Ep. 1837 Livin' The Dolce Vita with Jeff Porter Part 3 | 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 Stev 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 Stevie Kim, and we are back with live in the Dolcevita. We usually have a slot at half past one today. I'm joining you from Rust. It's in Austria. We're running a bit late today because it took us some time. There was a little bit of traffic. So hello, everybody. I'll come back. Hey, Jeff. How are you? Hey. I'm well. How are you? Listen, I have to I'll show you where I am. Hold on. Let me see if I can turn this around here. Maybe I can show you this one. Can you see? Wow. Where are you? Can you believe this? It's super windy today, but I just wanted to show you. I'm in Roost. It's in Austria. Roose in Austria. Who's right. Yeah. Who's right. Yeah. Exactly. We're doing a little Vititelie tour today in a few hours. So That's cool. Me to my tea. Oh, you've been drinking. I've been tasting. Yeah. Tasting. What have you been tasting? The new vintage is is a barolo. Oh, how how's that going? Where are you tasting? Are you tasting at the consortium? I'm I'm from Dallas. I'm currently in the consortium's office here in Alba. How many of the espresso? Thank god. Oh, okay. So how many wines have you tasted? I've been tasting for three days now, and I'm almost at three hundred. Oh, wow. And how many have you got left? A little over two hundred more. Oh, we did. Are you doing like a Betolo report? What are you doing? Yeah. I'll do a Barolo and barbaresco report. Next week, I'm gonna taste all the barbaresco. There's there's about a hundred and eighty or two hundred of those to taste. Right. And then I'll write a rap report about twenty twenty, Barolo, and twenty twenty one Barbarresco. I had been really pretty. They're ripe and juicy. They're it's a very approachable message. And so tasting them is not as hard, but It makes my mouth and teeth, especially with a white beard. It really pronounces the purple lips. You're looking good, Jeff. Thanks. Thanks. Our connectivity is a little spotty. I mean, I understand because you're in Pemonte. So Let me try to go down to their office. Okay. Root. It's not an internet strikes again. It's the wifi here is sucked. Yeah. I mean, you're very, very grainy. But so I'll I'll tell you what I've been up to Monday. I went to see the pope. Yeah. It was absolutely crazy. I mean How was that? You know, it was very, very interesting thing because, it was, like, forty producers, and then there was a big delegation from, of course, Verona Fierre. Excuse excuse me, Steve. April c by an Uf Ofocino and user. Clinte, manu, Deep, better and say hi. This is Tom. We fee. I can tell you Italian is improving. We fee. That's that's hilarious. See, you know, e e or r, we fee con, connectivity on What's the word for borrow? Oh, no. Okay. Okay. So I get to use the director's office. Maybe you can mess around a little bit. Okay. We're gonna tell everybody in the entire world now. We're going to we're going to give the, you know, weekly password to everybody now. Right. And here, when you come to Allba, this is the place, but now now I am I am I coming through better? Actually, you seem to be. Let's see. Okay. Good. Okay. But if it's kind of a big deal, I guess. Right? And it is a big deal. It's not something I had imagined doing, but it's incredibly difficult. Right? So it's complex and complicated. Also, because this poor man, this poor pope, I don't know if you can call the pontiff the man, but, anyway, so the whole point is he has a very, very tight schedule. Now I was a little disappointed because he was clearly fatigued. Right? And he, like, has a routine of the audience, like, one before us, one after us, and, like, it's continuous. Wow. So from what I understand, he he had been unwell. I was actually expecting to seem in a wheelchair or even not showing up at all. Right? But he can't be walked, but, you know, clearly fatigued. He gave a speech, which was really nice. For five minutes, which I surreptitiously, of course, recorded because you're not supposed to do that. But, you know, I wanted to share with everybody because he was talking about wine. And then 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. Then everyone does the procession, like, no, like, kissing the hand or kneeling, just handshake. And I realized from the photo I got back that I actually grabbed him with both of my hands. I was, like, one of the very few people. I don't know what came over me. I did that. I tried to ask him a question, but he didn't understand. And then I just moved on because I didn't want to monopolize. Then he has his routine, right, so that he walks to the audience to his chair to do the photo op with the group. He doesn't have a team like a a pope, a rabbi, and an imam walking to a bar and not that kind of routine. Yeah. I mean, he's incredibly generous. And when you go to actually shake his hand, His eyes are incredibly penetrating, you know. So I found that was you're kind of you're very you get enthralled. Yeah. You're in awe. You know? So it's very fleeting, brief, but it stays with you. So incredible day. And then there were conferences and dinner and all of that stuff, but definitely the highlight was actually getting to meet the pope. So And so before you go in, what do they tell you? Be like, You have to walk this. You can't turn your back on him. Like, how long? No. So first of all, I mean, I'm terrible because I didn't even know there was a dress code. Right? And everyone is like, what do you mean you don't I mean, luckily, I have a lot of black. But, like, when I saw the pictures of the other audiences, it seemed like a funeral. Everyone is in black, and I didn't know that. So now they said that you didn't have to wear a veil because all the women had to wear a veil. Right. You know, like, all of these, like, trust codes, I hadn't a clue. Luckily, like, my entire wardrobe is black. Right? So that wasn't a problem. But luckily, our group, it was kind of a private one, it's a private audience. So they had been all the protocols and we had a separate, like, VIP line to just, you know, go straight into the audience. But there was a whole yeah. So there was a whole, you know, organization behind that. And we had about forty producers of course, not everybody. They're four thousand exhibitors, but forty got chosen to be invited. And then, of course, delegation. So Federico had joined last week. Federico Bricola is the president. It was actually his idea. When he first told me, I was like, what is he thinking? Like, you know, going to see the pope, like, you know, but actually it was very nice and I I was happy that he came up with the idea. So it was nice. You know, something I had never dreamt of doing, and, you know, it was an honor. But you're the only person I know that's my fault. So that's pretty cool. So Yes. And then and then you try you you can't take pictures. You can't have your own photographer. There's only the official photographer from the Vatican. And then you can request the photos, but everything is incredibly slow. You request it. It first of all, it doesn't get published until, like, the day after or whatever. You order it But then they have to send your confirmation of your order. And then they say, we will let you know in the next few days how you can pay the procedure of paying. So I in the beginning, I was like, you know, we're so used to getting everything immediately. I thought this is kind of frustrating. But in the end, when we finally got it, it was much more satisfying. I don't know if that makes sense to you. Yeah. No. Totally. How much is the a picture of the pope cut? Yeah. It costs eight eight euros. So you can He could he could charge a lot more. Yeah. It doesn't sound like an Italian process at all. That's a Vatican project. Yeah. Yes. You can tell he's still a very old process, but eight euros per picture, you know, so you can pick as many as you want, but There is a complete procedure, which is unusually slow. But in the end, I guess you can appreciate it more. You know? That's amazing. Well, congratulations. Yeah. So, Jeff, tell me about your week other than you've just mostly been tasting practically. Right? All I do is I've so starting Monday, I didn't taste. I did school and then prepared all my stuff and everything, and I I read about the vintages, and I looked at just any information I could find about, you know, twenty twenty and twenty twenty one in Barbara. And then what I do is I go to school in the morning, and then I drive to Alba, which is from Tarino. It's like an hour and fifteen minutes. Oh, so you do this from you, like, kinda commute every every day. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then so I taste for about four and a half to five hours. Just straight? Or you have a pause? I take, like, a twenty minute break Right. At a certain point. Like, once my palate starts kinda fatigued. Yeah. Well, that that's yeah. I mean, I can and you're chasing by yourself or you're tasting with others? I taste by myself. Okay. So I'm in a room with two people that are organizing the tasting. All blind. Yeah. So they have just these flights that are, like, in bags, and they just I taste. And they tell me, like, we don't do double blind for wine enthusiasts. We do single blinds. So I just don't know the producer. I know, like, we first tasted Virillo Classic. And then we tasted commune. And today, we started with the MGAs. Oh, okay. Okay. Today, I did, I tasted, like, Vigna Rhyanda and Lazareta from Sarah Lunga, which the wines were all really, really beautiful. Right. But, yeah, it's it's interesting the, you know, the mentality for tasting because you you wanna be really earnest and honest and make sure you get all the information you can get out of each wine. But again, like, they're all the same great. They're from the same place. So the differences are really narrow, and it's just really trying to hone in on what those differences are because nebula should taste within a certain range of each other so that the descriptors are all they're not that far apart. But the biggest thing that I've noticed in this vintage is the structural differences between lines depending on when people picked, the wines, you know, can go from it's it's kind of an interesting divide of of wines being really light and fresh with really good acidity. If they held on a little bit later, the wines are just richer and and more mouth filling, the tannins, the acidity is a lot lower. So it's it's a good vintage to drink pretty early on, but has this very kind of vibrant personality to it. So it's it's been it's been fun to really I'm only a little over halfway done for the barolo tasting. So it's been pretty interesting. How many vintage reports have you done for Barrolin by Barrasco? I mean, published. Yeah. I've only done one because last year was my first year with wine enthusiasts. So this will be my second one. But I've been lucky enough to come to, like, these vintage tastings that they can sort you. Oh, Wayne, great. Can you come taste with me? Sure. Come on, Wayne. I'd love to actually have someone else with me. It's pretty lovely. Yeah. The taste in this, like, room big room by yourself. But I put some music on and just go for it. But I've been writing vintage reports for myself and for, like, my restaurant staffs for, like, ten, fifteen years. Right. When will this report come out, like, be published? Do you know? The vintage Port should come out in February. And then the scores will probably come out in April, right around minute. Okay. Oh, so that's great. Yeah. That's fantastic. You've already taste quite a number of wines. Are there then the structure note that you had given just now. Is there anything that comes to mind just in a very sweeping generalization in terms of the vintage? Overall, twenty twenty is, you know, coming off in twenty nineteen, which was a much more structured firm kind of put in your cellar vintage. This is, this will be more approachable. It's a little more vibrant. The fruit is a little, like, more present on the nose in the palette. The acidity is just a tad lower overall. The structure of the wines is really good. And and it it's interesting. The generalization comes from tasting, like, the Kumune wines and the the, the classic blends. But, like, today, tasting Vigna Rhyanda, the Vigna Rianda lines really showed Vigna Rianda. I feel like Vigna Rianda is a vineyard, you know, just sits forward. It has broad shoulders. It's it's this interplay between really rich wines and great structure, and it was all there. And it but it was all giving right now. Like, I would like sit there and love to drink these wines, but they're gonna age really, really well. Someone just asked, what are you listening to? Yeah. That's tasting. Tritches. So yesterday. Anything that gets you in the groove So, yes. Yes. I I was looking the first day. I was listening to John Poltrane and Duke Ellington had an app together. Oh, very. Yeah. And that was really it was it was nice, but it Mittllo. Yeah. It was super mellow, but yesterday, there's this techno marching band that I like on TikTok called mutate, m e u t e. And so I listened to their albums yesterday, and so it's got this, like, nice droning beat to it. That's pretty up tempo. Right. That's, like, super fast, but, like, it's good, like, boom, boom, boom. It gives you, like, a little bit of rhythm. Right? It's got rhythm and verve to it. So I I really found that kind of that mid tempo, something that kinda lifts you up while you taste is really really fun. And not making you fall asleep, I suppose. And I can't I can't do tasting and listen to music that has words. So it has to be Oh, okay. To be in that that kind of, you know, non vocal genre. Right. Right. Right. So do you have to, like, prepare the ones you're set? Like, do you open the bottles? Do you open it for you? So we have a person from Wine and Busy is coming in someone from the consortium and that they tagged me. And it's good for them that I don't come until the afternoon. Because they organize all the flights. I get in. In the morning. Everything's in the bags. Everything's been open. They've tasted through all the lines to make sure there's nothing corked or anything flawed. And then they flight them kind of in groups. So, like, That's why I get to try all the Vigherion together, all the lease day together, all all the MGAs, and then I just start tasting. Sometimes I I have a really good rhythm, and then sometimes I have to kinda take a break and, like, think about it, and then restart the tasting. It's an interesting process to kind of refine. I think, someone from the back office asked, how do you prepare for your winery visit when you I guess when you do? When so, like, I haven't done any winery visits yet this year, but I'm going to in February but what I usually do And where where are you going? Can you let it, like, what area? I'm gonna be inumbria at the end of Okay. I haven't got the full itinerary yet, but, I'm I have a phone call about it tomorrow. What I'll do is once I decide where I'm gonna go, I if I don't, like, have a a good working knowledge already of the winery, like, I haven't been before, I'll do some research about the producer, the history, the vineyards, farming practices, all that stuff, and kind of just have a list of questions. Kind of like just going to introduce one. Just to make sure what I've read is on the up and up. And then, you know, just kind of, you know, listen and hear what they're saying and and have an idea of what their whole MO is about their idea for wine and their idea for farming and and just see how that jibes with all the other stuff I've been around in my life. So there's DV waiter. He says, Chow Jeff, can you tell me a barolo barbaresco that you have tasted recently that surprised you. That surprised me. That's a really good question. I can't talk about what I tasted today. That's cool. But surprised me. I went there in the summertime and I tasted a lot of wines in the fall, and then I tasted for review, some other wines in the wintertime. And the evolution of what's happening at, like, Fontana Frreida and Borko View, I think is really, really amazing. I think what Andrea, Fairnetti, and his father, and his brothers, and all the people that work on the team have done over the past decade to get where they are today. You know, I think for a while, there was, like, an emotive idea of a of a monolith that's kind of not what it is. And I think when I'd gone and tasted the wines and just seen the progress and talked with Andrea and seeing how how really beautiful and, like, soulful the winemaking is, it really transpired into something special. Right. So that's on the Barolo side. So people ask me, like, what is the difference between Fontana Fredo wines in terms of, like, Barolo? Let's just take Barolo, right, and bourgogneo stylistically. What would you say? Obviously, there's a And that's a deep to your question. There's a terroir perspective. Right? So Fontana Freda is based in Sarah Longa, and they have a monopole with a Fontana Freda vineyard, the the MGA. Obviously, and and I wanna just talk about the kind of their their higher end wines, not like the they make a fontana Freda kind of introductory barolo that's a calling card that I'm always really impressed when a producer of that size. And this is for for Bordeaux. This is for Burgundy. This is for anywhere in the world. Champagne, especially, where they make a wine in a quantity that that makes it available kind of globally, and the wine is really darn good. That is that I think is the hardest thing to do in the world. If you have two hectares and you make shitty wine, you just gotta work a little harder. But if you have a over a hundred hectares and you're busting your ass, and everybody is on the same boat rowing in the same direction and you make year in and year out really good wine. I think that's super impressive. I feel that way about champagne. Like the big, big huge champagne houses. You know, they're criticized often, but to come out with that large number of quantity of these couvees. I mean, it's pretty impressive. It's incredibly methodical and scientific. So I feel the same way too. You know, I think the the differences irrespective of the terroir is just, you know, bourgogneo, I just recently tried their Canoebe fifteen just a few nights ago. And, you know, canoebe is such an interesting vineyard and it's in a tough spot right now because it's it's a warmer spot. It's always been a grand crew, but it's a tough place to grow grapes now. But there's an elegance. There's a pretty bourgogne has this really lifted vibe to it. Right? This is like just really kind of it's it's envelopine. It's almost like When you swirl the glass, it comes out with these velvet gloves and kind of captures you in that moment. And then depending on the cuvee or the the vigna that you get from Pawn Pawna Freda, can have the the sarahlunga punch the brontiness, but then, you know, you try larosa, which is, like, a little deep within the Fontana freda vineyard. It smells like roses. It's unbelievable. So it's it's hard to generalize. It's I think you have to, like, go very wide by wide. Yep. Oh, one by one. Yeah. The winemaking, what they're doing is just they've, you know, if we're going on out, they're all certified organic. It's all native yeast fermentation. It's all cement fermentation. It's all been boating. The wines are just really, really beautiful. And and I had kind of forgotten about them and not kept up until, you know, the past two years and and then getting to go there and and visit and talk and then taste the wines repeatedly. Over time, I saw Jenny Wizio on here. And Jenny and I were there filming SIP trip in two thousand eighteen. And I remember we were tasting the wines out of barrel. We both looked at each other. I thought these wines are these wines are gone a lot better. And so I think they're just on the, a trajectory that just and price quality value ratio is is high for the win rate. Okay. We're going to just answer the last question, and then we're gonna have to close and wrap this up. Yeah. I got it. The question comes from Hi, Stevie. And Jeff, can you share your opinion about Aetna Wine? And what do you think about soon? They gonna be DOCG appalachian? I don't know if they're gonna be a DOCG soon. You may know more about that to meet. Yeah. This is actually a question for Professor Ashenza, because as you know, he's the president of Comitato Delvino, and that's where they make the decisions. I I reckon it'll be fairly soon because they are really pushing that. You know? My my I I think we're both on the line, our opinion, Nevada. The wines are great. Yeah. Every Who doesn't love it now? I mean, that's what I like to know. Right? I think people who haven't tasted wine a long time for, I don't know. Yeah. But, I mean, I think Aetna wines are still very great wines, potentially also long aging, especially the whites. I don't know if you've tasted the whites, like, from a lighter vintages, and still very good quality in terms of value. Absolutely. I mean, I've been lucky enough to do a lot of great wine dinners, and we did a a wine dinner a long time ago at Del Posto, but they're like one of the o g Aetna producers. It starts with a b. Benante? Thank you. Okay. We did whites back to the nineties. Yeah. They are one of the historic wineries from it now. And those wines are absolutely stunning and, you know, helped us change the minds of a lot of guests at our restaurants about the region that I think today you know, globally, they're they're a super super wine region that for white red rose sparkling even. There's some really beautiful wines here. Yeah. So so fun fact. I don't know if you know, but Venantes is partially owned by, I think, forty percent by Rintoroso. He was the jeans dude. Oh, I didn't know that. He's actually a big fashion as he owns money. He owns everything. He owns a lot of the fashion houses, you know, and he's buying up some wineries now because he wants to, I I suppose like, kinda has his own Right. Of different wine estate. So that's what he's been doing. Yeah. So that's fun fact. Listen, I think it's great. Having some questions from the audience as well and through our weekly chat. Thank you for all joining us today. And that is it because I have to go and start preparing for any day. Vineetly roost, Austria, where I get to see some of my friends from Austria. And, of course, Pepeashola. I don't know if you've met him. Just the nicest you know, MW ever in history, I think, so generous. And he runs the school here, White Academy, also a flagship lesson center for the MW program. That's amazing. So next week, I'll actually be in South Africa, but kinda same time. So yes. So I'll see where I am, and then we'll chat. I mean, it's it's not important you get everybody on Insta live because we are recording this, and we are also replaying, of course, on Italian wine podcast wherever you get pods. So everyone can have access even afterwards. Okay. Thank you for joining us on another installment of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stev 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.