Ep. 2100 Barbera D'Asti: Pico Maccario | 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 Mati Kazakhstan from November sixteenth to eighteenth. Don't miss out. Register now at Vineeti 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. Okay. We're back. And guess where we are, Picco Mercadio, and I'm here with Emiliano Miranda. He's the expert manager here. Hello. Hi, everybody. So thank you, Stevvio, to be here today. Sir, listen, Emiliana. Question number one. Straight. What is this? What is this in front of us? This is the best, best, best, you know, example of a territory. We got, we've got a cheese, age, and refined, and a barbera. What else? Are you making this yourself? Well, actually, there's, it's a third party that is making for us, but it's, it's actually age and refined in our, in our needs that are already right here. So we're proud to shove this to all our people coming here and tasting our wines. Okay. So tell us where we are. So where are we? We are in the middle in the art of the Bara diasti, just a few miles away from Nitza Montarat about ten minutes. That is the real heart of the Barbera. Mhmm. In the middle of the hills, kind of a gentle hill, and it's considered one of the best area for the Barberagasti production. And, Pico Macar has been a leader in the past thirty five years of, of this appalachian. So tell us, give me the skinny version of the history of Picco Machario as of today. Well, that's great. Family winery, three generation. They've been around for thirty five years crazy over about twenty five years they focused more than a hundred hectares on Barbera. So they planted this varietal that used to be, you know, a popular varietal, totally unknown. It was considered wide of the farmer. And guess what? Here we are. We are thirty five years later with, one of the, one of the Olympus of the wines, that can be really next to, of the best brollos and the violos in Pimonte, I would say. So as we were driving up to the winery, you cannot not notice all the colored pencils. What is the story behind that? Well, I'm glad you're here today in the cellar because there's a mix of tradition with all our barrels. We're surrounded with all our barbera and barrels, but with modernity right here. So more than ten years ago, we have been, you know, we've been thinking about the new generation. So we were we were actually at the point to change all our pencil polls, all our polls in the vineyard. So we said, why would not Okay. Stop. Stop. So what are the pencil polls? More than three and a half kilometers of our vineyards are surrounded by ancient poles. So this poles that used to be in concrete, back in the old days, or in normal wood, ten years ago, we decided to paint them, and to shape them with a little pin, that came like, you know, like pencils. And, from that decision, more than twelve hundreds around the vineyards, we decided to create this pencil gift that recall the pencil post we got in the vineyard. Yeah. So it's it's it's unmistakably. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. This is your signature, design, if you will. So today, we're going to, chase three wines. How many first of all, give me the overview of how many labels you have and the production Well, the production in the winter, we're talking about one hundred and twelve hectares for you guys in the United States, about three hundred plus acres, and, focus on more than one hundred on Barbera Dasti Appalachian. Of course, we got some nebbiolo, but the focus, the heart is Barbera. Today, we're gonna taste three of the best expression of Barbera, starting from the stainless steel one. That has been around for more than twenty five years Which is this one. Is the first one on your on your left hand side. That is the Lavignone. That's considered a single vineyard for us. It's a fifth for consecutive and contiguous actors. So it's the biggest that we're gonna talk about dimension, but a better diasti Vineier. Not in terms of production, but in terms of actors. Straight forward, fruity, good acidity. This is, has been our business card to show people around the world. But first of all, we're in the territory. Look, this is Barbera. This is easy drinking style. It can really match every kind of food. Okay. Clean and fruity. And the name of the swine is remind me? It's called La vignonette. La vignonette. Like I said, fifty four hectares. Contributors. Oh my goodness. So it's one of those. So how many bottles is that? It's not that much. Not that much. We're close to one hundred and eighty and two hundred thousand bottles for, you know, of the mention that, you know, could be, could be much, much more, but today, mother nature, It's, it's giving us more than no more than six tons per hectare max. Okay. And then the next one. The next one, and that's what we are proud. Very proud is the is the next level. Is the Terroveris the Nits at UCG, part of the consortium, of course, reaching more than one million bottles. That's the the appalachian. Our needs here is hundred percent but a bit of grape, but aged, but, you know, how our grandfather used to do it. They used to use big, slavonian cask, or big cask, anyway, not a lot of franichoke, so mostly big barrel. So you got not just the fruit, but you got all about Samwick's side that shows the beauty and the potential of the Barbara. I mean, Barbara has fifteen, twenty years potential easily. Out of these three, which one was the first one that you produced? Well, honestly, Well, it would it happened to be at the same time. It was in nineteen ninety five, nineteen ninety six when the first two vintages were released, so they used to be the Barbera Dasti superior, this one, the superior. Oh, I see. So they were born at the same time. Wonderful more for an easy drinking style, and the other one for a more, you know, elaborated and, and a bigger taste. So that's why it used to be called the Barbera Dasti superiore. Then since twenty sixteen, we converted the production into needs at UCG. And lastly. And lastly, there's a niche production. It's a gem for us. It's called epic. Let's see. It's, it's a small reserva of no more than three thousand bottles made out of the oldest spine. We're talking about over thirty five, forty years old. Everything here is handpicked. So it's a it's a man equal artist. It's aged actually with a blend of French oak and traditional stockinger that we use also for our own a biolos, but it's a good match between the large cask and the small bag, barrel. I have a little bit of barbera right now. Well, they're making some shampoo as well. Have you heard about that? Yes. There's a guy who's making shampoo with barbera. Oh, sure. Well, there you go. I'm just, you know, pioneer in these kind of things. Listen, Miliano, what are the typical or the best food and wine pairing for Barbera in your opinion? Give me just give me a couple of dishes. I like to say that barbara has a two phases. When it's it's easy drinking stainless steel, it goes with everything with your it's your pizza pasta wines. Pizza. Okay. When it comes to a barbera Hagen steel. When we're talking about Nitza, the OCG, think about every high hand burrito or brunellos. It can be next to, night ribs, unlike barbecue, everything that is elaborated in saucy. So it's not afraid about any dish. It's, it's a great, got acidity so that clean your mouth. It's great with cheese, like I said, like we are showing today, because you clean your mouth from fat, fatty food. But then it depends because it's, it's a beautiful versatile varietal. So when it's young, it's, it has one purpose. When it's coming older, it has a completely different. Meaning? Well, how we let's talk about ageability a little bit. How long can Balbera Dasti age before it doesn't get any better? I was really waiting for this question today because you you met a lot of people and I want to be clear that Barbair has a huge age ability, has acidity that is, is actually, is like the tenant for the new deal. So it's the preservative. I would say from a minimum of seven seven, eight years up to twenty years with no fear, with no fear at all. And have you got, bottles going back twenty years? Absolutely. I remember my uncle that used to live his entire life in Tuscany used to have a little bit one on here. What's your what's your uncle's name? Well, it was a really, a really good one, completely unknown. Complete unknown. The roots, it's here in Pimonte with his own winery, and I remember him saying that a great barbera has a huge potential. And we just need to be not short size. Okay. We are short size. We're done. And thanks god, but we're there today, it's a totally different world. It's the example the producer is today. Okay. Follow us on our journey to discovering more by Veradasti. And that's a wrap from Picco Macadia, chinchin with Italian wine people. Thank you for joining us on another installment of on the Road edition, hosted by Stevie 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 strip to watch these interviews and the footage captured of each location.