Ep. 1226 Giulia Scalzini | The Next Generation

Some of you have asked how you can help us while most of us would say we want wine. Italian wine podcast is a publicly funded sponsor driven enterprise that needs the Moola. You can donate through Patreon or go fund me by heading to Italian wine podcast dot com. We would appreciate it Oh, yeah. Welcome to the next generation. I'm Victoria Chacha, join me as we chat with young Italian wine people shaking up the wine scene. We're going to geek out on a grape or grape fan and hear about all the wild wine things are guests have been up to. From vineyard experiments to their favorite wine bars. Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the next generation podcast. With me, it's Aria Chasha. So today, we are going to be talking about some really fun things, some really tough skin things. We have A fun little grape discussion from the book Italian wine unplugged with a little sprinkle of the jumbo ship guide to Italian wine on a fun fun fun grape that It's quite ancient and quite tuscan. And then we're gonna move into our interview with the lovely Julius Skalcini of Pollo Grillo winery in Castanieto. Caraducio. Now before we get into our interview, let's learn a little bit about Aliatico. Now if you've never heard about Aliatico before, please don't feel dumb. It is a awesome great, but it's still very much under the radar. Another reason why we're chatting with Julia because she's doing super cool things with this grape. And she's so young, and I feel like such an underachiever. But, you know, inspiration moving on. So, Adialtego is an aromatic red variety of Central Italy with a history back to the ancient Romans. Now a biotape of Adialtego is used to make wine historically known as in the market. So going outside of Tuscany, La Marque, another region. Synonyms include Aliyah, Aliatica, Difirenza, Aliatiquina, and many Aliaticos, Delilva Delamura, and A Diego is also an offspring of Moscato Bianco, and is related to the Laacrima and possibly San Jose and Galiapo. And if you didn't know San Jose is a parent of Galliapo. Other groups we're not discussing right now, just a little fun fact. Now Adioatico does have a TOCG. Adioatico is a delicious dessert wine from the beautiful island of Elba, which is most famous for Adioatico and Napoleon. He was exiled there. Another fun fact. Not that you need to know that. And Adiatico also is found in other IGPs in Central Italy, mostly Tuscany and the market, and also Pulia. Now Adiatico, as I said before, it is found made as a dessert wine, like the, Elba, Aliatico, Vasito, and it's also made into a dry red wine, even a Rosato. Something fun will get into later. And, yep, that is Aliatico, right, from the Italian wine unplugged book. It is time now to invite our special guest on Julius, Galsini, of Pojogrillo winery in Castanieto carducci, which is in Tuscany. And let's do it. Hi, Charles, Julia. How are you? You're fine. And you're good. Thank you for being on the next generation podcast with me. Happy that we're having no technical difficulties. Yeah. No. Thank you for for inviting me. Thank you for the opportunity. So amazing. It's so happy to be here. I'm so happy to have you here. So how how are you? How's your day going? Most importantly. It's it's, it's good. It's a good, a good day. Good. I mean, I survived now until three forty seven PM as the American would day. So I think it's a good day. Unfortunately, it gets dark in an hour, which I, you know, that's winter, but I won't think too much about that. Let's dive into it. Obviously, you're here on the podcast because of wine. Your young person and wine. And I hope you don't mind if I ask. I, didn't catch your age. How old are you? By the way, if you don't mind if I ask. Twenty seven years old. Okay. I'm twenty six. Okay. So we're basically the same Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your role at the winery. First of all, in the winery, I do, a bit of everything because, we are very, very little. I I fell into wine a very very strange way because, my family in fact is not an historical white family. Both of my parents are doctors. My sister is a lawyer and a researcher. So I met Duwana when my father planted the the in Allfeta for Vineyard in two thousand eight. Yet he was always at this patient, and so he always made a little bit of wine for himself. Ecartello of Nitzanto, Echira. He's not, not a lot, but delicious. Even before, to have the the vineyard. And so I was at the ice tool at the time, and, we did not have a our own seller. He unified, for rent, you know, they're nearby sellers. When the the vineyard he planted in two thousand eight in, in Castaneto Karucci, starting to producing, and he planted his favorite grapes is, Aliaticom, so a very, very wonderful, growing grape. And, so I met the wine, following emails from the vineyard and the wineries, in which we we've minified for rent. And it was then that I really knew the word of wine, and they fell in love with it. So after high school, I decided to study to become a winemaker, and, we started to gather the adventure. So since two thousand fifteen, we have our own seller at Ojangrillo. We are still very, very little because now we have two actors in total and many projects for the future. So stay tuned. And so for this reason, in a very, very little winery, you have to do everything, but I love to do everything. So from the vineyard, from pruning to the harvest time, to the sellers, some internal analysis too. I design labels, which are always, the results of a family storming up, but, it's, everything, also the bottling and conversation, social media management. So, everything. What? You do? You do everything. You do everything. So it's just rename rename the winery, Julia's gonna see you then. No. I'm kidding. But speaking of the name, Paul Jal Grillo, how did how did it get the name Paul Jal Grillo? So the the name of Portjal Grillo is the name of, our hila, It means, literally, hills of the cricket. So it's funny. And, it's the name of, ofawaril. So it's, it's local. And, I I I really love the name because, at first, it's it's my father, which, shows the name at the at the beginning, at the very beginning. And then, we built together our, our our adventure creating a winery together with my father. And then, it's slowly involved. They were famous. We're very proud of it. And, now we are producing, three three wines no, actually, four because there is a new entry, a revenue entry. And, one is our, white wine. So eighty percent of Petimanseng and twenty percent of ancient great, to scallion from an old vineyard that we recovered. We say it is our white to scallion wine, for oysters, it's provocation because it's very fresh and vertical. And also we produce a rosatom rosatico, our center of Aliatico, which, has a very unique personality. And, Rizeno, which is the Aliatico Pascito, the dream for which, it will begin. It says sweet wine, but very balanced dessert wine because, it's sweetie, but not too much and then it makes you want to to ask for another glass, which is very important. And then the red wine, but it's a it's a it's a new project. It's, for the for the future. For now, we're doing very, very little production last year. The name was, try the second because our second, the harvest of this, little vineyard of Merlo cabernet franc and a little bit of the San Juoese. To be also part of, of the territory because, until two thousand eighteen, we we we we produce, a white, and sweet wine. So very strange for a land of, red wines. So now we have lots of direct. When I discovered your winery, though it was Octico, I was like, that is a brilliant thing. And I guess you came up with it because you do everything at the winery. So I was like, I'm like, this is great, like, it was Octico because not everyone knows all the artigo. You know, I outside of tasking or or Italy that is. So it it's I think it's an amazing way to kinda, like, you know, introduce people to Aviato apart from the Pacito version, which is and I've actually never tried it. I love the color, by the way. So that's enough to get me in. If anyone else has never seen this wine, that's beautiful, the color. It, like, screams summer. Like, you just are like and then now that I'm cold, I'm even more upset about it. But you could drink it all year round, of course. Yeah. We are super proud of the all the four colors. So thank you very much. Yeah. No. Absolutely. You know, it's because, like, and, soon to, you know, dive a little bit into where your winery is, I think people, obviously, people love Toscano. They love Tuscany. But they they often don't realize, like, you know, because there are certain things, and maybe you could tell me one of them. Actually, that's a good question for you. As, like, you're being from Tuscany, What is one stereotype about Tuscany that annoys you? Well, we have several several stereotype. May maybe the the the most annoying is, to make a very full bodied two alcoholic wines. It's not at all like this. We we we can also produce a very, very fresh and, good, good wines. So now the it's obviously that we produce good wine, but also white style, much more fresh and much more contemporary. So for this, for this reason, we we We we joke, we we have the white to scannian white wine for for oysters. This is the the joke. Well, yeah, looking at the map of where you're located, it's like you're the Musque day now. Yeah. But but because it's eighty percent of pretty much saying it's a very, very acid. But also Alliatico is very fresh. And the Alliatico is a great, little bit rare. We have a three hundred hectares in Italy, twenty in France, two hectares in Australia. It's no. I I really want to to wait, in Francisco in, in Australia. Yeah. Same. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's such a such a great, great because, it's an aromatic grade, but, very complex, and so also rich in polyphenols and tannins. So it's very, very interesting. And also, it's fun to to make wine with this because, it's surprising. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel. Mama jumbo shrimp for fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local food, and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, and also, you know, diving further into that. Your winery, and I'm assuming you are also from Castaniato Carducci, which is for whoever's listening that doesn't know is in the southern kind of coastal part of, Tuscany. And, you know, not not too far from Bulgaria, which is very famous, which is interesting. You're talking about those big alcoholic wines that, people think of And not far away is you can find these fresh, delicious, you know, Aliatico, Aliatico, which, I I think it's great. I honestly, you know, and also for people to try other styles of of Rosay too. Right? Outside of the dorm. And that's another reason I absolutely love the color of the Rosatigo because it's, like, so different. It's like, in the, on the control of the commercial, Rosatic style because, at the beginnings was a little bit difficult to explain, that's a for us, a laatico is, is there a romantic variety. So to extract his, varietal characteristics, we have to macerate it. So for us, the rosette is born in the vineyard because we divided the vineyard at the at first. So, every choice that we make is made on the, we keep in mind the technological objective we have. So it's very important for us, Rosay is a very serious thing. But also, we want to extract and to express the real character of Aliatico and Aliatico participated in Castani to Karlucci, which is, yeah, the the yield of, broadly. So it's, so important to macerate it. And when we macerate it, we also extract some color because, Alliatic was not a lot of anti sunnis, but a good quality of anti sunnis, a lot of mild within. So, we extract color, and we want to keep it because it's, it's part of the characteristic of these grapes and this kind of unification. So we want We don't want to to change this character to to make, one similar to other territories, but we want to make, the, an authenticity, and to put it in the bottle. Oh, well said, honestly. That that's amazing. So, I mean, it's supposed I I'm not surprised because you're you you got such a head start in winemaking right after high school. But that's really inspiring because for me, I love wine because I I had Italian wine because of the unique of all these varietals and also what you can do with them from the vineyard. That's awesome. So I want to dive into a couple other questions since we don't have a ton of time, but so Julia Galchini, though the leading wine lady of Castania to Carducci. So let's dive into learn a little bit more about you because as we know, wine isn't just us drinking it. It's also making it. But it's it's the energy. Right? It's the experience. It's who you are because I I'm not to sound so spiritual, but, like, you know, you everyone puts their energy into things. So that said, tell us a little bit more about you. You know, what is it like growing up in Castanieto or What do you like to do? Like, let's learn about Julia. My wife is always simple and, and positive, but also expect them because I always, want to do to do my best. So apart from, studying a lot and be very, very curious, in this world. In my spare time, I like, traveling, discover their territories, but also eating a good food, and I have to organize, I love organized blind testing, wine with my friends. So, basically, in my free time, I eat and drink a lot. My mother won't be happy when she hears this. So let's say I test lot. But but but also with the with that purpose, it's it's to feed my curiosity, not my stomach. And, I love travel, travel food. That's a good excuse. And that's, but, yes, it's a good excuse, but, it's also, for example, when I I hang out, I love to go in, when bars or restaurants, which is run by people who invite this, the passion for wine food as a culture, experimentation, research. So it's, it's very important for me. I I love travel, travel food, and it's a way to learn a lot about other cultures and territories. But, I also love, doing some some other things, working, in the woods of our ism. I love to know every corner and enjoy silence of the of the Machamaditorania, the sound of nature. And they also really like music and art in general, but I don't have much time to to follow, to to really follow as as I want. So I try to keep up today via internet, podcast, to read news, So I mean, you do so much. So I wouldn't expect you to be able to. If you told me you were a professional violinist, I would just die right now. You're like, I give up. That's that's you know, that's that's okay. No. I'm kidding. But No. That's awesome. So what's the most recent trip you went on or not even trip? Like, what's where were you, like, you know, when was the last, like, really great food and wine tasting, quote, unquote, experience? Where did you last, you know, entertain your curiosity? I I've passed recently, five months in France because, in parallel with my with the with the man managing of of my winery, I'm doing a PhD research activity. And so I was, abroad for a research period in France, and, it was amazing, for the research, and also for the for the great products, of, foods and wine. So, yeah, I I was in Montpeille, so in the south, and I love the a lot, the the wine of the region, which are not so So not so famous, but, it's very, very youngest denomination. So it's very dynamic, part of difference. And also the cheese I love the Peleardo. It's it's a wonderful one hundred for cheese. Oh, yes. I will traveling for cheese is worth it. Sometimes more worth it than the wine. Sometimes I I I find a a book wonderful. It's a random from Asia, and, there is, there's some maps. You can go and and and working into the woods and in the days and on, and then you arrive to a point, when the the cheese is produced, it's amazing. Oh, wow. Did you do one of the walks? Not yet. But I will do it. My gosh. That sounds amazing. But for now, I, I only buy the book. Oh, you only bought the book. Okay. So that's the next trip. Yeah. Yeah. That's super cool. So, I mean, you can't see me right now, but I well, I already worked your Instagram before. I'm doing it again. And I was seeing all the photos from France. And I was just kinda and now it all makes sense now that you're studying because I was like, I was like, is she even in Italy? And then I was like, oh, no. She is. She is. Yeah. Yeah. It's, the the experience of the of the PhD was, I mean, I I'm, I'm actually writing the last article. So it's, quite finished, but it's a super, super experience It was, it led me to, to learn a scientific method and they've evolved to make, applicative results of their search, and also to learn about and visit many territories in Italy and abroad. So I'm truly, truly grateful for, for this opportunity. Being part of our research results in wine, with either academic and, applicative value at an international level is, something amazing. So it's, wonderful. Yep. Definitely, ahead of the curve, I would say, at twenty seven as as somebody who's just a year younger than you. That's that's awesome. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I am very happy that Stevie passed along your contact to me. And, actually, I probably should have said this in the beginning, but, Stevie Kim, you know, the lady that oversees everything. She, met Julia at CV. Was it about a week ago? Time passes way too fast, but the the the festival. And so I'm so happy that it worked out have Julia here. And Julia, I guess, as any podcast or any presentation would end, is there anything else you'd like to share with the community, the young Italian wine community before we hop off? Let's stay sour wines. Obviously. Thank you very much. It's such a amazing. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Julia. This has been super fun chatting. And, yep, you can find their winery mean, if you can't get the casta in yet to Carducci, you can just find them on Instagram, Focha Grillo, and the winery. Yeah. Follow us, and thank you. And, yep, thank you so much, Julia. Bye. As always, a big Roxy for hanging out with me today, remember you can catch me every Sunday on the Italian wine podcast. Available anywhere, you can get your pops.