Ep. 217 Monty Waldin interviews Diana D'Isanto (I Balzini)

Italian wine podcast. Chinching with Italian wine people. This podcast is brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey. Native Grape Odyssey is an educational project financed by the European Union to promote European wine in Canada, Japan, and Russia. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast of me, Monte Warden. My guest today is Diana DeSanto. Deanna works for tenuta E. Balcini, which is in Babarino Valdelsa in the county region of Tuscany. Yeah. Correct. Perfect. Right. We are we are in area. We are between Florida and Siencienna, but we don't produce any kind of county. We only produce, IGT wines, supertuscan wines. But you have SanJvese. Right? Yeah. We have San Jevese. So why you not use the Kianti docG, and you use the toscana E GT or the toscana denomination instead? Because, it's our philosophy. When my father started forty years ago, it was, this one, he was Nobe, and we only produced four thousand bottles in total. And he decided to decide by himself the blend of the wines. So he don't want to follow any rules. Don't produce, the OCG wines, no candy, but to choose by himself what to put in the wine. So did he already so presumably he had, when he started the winery, he had sangiovese. Yeah. Would we? And then, and then he added, he planted other varieties, tuscan varieties or bought over varieties? No. We started to plant Merlo and sangerveese Cabernet sauvignon immediately. We told only two actors. We put all these, vineyards. So we start to produce immediately a blended wine with Sanjay, Cabernet, Malo, because our ground is more ideal to grow this kind of grape. So whereabouts is Babari Novaldeza? It's in the art of Tuscany. It's between Florence and Siena in the middle. Forty minutes from it. Okay. So what, roughly what altitude are you in Aquata? Oh, about three hundred twenty five meters. And your main soil? To Fascist ground. To two four? Yeah. Two four. That's it's a in terms of food friendliness, what does the two four give in terms of texture? Okay. It's your EGT. Yeah. Two four is ideal for the merlot. That's why we to Sedusa Pertasca, because San Jose prefer a kind of rock soil. Why is it why is it good for merlot then? Yeah. It's good for merlot because, it gives a good, like, salty to the wines solarity. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what. It expressed butter in salsa with this, this salty ground. So what is your what are your main markets for your wines? Given that they've they've got this sort of in in Nvidia Golete in inverted commas international expression in the sense that they're French tuscan blends. Our main market is for sure the United States and we have a lot of private customer because we have a very little production. We produce wine for collectors for wine lovers. So we have a lot of private all over the world. And when we export the wine, we export mainly to United States. What about the ageability of you? What's your flagship wine? We have two Evaltini white label and Evaltini black label. Both are wines that goes on the market five years after the harvest, and I I ideal for a long, long gauging twenty, twenty five years at least. What's the difference between the two in terms of blend and winemaking? The white label is fifty percent convenient, sovignon, fifty percent San Luisum, the black label is fifty percent convenient, fifty percent but low. That's the main difference reference, but they do the same aging. Okay. And do you have a consultant andologist? Yeah. We have. She is a woman. We are all women in the winery. It's a Bar Baratambourini that, is known as the magician middle. Okay. She's, you know, she's also, she's also flies fighter planes. You know that? It's one of our hobbies, fighter aircrafts, airplanes that are used in the military. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. A week ago. You gotta ask her next time you see. Oh, maybe. I don't I think It's a and ask how her flying lessons are going. Okay? Okay. Honestly, you've gotta ask her about that. Okay. Okay. But I my guess is that your wife, but if Barbara Taverine is your is your knowledge, these are not gonna be sterile stereotypical, heavy, oaky red wines. They're gonna be wines that are lighter intense, but but not really difficult to drink. Is that true? No. Our wines are very are powerful wine, but very elegant. We don't want to have woody wines. We only use the wood to get more power to enforce, the the fruity of the wines, the flavors of the wines, but we want to have very, very different wines, wine that are easy to drink, even if in the most difficult, Vintages? Yeah. Vintages. Perfect. How how do you see the future of Merlo in Kianti when in your area when it seems that temperatures are rising. I don't know. I have my finger crossed. Okay. I mean, is it, is it, are you really noticing differences in when the merlot comes in after you've picked it in the wondering? Not yet for now. I think that higher time Trature is getting more power to this medallion. We do a very hard work to our vest at the perfect moment. It we don't care about if it's September, August, so we check day by day when we are close to the maturation, the the grapes, so to cap in the perfect moment. Okay. And also, I guess, the fact that you have soil that is too spacious, that also holds and absorbs water. Yeah. But, you know, our wines, our vineyards are On steep slopes. Yeah. Yeah. So the water, go away, and in the winter, they they take the water, and then when then you need it anymore, the water flow. Okay. And who is your successor? Who in the family will take over from you? You know, I am almost by myself now, but, do you know, there is a one a ram family room one that is so my mother built it. My mother lived it for fourteen years, and now they are helping me to to go on with the wondering. Okay. Diana Distanteo from the tenuta Y Balzini. Wish you every success in the future and good luck with your Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This podcast has been brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey, discovering the true essence of high quality wine from Europe. Find out more on Native odyssey dot e u. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram.