Ep. 1878 Christmas Throwback with Karoline Walch | 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 scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods, as well as the incredible travel destinations. Hello. Okay. Now, we are starting our Christmas holiday special. So this is going to be fun. And let me just give you kind of the lowdown while we're doing this. These are, of course, now, upon us, and there's been a great line to celebrate with friends and family. I don't know if you've noticed. Hey. Biri. Hello. How are you? I'm wonderful. How are you? Good to see you again. Okay. So let me give you kind of give share with our audience. So what happened was it all started with Manuel. I think you know most of your Manuel at the office. And we wanted to do, you know, I take this donna Delvino role a little bit very superficially, but I do I am very committed. I am honorary member of Donita Vino. And I do always try my best to put my foot forward in illustrating the various personalities, various woman in wine. And so we thought of doing a special insta live series, and The most obvious choice would have been, you know, of course, the sparklers, the sparkling wine. Right? But Manuel said, why don't we do sweet pacito wine? Because, also, nobody ever talks about that. And I said, yes. Why not? So I said Pazita wines because it represents a very special niche, of course, of Italian wine sector, and they're often consumed on only special occasions, or during foundlay, meals when they are typically combined with dessert course, I suppose, the desserts. So what we've decided to do actually was my team, and I'd like to give a shout out to Valeria. She's on the one management team, and she made a this list of seven woman producers from all over Italy who will join us for this series today, and I believe Thursday to discuss their pastito wine specifically and recommend the perfect pairing with a typical Christmas dish from their region. Sharing personal memories linked to Christmas holidays and wine. Join us today and tomorrow, and our first guest is, of course, Elena. I thought I I would be seeing Elena, but I have her daughter. And let me tell you a little bit about Elena, false, winery, and through Carolina. So Caroline, actually, we call her Carolina. But, actually, her name is Caroline, is the fifth Caroline Vault. It's the fifth generation from the Estade Elena Vark in And, I don't know if you've been. It's in as do Adije. It's quite close to us, and I've been there quite often, and already discovered her vocation for wine as a young woman. Luckily, she stays in the family because as you know, a lot of the problem is that the younger generation, the next generation they don't stay on. So after completing her bachelor's degree, she studied her VA degree in Austria in Gros, and then she continued her studies at the University of Adelaide in Australia. Where she tended the masters in wine business. So later Caroline deepens her knowledge through various internships, as well as graduating from her W Set diploma, which I am envious because she actually finished her study at the Wine Academy with that be Shiller are a very good friend in, I believe, let me see. Two thousand eighteen. She completed her studies. And then she came back to the estate in two thousand thirteen. So it's been about ten years. So she's now back have been running through the company for about ten years. She's back. Hello? Hello, Steve. Can you hear me now? Yeah. It's it's fantastic. My pleasure. Okay. So I've been going through your q and a. Yes. Thank you. Sorry about that. It's not a problem. I was just saying that you've completed your w cent degree in two thousand eighteen. I'm very jealous because I've started it, but I've never finished. I've already personally gone through two exams successfully. I thought it was wonderful. I lost the degree. I mean, first of all, I got to meet so many people from really so many places around Europe, I would say here in Austria. And, and they just did knowledge on wine of of the world. It's great. And Beverly did a wonderful job. I lost. Of course, selling with him. That'd be great. Yes. He's the most, I think, I would say modest, m w, that I have ever. Yeah. Right? I agree. Yeah. Keeping it so simple at all times. And then, of course, you've been with the company for ten years, but now you have two new family members. Yes. Right. I'm a a proud mother of two little sons, two boys. Are you how old are they now? So there's still little. So the older one is three years old, and my little one is only one year old. So Max Media and Sebastian, that's their names. Max and Sebastian. Yes. Is it Sebastian or Sebastian? Or. Good question, but here it's, you know, right? So we'd we'd like to stick to the German pronunciation. Right? How do you feel more germanic or your time? So so the names would be more German. So, Maxi Million and Sebastian. Okay. Getting back to us. What are your holidays? I was actually expecting your mom, but It's a surprise. How's Elena? Elena is great. She's doing, I guess, some Christmas shopping right now in in Murano. Yeah. Luckily, if you had some shoes on because last time I They were driving her around in her flip flops. I was using her nails, and then she just took them off while she was driving her. I was like, is this safe? She like, this is her. This is her. You know her well, I guess, Stevia. Alright. Please give her my regards. And I have your 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. What are your holiday plans? Actually, my husband, his Austrians, were driving out to his, family to stay with his family. So we'll spend Christmas over there in up for Austria. It's cold. So apparently there's lots of snow already, and the kids are very excited to play in the snow. Yeah. I suppose that's another reason why you had to give them, you know, German names. I guess so. Yes. Okay. So getting back to us what we're expecting from today? Because, you know, we have learning objectives. Right? Yes. Yes. You get a little squeaky. And it's one course, the Italian Pasito wine Yes. In general. And then we're going to meet the seven different producers. And for you, it's today. And how it's produced, of course, and get an idea of the food and wine pairing, you know, since it's Christmas, Christmas gifts. Right? Yes. Fantastic. I did a small intro while you were gone, but give us a little intro, quick skinny recap of yourself and the winery. Yeah. So, just intro on on the winery. So we're, one of the most historic estates in Altatologists. So the winery was founded in eighteen sixty nine. With my great, great great grandfather who founded the winery, Interamin, and up up until today, we're still, here located in Tremine. Everything changed. So with my mother Elena, who married into his family, then she she started changing a lot of things in the vineyards and in in winemaking in nineteen eighty eight. She approached Malette and said, Hey, I have all these ideas. I want my name on a bottle, and hence, there we go. Nineteen eighty eight is when she launched her first wine, which at the time was actually a chardonnay. And, which at the beginning, she thought would be just a side project to the major winery. Really her project really took off, and she started making more and more wines and have really her own winery. So nowadays work on ninety hectares of land in the towns of Tremina and Cadaro for the most part. How many? How many? Ninety hectares. Oh, Hector. It's significant now. It is. Yeah. And then my sister, myself, who've joined in two thousand and thirteen, and now it's in the in the in his fifth generation estate. Yeah. Excellent. So today, getting back to today. Okay. Yes. It's done today. It's going to be all about your Pasito wine. So Yes. We're going to be talking about cashmere, I was very excited when you approached Missy, kind of, to, and and ask about talking about the Kashmir Museum because it's a wine that we really, really, really love, but we make very, very, very little of it. And, we only make it in the best vintages or where we feel like it's a the right vintage to be making it because it's complicated in making. And hence, whenever we do make it, our customers are so excited when we release it because it is a very Basha wine. And they know, especially our our loyal customers, they know it's kind of this wine that we only occasionally would do. And I have here a bottle. Can you see it? So that's it. That's the elena Waikashmi of Casito. Yeah. It's a small bottle. Right? Yes. Three seventy five. Yes. And the name Kashmir is, you know, I mean, it's it's a fantasy name that we have given to this line because it should remember you of this kind of very elegant delicate, very soft and velvety kind of cashmere. Right? And this is the wine that we're aiming aiming to make here. It's obviously made off the birth streaminer. I mean, we are in the town of Tremmine, which we believe is the birthplace of this variety. So they say. They say. Right? I know. There's a lot of fighting going on between us and the elstations and so on. So right? So we have the town culture. I mean, so we feel like we have at least the right to call it our variety. Yeah. So, it's made mainly with giversar minor. A little bit of so many blankets in there too. And, it's first of all, we we start harvest a little bit later. Right? So only say in depending on the vintage, obviously, say, mid beginning or mid of October. And then that's the thing that so a lake harvest already. And hence, we can only make it in vintages where kind of the autumn is nice. Right? Well, you have this classic golden, I totally get autumn, which can be beautiful days where you have blue sky, but it's cold at night. But try Right? That's the thing. That's when we would make it. And kind of these long beautiful harvests, and then we pick them and we dry them on these how would you say them? The gatissi racks? We would try them on small racks. Yes. In an aerated group, And then they would shrink and stay there and enhance shrink about almost two third of of their size. And hence they're at the same time. Be mindful. Yeah. Depending on the vintage, a good three months, three, four months, depending on when we pick. But, yeah, so they shrink a lot. And hence get more concentrated in the acidity and their aromas, hence become very concentrated. Right? And that is the key. And only then, really, we start humidification. Right? So humidification is stainless steel tanks. It stays in stainless steel tanks. After fermentation is completed, and sits there for a long time prior that we decide at some point to to bottle it, but it sits on its lease for a long time then. And, obviously, fermentation stops. I didn't say that because the sugar level is too high, right, at some. You said you were making small production. How many bottles are you producing thing? So I'm talking about, right, half bottles. No. Yeah. It's three seventy five bottles. So, yeah, half bottle. Depending on the vintage anywhere, say, from a thousand five hundred bottles to maybe two thousand five hundred bottles. Oh my goodness. That's like nothing. Nothing. That's peanuts. Right? But it's such a special wine, and it's really such a velvety wine. And whenever we make it, we're very excited about it, but we carefully decide who to give it. And sometimes we might not even release much and just keep it in our cellar and maybe in twenty years from now, kind of taste a little bit of it. Right. Right. I was lucky to get a case of that when I came last time then. Did you really Did you really? There you go. Alright. So then what about, of course, how are we going to pair this one? Yes. You know, in our family, we have this tradition for, especially for the Christmas Eve, meal. And you have to know the The major meal for Christmas is the twenty fourth, the eve of the twenty fourth. That's our major family meal. The major family gathering. That's when kids would kind of open their present. That's the twenty fourth at night. Oh, no. Not on the Christmas day falling off. And I apologize. That's more of an Austrian tradition. It's it's always the twenty fourth at night. Right. Yes. That's when you light up the Christmas tree and they have the presents and be good dinner. And and, so for us, we would always And we knew it was such a precious wine. But on Christmas Eve, we would open a bottle for our family for the dessert. And, there was this, it's this dessert that my mom really loves making, and she makes it amazingly. And it's this You know, the Christmas, if dinner can sometimes be very heavy and eat a lot of weed, we eat a lot of venison here in this area, kind of more kind of heavier grease air food. So we would have this dessert, which is very light, and it's very easy to make, but it's a delight. And it goes beautiful with this wine, which is kind of marinated oranges. Right? So you cut the oranges. If you peel them, you cut them in half, and then you melt some marmalade, so orange marmalade in a pot. And you orange on orange. Orange and orange, you pour it over, and then you caramelize some orange peels and put that on top of the very end. You put it in the fridge or here, we just put him outside of the window to kind of let it cool down. Right? We don't have enough space in our fridge. And then you you make it in the morning, you leave it outside, And once it's ready for dinner, then we would add just a spoon of vanilla ice cream. And this goes beautifully with this kashmir, for example. So this would be our traditional pairing in our family. Right? Yes. So what is this dish called? Has it got a name? No. We would call it marinated oranges, and we love it because it's structured like I guess one question I have is, have you got any special I don't know, nostalgic moment of Christmas in general. The nostalgic moment would always be the moment when in the evening, we're waiting in the kitchen and in the whole of the house. And we would wait until we would hear the bell The angels bell, as we would call it, you hear this little bell. And when you hear this bell, you know, that we can open the door to go in this nice living room where we have the Christmas tree lit up. So this is kind of, you know, it's always you're waiting there to kinda finally hear this this small bell. And this is when finally Christmas Eve has arrived. So that's that's my nostalgic moment, I would say. Alright. Well, that's it. I think and how will people find you if they want to look for you? I guess you're on social media? Exactly. We are on social media. We're in on Instagram on Ella Valk or on Facebook, on the website, eli lavox dot com. And, yeah, or just in Charmine, come and visit us at the winery. We have beautiful, facilities to host people, to to show them around the cellar, the vineyards in summertime, and we have a beautiful in a tourism program here at the States. Are you open also during the holidays open up? We are. We're open basically every day, but the first of January. Okay. So we're open every day. Yes. Okay. Just come and visit. Yes. You might you never know. As you know, I only come visit during the holidays because it's my favorite time. So you never know. I would love to see you, Jimmy. Okay. Alrighty. Thank you for joining us today. That was Callony Vault. For elena Vog winery, and please give my regards to your family, especially to your mom. Thank you so much, Steve. It was great talking to you. 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.