Ep. 2460 Cotarella Confidential: A heart-to-heart with Enrica Cotarella | On the Road with Stevie Kim

When we arrived, me and my sisters at the winery in the middle of two thousand, we said, probably we have to communicate more the family. We want to communicate our family. And it's the first reason why we decided to not to do a change, but maybe a natural evolution from Falezco to Familia Cortrella. Because, yes, we wanted to communicate the family, but also all of our projects. So, actually, when we talk about Familla, we talk about a hat. And under this hat, you have all of our project. So you have wine, of course, the core business, but you have the social project, so the foundation, the farm and the Academy Treche for the hospitality. So, Familla Cortarana is a world. It's our world with our projects. Welcome to another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim each week Steve 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 welcome to Italian wine podcast on the road edition. And this, that means, mama jumbo shrimp, our YouTube channel, wine travel with Moa, stevie Kim. And with us today, we have Hello, everyone? So, Erika, first of all, where are we? This thing called Cortarela Family, Valesco. What where are we exactly? We are located between umbria and lateral region in the middle of Italy. In reality, we are fromumbria. My family is fromumbria, but at that time, my uncle and my father decided to invest in lateral region. And, so at first, They created the first winery in Montefiascona in the land of the assessed test around the end of seventies, and then they decided to invest here in Numbria in nineteen ninety nine. So we are in the new winery where we had our first Starbucks in two thousand and five. And so we are in umbria, but in front of us, we have, the Tiber River. So on the other side of the river, we have lots of region. So officially, this is still, but do you also have the wine in Latvia? Of course. Yes. We had the historical winery in Latin region where we produce the Estes test of Montevioscones or Pajo de Gienci, which is our historical label. We started the production of the assessed with the Porto de jealousy in nineteen eighty nine. And so we produce the Porto de jealousy there, and the rest of our production is here. So if we have grapes from umbria or from Latin region, we produce all of our wine's ear. So tell me for someone who is less familiar with Falesco or Cortarela. Of course, you know, your father and your uncle Ranzo and Ricardo Cortarela. They're part of Italian wine history. Right? They they belong in the history books. For what those who are less familiar, what are the five things that they must know about? The Cortarela family and wine business. It's a great question. So probably that we are a family winery. So we are the third generation in the wine business. Actually, we are three sisters, everybody together here, the one with with a lot of passion. And, hello, you're not really it's not sisters. Right? But they all like sisters in reality. Everybody thinks your sisters, where you're not actually sisters, technically, exactly. So tell them the three sisters who they are. So we are in reality two sisters. So, Rensel's daughter, me and Martha, and then there is Dominga. And she's, Ricardo's daughter. But in reality, we grew up together in the same house with two mothers and two fathers and our grandmother. So I remember that we had the same bedroom altogether me Martin Dominga and our grandmother Gracia. And so we are, you know, like three sisters. That's the same. You all work in the company, right, in the family business. Yeah. How are the roles divided. Who does what? So Martha, she's the CEO of the family. Dominga is, she follows all the commercial part and marketing, and she follows, in reality, all of our projects, And then there is me that is, marketing and communication and hospitality. Okay. So getting back to five things. Yes. Five things. So three generations in the wine business of course, then, that we are located in three different territories. So we are in Lumbria region, in Laster region, but also in Tuscany in Montalcino. Then that me and my sisters, we used the wine like an instrument to do something more than the past. So we created, a lot of different projects So the wine is our, core business, but also we have, projects in, social projects and the academy for hospitality. Then, that we produce, an indigenous variety from last year called, and then we are most of all famous for the production of, Merlo. Okay. It was a great challenge, a big challenge for the past. So now we can talk. We spoken a little bit about the history and the family. Let's talk a little bit about the wines. The flagship wine of your families. Give me, first of all, an overview of how many wines how many labels. So we produce in reality a lot of different labels, but we decided to divide the production. So we have, the everyday wines, and we have the Vitiano label, telus label or Pogodey Chelsea. That is the historical label. Then we have the second cruise, like Sudeale and Trentani, soente, or, and then we have our selections, Ciliano, the brunello. So, actually, we talk about Tanuta Machiliano, so Marciliano State for the Umbrian production, the Montiano Estate for Laxio production, and then we have Limatocca for Tuscany production. So, actually, probably we had around ten, twelve, different labels. So when we're thinking about Falesco or familia Cortarela, what is the flagship wine? The flagship wine is of course, Muniano. Muniano is our iconic wine and was a big challenge for the past because, we have this beautiful story regarding, and, when he decided to produce, Emerald here in Latin region, everybody thought that he was, totally out of mind, because he decided to do the studies in Latin region in the land of, test test. So a land usually located for the production of wine, but, you know, Stevie, that is a lover of Merlo. A great shade for those of you who are less familiar. He does many things, but he is also known as the king of Malo. That's his nickname. Yeah. Kidding. Right? So that's, of course. And so he did around ten years of studies around Merlo in Latin region between the first years of eighties and the first years of nineties, and then in nineteen ninety three, we had our first vintage of Montiano. And Montiano represents the story of the family and the courage of the old generation. So, my uncle's courage And now that he's the analogist, actually here at the winery. So he follows all of our products. And, so and then some. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So explain to us this evolution because it was Falesco originally, the name of the winery. And now it's famila Cortrella. Why? Why did you change the name? When my father and my uncle started in Lotsu region, probably they didn't know that in the future, Familla Cortrella. It could be a big winery, an important winery not only here in Latin region, but maybe all over the world. So at first, they decided to create a small winery called Phyllis go from the Felicia. The Felicia were the old citizens of Montevios Kona. Uh-huh. Okay. Hence the name, Feleska. Yes. Of course. Okay. And then when we arrived, me and my sister there's the winery in the middle of two thousand. We said, probably we have to communicate more the family. We want to communicate our family. And it's the first reason why we decided to not to do a change, but maybe a natural evolution from Falezco to Familia Cortrella. Because, yes, we wanted to communicate the family, but also all of our projects. So, actually, when we talk about Familla Cortarela, we talk about a hat. And under this hat, you have all of our project. So you have wine, of course, the core business, but you have the social project, so the foundation, the farm and the academy in Trechey for the hospitality. So, Familla is a world. I