Ep. 2064 Nino Falcone, Montalbera | On The Road With Stevie Kim

Who wants to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Join an exclusive network of four hundred Italian wine ambassadors across forty eight countries. Vineetly International Academy is coming to Chicago on October nineteenth is twenty first. And while Matikazakhstan from November sixteenth to eighteenth. Don't miss out. Register now at Vineetri 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. Welcome back. My name is Stevie Kim on our journey, our discovery journey to Balvera Dasty and Monterato wines. This is day number three, and we are here at Monte Albera. Is that correct? Montalbera? Correct. So Montalbera is actually on a top of a hill. It's the name of the hill. But also the name of the winery. And today with us, we have Nino Falcone. Tusta. Just He's the young winemaker who's been working here for six years. We'll give you us a little bit of an overview. Of the winery, and we'll be tasting their signature wines, mostly. Okay. So, Nino, can you give us a brief overview of Monte Albera winery? Thank you, Stevie. Well, the project of Montalbara, started the, in the beginning of twenty century. And now we produce, forty four, twenty four, sorry, labels of different kinds of wines. We have one hundred ten actors in a single plot. Which is surrounding this hill. Right? Yeah. Mhmm. The focus of our salad is, autochtinous, grapes like, ruke, the principal, and Barbara Adasti, and Grenolino. When I think of Monte, but it's mostly Rokey. Right? That's your signature line. Yeah. The most of Vena Yarta are dedicated to to Rokey. And, we are the first that we work and studied the grapes. Okay. So, you know, it took us a little bit of time to get here. So, can you tell us exactly where Monte albera is located? Monte albera is located in three multiples, castaneda Mufferato, Montemano, and Grana Mufferato are the the center of, production of, Roke. The best area, the best son to grow this octopus. Today, we will be tasting three wines. What kind what are we tasting? Tell us about the three different wines. We started to taste the our famous bouquet. Rocche de Castagnole Mufferato Lacento. It's, the principle that, we produce one hundred thousand bottles. It's the first, Rocche, that, we use in blend twenty percent of late harvest, aging only in steel and bottle for twelve months. A hundred percent Roke. It's a hundred percent of Roke. Mhmm. That we do a blend of eighty percent from, Optum, harvest and twenty percent of, late harvest in, in a plants that we do, traditional, humidification and period of twelve months of aging instill and bottled. How do you qualify late harvest in your case? We pick up the grade three weeks, two, one month later. Later? Okay. So that's Ruke. And then we have In the middle, we have, our reserve of Ruke. And what is the difference? The difference is, that, our reserve come from a single vineyards, a sort of crew. That, we do a very hard work in vineyards to have optimized quality and, several quality to then do the aging in Oak. From law, we we have to do minimum twelve month of aging in Oak Mhmm. And two years from August. Okay. So it so the release date is later. Is that correct? Yeah. Are these the current vintages? We have the two thousand twenty two of the Rukei and then the two thousand twenty one. Oh, that's what I thought. Yeah. The name is, Fonda Torres, the the owner of our seller. Okay. And then we we taste our representative, Barbera Dusti Superior. It's the name of, the best selection. Equilibio, the name is from, balance, of, the best selection of, harvest, and then, a balance of a different kind of dimensional like, barique, tonneau, and big barrels. We do a blend of different kind of, oak, and then, we bottle it. So tell me a little bit about, Monte, about with regards to the history. Is this still a family business? When did it install? Business, but, it's the the the project, the business of Vineer Yats, came from, six generations ago. Mhmm. Now we have the the the actually owner is, the sixth generation and, the project, in castañole Mufferato, start started from nineteen eighty two and, centrally in, on the UK. Okay. We haven't really touched, on grignolino as of yet. Are you also producing grignolino? We produce, a very good, I think, grignolino from this hour. Greenolino does because, near, there are the other region. Mhmm. Very famous for Grignolino. It's, casale mufferato, grignolino, Casalese. And, this area is very, very good. For the granulino for the flavor of the granulino and to do a granulino without, aggressive tannins, like, from grapes. So for our audience, you're a little bit more geeky. How can you tell the difference in a blind tasting between a hundred percent bouquet and hundred percent the different, is the, the dog is ruke, because, ruke, it's, semi aromatic grapes that have a particular flavor like, other octopus, piedmont, octopus, muscato, or bracheto. It's a flavor like, flowers and spice, like, black tea, and pepper, green, red peppers, sweet pepper. And, it's a very, very impressive flower than Barbara, it's, small, red fruit, and have a complexity that, from the acidity of, the wine is very long wine with a good ballast between alcohol, body, and, and, texture of the wine. So is it fair to say, Rukei? Perhaps it's more similar to Braccheto than Albera? Or is it No. I think it's a a kind of burchetto because burchetto is a sparkling wine a sort of sparkling wine. Okay. It's a still wine with a a good body because I have a a fifth fourteen and fifteen degree of alcohol. It's very complex, red wine. Mhmm. Bracchetto is not, like this, but the flavor is similar because, the molecular that, component the the flavors are similar are turpanis oil turpanis. It's, the primary flavor of the grapes. It's this, the same family of, molecule. Alright, Nino. Thank you so much for having us and starting our day number three in Marvera Dasty and Monferato wine region. Is there anything else you would like to tell me before we go? Well, I wanted to to taste the the our label and, to try do a comparison with some dish like a traditional PMant and Jovis, with Banacalda. And then, the first, our traditional dish of this era, Mufferato, like, aiolotti del Mufferato. It's a a good, composition with, our UK and Barbara with the the meat from, this area, like, fasona, and, And why not? Fritomisto. Yeah. We we had a lot of fasona these days in this the past couple of days and perhaps today as well. So we're going to be tasting the wines, and that is a wrap Also, because it's only ten o'clock in the morning and it's a little early for, anchovies, and everything else. So that's it. Chinchin, with Italian wine people, and thank you for joining us today as we continue. Our journey. Thank you very much, Nina. Thank you so much. 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.