winery, and you know my pet peeve is that the big c position, the c suites, you know, the CEO, the COO, etcetera, are never woman. In this case, you are the big cheese. Exactly. CEO. So tradition of those gap. It's a tradition. Yes. I am leading, leading women. Yes. And you, and of course, your mom, And I'm very excited about that. You're also the board of directors member for Eche, who is an unwavering supporter of everything that we do in terms of Italian wine promotion. So I'm very excited about that. But today, it's going to be all about Yeah. And of course, you know, my team, I had nothing to do with it. So they've asked that they compiled the list and I said very happily, and of course they could not do without your passita, passita. Everybody's famous passita. So what are we going to talk about? Obviously, we're going to be talking about. Exactly. Exactly. Quite a unique wine. Can we say that? Yes. So tell us a little bit about. Yes. Maria, the name comes from the Arab language and it means, son of the wind. Because this wine comes from a volcanic island, which is called Pampeleria, and that is in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and North Africa. So a very, very far site, you know, to, calculate the grapes. The windy weather and also the steep slopes brought the father to build the small terraces that are surrounded by another stone of handmade walls. And, on this small terraces, we cultivated only one type of grape, and the name is Zabigo. And this Zabigo is like a muscat grape. It's very aromatic. Can be very sweet, and it's a perfect grape to produce potato wine. In the rest of the world, it's also called the Muscat of Alexandria. It's the same. Correct? This is the best scientific name. Is Moscow de la Sanga. We can find out on the world. We can find also around with the Ryan Sea, other sites where this grade is, cultivated. But I want to say that, the passeto made on the island of Pantaleria is very special, very unique, very different, very difficult to call me. Listen, so tell us a little bit about Pantaleria. Oh, Pantaleria. It's volcanic island. Of course, it's surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. It has very steep slopes. The mountain goes up seven hundred meters even more. And so the terraces to cultivate vines capers, and always make a wonderful landscape, really a unique landscape. So the farmers are really the people who are preserving the landscape from any risk, the wind, the rain, It's very, very important to preserve the landscape, agriculture. The impact that a good agriculture can make on the Missouri of the landscape. Producing this passita wire means, making a good impact on the ambient and making also high quality. Yeah. And also, it it is what we call the heroic Viticulture. Right? Because it's not so easy to plant vineyards and also maintain and have them grow. And, of course, the harvesting the whole vineyard management is kind of actually a nightmare. Exactly. It's very, very hard, very tough job. The vine is cultivated under the level of the soil. So we make a whole and then we put the vine just to protect the clusters and, the plant from the wind. So for the men who are working in the vineers, it's very, very, hard to reach the vine and to reach the clusters during harvesting. And then we had another difficult point of the process, which is the drying process because we dry some of these big waves in the sun, in the wind, We have to select the clusters. We have to choose the sanity of the cluster during the drawing process. And this, it takes, about three weeks. After that we have collected all these, raisins, we put the raisins, the berries that we have this stemmed by hand into the fresh masts. And so there, you have finally the fermentation with the maceration of the dried berries. Something very long, very difficult. It takes one month to produce wine, and we must pay attention very much. So what is the current vintage available in the market now? We are drinking now two thousand and seventeen. This is a wine with a good longevity. Usually, we keep it in our sellers for three years at least. And then you can keep it in the bottle for ten, twenty years. We have been trying a vertical testing of twenty different vintages, even thirty different vintages. Oh, really? That's why it's being credible. Yes. And they they can, hold thirty years. So you do a verbal tasting going back to thirty years. Exactly. It changes a lot because it's a sweet wine and the sugars are going are going to oxidize a little bit, but the it makes some changes like at the beginning you feel the fresh tropical fruit or the fresh peaches and, something like this, the little by little, on the nose with the age you find some herbs like rosemarin, like sage, dried figs, dried roses. So the wine is changed a little bit, but this is the beautiful of wine that year after year, you have different emotions. But is that what you're drinking now? The Exactly. I wanted you to have a look of the beautiful color. It's the color of the sun in Sissippi. And that's a seventeen. There is a seventeen. Yes. Brilliant amber color, and then little by little, it will become less brilliant and a little bit darker. Yeah. Of course, you're obsessed with colors, you know. You're always bright, like your personality, your your personality and also your wardrobe. I want to just go back one nano second, Jose, about talking about this special bush wine that you have in Pantaleria. It's called Pantesco. This is a very incredible story because this type of vine trading 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. Has become a UNESCO heritage because it is considered creative training system and sustainable training system. So stable because the vine in such a hole can be cultivated without water. So no irrigation. So sustainable. Create it because the vine is not growing up, but it's going parallel to the soil. So the branches are very near the soil. It's incredible. The vine can be very, very huge, but never goes out. Yeah. I think, you know, for people to understand they actually have to go to Pantaleria and see this. I remember I was absolutely floored when I saw that, and it's amazing. So we're going to get to the part kind of our favorite part because this is Christmas after all, and we want to know how would you pair your, what kind of food would you pair with? Of course, you can pair with everything. First of all, as you said, the, wine is very versatile. You can try it with, foie gras, you can try with maybe a duck, cook it with a orange peel. It's Sicily. We have a special cake, which is called the Casata. And Casata is a ricotta made cake. Seasoned with a small chocolate drops and candy fruits on the top. So this is one of the best pairing with very end. But in Italy, at Christmas time, we used to eat. Panatone and also very good artisanal Panatone are a very, very good pairing for very. So is Panatone also popular in Sicily for Christmas? Yes. Okay. And what is very fun that, since five, ten years, we started to produce Palatolia in Sicily. We tried to make it different. We use, a cream of pistachios, almonds, So if we try to, to make it different, to make it a little bit sicilian. Yeah. It's a little bit with a sicilian flavor. But the Casa siciliana, is that the same recipe as, I don't know, the one they're doing in Campania? Inaples? No. No. Okay. Traditional ingredient of many, many sicilian, sweets like canola. Canola are based on the recogtha. So it's a really a typical flavor for us. And what do you do for the holidays? Like, what is your typical holiday planning? What do you do with your work? Yes. You really work it all? Yes. This year, I'm flying to Kateleria. Really? I gathered a group of friends Yeah. Up to around fifteen, and we will do trekking on Pantelleria Island. We're going to discover a canyon. Fantastic. And we are also going to discover some natural sauna. Oh, really? Yes. So this is my my next content. Okay. Sounds great to me because my siblings are coming. I was thinking about going to palermo because everyone is talking about how fantastic. So I have to think about that because they already they're coming from New York. So maybe who knows? Who knows what will happen? I can say yes. But, therefore, it's a very, very gorgeous, opportunity to be successful. Yes. A great town. So listen, we're going to wrap it up, but I have a special request because before you, I was with Katarina Day, and she did a little small song to close-up for the Christmas. So would you like, of course, you're a singer too and you're very close to the music. So would you like to dedicate to our audience one small sample of a Christmas song? Yes. I do it very well with pleasure. And I will dedicate it to the audience and to my Benriella Paterileria. It's a special song made by Pino Daniele. Okay. Excellent. Okay. Three, two, one. Alright. Thank you so much. I love this courageous woman, you know, no instrument. I love it. My heroes, my heroes, Thank you so much for joining us today and and and enjoy your natural sauna and all of that stuff in that wonderful place that which is called which is also where the verrier comes from. So Sanna look to Antonio. Everybody. And you're a daughter. Happy holidays. Tada got some. No. It's no, Steve. Thank you. Happy holiday. Bye. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Himalaya FM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. It you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italianwine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time, chi qi.