Ep 2327 Discovering Château d'Yquem in Bordeaux with Lorenzo Pasquini | On the Road with Stevie Kim

Josephine was not the founder of the estate, but was certainly the one who shaped ekem as we know it today. She was a visionary woman who first started to do this selective harvest where we passed several times in the same vineyard as we were saying before, only focusing on quality and who also created the brand itself, the label as we know it. She's the only probably person in this more than four hundred years of history that we can talk about a before and after because after her, we have just continued her vision up until today, and I hope for the next four hundred years. Welcome to another episode of on the road edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, Stevie 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, and welcome to the Italian wine podcast. And we are still in Pordeaux. Actually, we're in Sotharne, which is the Sotharne Chateauy Kim, the iconic winery of this area. It's very exciting, and we have a surprise for you. So there is an Italian element to all this, and that is Lorenzo Pascuini. Because he is now, I believe, the state manager and the technical director. Yes. So kind of the big boss. No. No. No. No. Well, below. Part of the part of a team and below here, of course. Yeah. Of this magnificent winery chateau you can. So, Lorenzo. I don't know where to start because, you know, where I got so for tonight or as they say in Italian. Absolutely. I'm I'm very lucky, very privileged. Well, you know, there was already an Italian element here because the Lure Salus family, the previous owner, their name comes from Lure, which is the German branch and Salus, which comes from Salus, so in Italy now. Oh. So there was already a little bit of Italy here. Oh, okay. But so you know, you're incredibly young. So we can say. Thank you. Thank you for that. He looks older, but he's only thirty four. Thirty five. Thirty five. Yes. A lot older. So how did you become, to this place with this very important role at such an early age. Tell us a little bit about yourself to our audience or less familiar. Indeed, yeah, I'm very lucky. It's really privileged to have this opportunity. I was, the winemaker, in Argentina at Cheval Desong for four years, which is also overviewed by Pierre Lorton, who founded the estate in nineteen ninety nine, and, I was there for, four vintages. And at some point, I wanted to come back to, to Europe, get closer to my family. And some years later, Pierre called me back and said, look, my right harm at the estate is retiring. I'm looking for someone that I trust, and this is how he gave me this opportunity and I was, of course, extremely, you know, happy and and privileged and absolutely honored to accept. Yeah. You were pretty much fast tracked to this role. I suppose that was Pierre. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So So I do this series called five things about this wine. We in in social media, but let's do this. Tell us five must know things about Chateau camp. Great. You know, Chateau de Ghem is a lot of things. So to resume in five, it will be a little bit, Everyone says that. You're not very original. Everybody says that. But, first of all, I can, and so tell them in general, is based on a natural paradox, on somehow of a natural miracle that it's called the noble rot, which is the transformation of the worst enemy of Viticulture called the the botrytis Sineria, the gray rot, that transforms things to natural microclimatic conditions into something that we call the noble rot, which is the capacity of both varieties to bring the grapes to a second life, a second level of concentration, aromatic expression, and also capacity to travel through time. These wines are very expressive when they are very young, but they can also live almost for centuries more than one century. They really have an extended relationship with time, and this is only based on natural conditions. So probably that's the first thing that we should know when we talk about echem and so term in general. So that was just number one. Number two. And the second is that he came is an estate with an incredible human history. It's an estate that was founded in fifteen ninety three and that was for four hundred years within the same family that changed name from Savage, that was the name who family that founded the estate into Leursales when Frances Josefindo Savage married Amide de Leursales in seventeen eighty five, and then it stayed within the Leursales family until nineteen ninety nine. So four hundred years of constant, propriety under the same family, and this probably rooted some deep values and a strong vision of the estate, and that's the other, I would say, particular thing of Chatodee Cam. Number three. We are at a very lucky placement in a certain way because we are here at the border between two geological eras, and so our terroir is extremely diversified. We have gravel, clay, sand, limestone, and at the base of the complexity and the balance of the wine, there is this incredible complexity of terroir of our hundred hectares of vineyards. Our number four, our production is extremely low. In average, we make with one vine, only one glass of wine. Yeah. I thought that was like a myth. That's so that's actually true. Yes. Yes. Yes. In general, with one vine, you can make one to two bottles. Here with one vine, we make only one glass because our way of harvesting is extremely select we only take the grapes or the part of the grapes that are attacked by the noble rot, which means that we lose a lot of volume by the concentration, but also that we have to select a lot. We have to reject a lot of grapes that can be attacked by other my croorganism, and that's why the yale shrivels extremely, and we produce this very small, small amount of this wine that I believe is pretty spectacular. And finally, I would say that, as I was saying before, our wines have an standard relationship with time. They can travel through time like any other wine and sometimes we get to taste wines with more than a hundred years of age and it's an incredible experience to witness to wines with such longevity, but also they can be very impressive in their youth. Today we tasted two thousand twenty two that it's our youngest vintage possible, which is already very drinkable, very approachable. And I think that's very spectacular to have wine that can, at the same time, be very ageable, but also very drinkable when they are very young. You know, you gave me this, like, tasting note today from the vintage two thousand twenty two, and I'd like to quote what it says, a crazy, yeah, a crazy vintage, which is literally extraordinary, opening up a new interpretation of the meaning of time at IKEAM. So this was not an easy vintage. Not at all. Was the driest and hottest vintage ever recorded at the estate twenty two maybe it's an image of what would be the climate would the climate change. So, of course, we were very worried about these conditions. We were actually asking ourself whether we would make any camp or not with these conditions, and actually we were extremely surprised when we saw the final result because the wine is extremely powerful and yet to restrain, so delicate. So, just and so in the line of what we envision when we make the blend of ecam, which is aromatic brightness, balance, and persistency. And, I think twenty two expressed that with power in a very nice way. And you said something about the vision is? Yes. So tell us about the vision is that kind of salvaged, right, the low acidity in this vintage? Beatterness is the key word in so term and even more in two thousand twenty two. Sometimes we tend to simplify the balance of a so term between sugar and acid, thinking that the sugar is the base and the acid, the acidity is what gives the freshness. That's what we learn at w set. And I would say that is not untrue, but it's probably incomplete. Meaning that here, there are two other dimensions that are probably as important, if not more important, which are the salinity, what we call in Italian, lasapidita, that comes a lot with our clay terroirs, and the bitterness, which is really what gives all the dynamicity to the sugar. What makes almost the sugar disappear and become only the base of something that is much more than sweet. And in twenty two, it was extremely important to play on what we say in French, the good bitters because we didn't have any acidity or we have, let's say, a very low acidity due to the conditions of the year. And so in order to find the balance, to find the drinkability, the silkiness, and the freshness, it was extremely important to play on both the tenants because also in a white wine, like a hotel, you can have a little bit of tenants and the bitterness indeed. Lastly, as a bonus question, I think for the young Italian winemakers out there. You're kind of a success story to them. Alright. No. So, yes. Yes. Let's be honest. So, you know, things are not always easy in Italy. Do you have a recommendation? Would you advise them if they are less than happy or frustrated, do you recommend them to go abroad and have other experiences, or how would you advise a young winemaker who is a little less sure of himself And these are challenging times for wine in general. So what kind of advice as a big brother would you give them? It's the first time that I get to answer this question because I don't feel at all as someone in the position to give an advice to someone else. So what I could say is, just to, follow his own belief. I think what's most important when you make this job is to, understand who you are, what kind of wines do you like, which are your values and don't betray them and try to express that every day in what you do. And I think the wine is a wonderful way to also express values, environmental values, social values, taste values, and probably this will pay off at a certain moment. But once again, I don't feel that I can give any advice, but that would be at least my credo. And so before we close, I got a book from Lorenzo today, and it's about Josephine Dequim, a remarkable woman, a legendary wine, and this is has been recently translated into English. So tell us about who was Josephine became. Josephine was not the founder of the estate because she came in at the end of the eighteenth century when the estate was already two hundred years old, but was certainly the one who shaped ekem as we know it today. She's the one who probably rooted and installed all these values and this vision that we continue that we keep today. And she was a visionary woman who first started to do this selective harvest where we pass several times in the same vineyard as we were saying before, only focusing on quality and who also created the brand itself, the label as we know it, who started to also spread the word about he came around the world, while she was living a very tough life, losing her parents, her husband, her children, and, and dedicating his life two weekend, also during the French revolution, that was a very complex time here in France. And, and so she's someone that we owe a lot to because once again, she's the only probably person in this more than four hundred years of history that we can talk about a before and after because after her, we have just continued her vision up until today and I hope for the next four hundred years. It sounds like Lorenzo has already read this book. I am looking forward to reading this book because it's like the story of madame Clicot. Right? It's certainly an incredible story. I think very inspirational for a lot of people. Yeah. At at least for us. Okay. Would you like to say anything before we close? How would you say? From Chaturi Kim. I that I hope that, I will be able to receive all of you here in today. Don't say that. They might not be Whenever you want, the doors, Ariam, are wide open. We're happy to receive. I hope that you will have a glass of ecam, twenty two or other vintages, and you will, share a wonderful moment around the glass of each and, Vivalvino. And with that, it's a wrap Italian wine podcast coming live from Chateau with Lorenzo Pascchini. Thank you for joining us on another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content on the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods. You can check out our YouTube channel, Mama jumbo shrimp, to watch these interviews, and the footage captured at each location. Changing