Ep. 1576 Adel Abulkhassanova | Voices With Cynthia Chaplin

Since two thousand and seventeen, the Italian wine podcast has exploded. Recently hitting six million listens support us by buying a copy of Italian wine unplugged two point o or making a small donation. In return, we'll give you the chance to nominate a guest and even win lunch with Steve Kim and Professor Atilio Shenza. Find out more at Italian One podcast dot com. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm Cynthia Chaplin, and this is voices. Every Wednesday, I will be sharing conversations with international wine industry professionals discussing issues in diversity, equity, and inclusion through their personal experiences working in the field of wine. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and rate our show wherever you get your pods. Hello, and welcome to voices. This is Cynthia Chaplin. And today, I'm delighted to welcome Adel Abu Hassan. She's from the Cantina Amadeh, who were the winners of the best video, Frizante in this year's five star wine selection held in April. Welcome to the show Adele. Thank you so much for coming. It's great to have you with us. I know Cantina Amadai is in Amelia Romagna, and you all started making wine in nineteen sixty two. You're a member of the family. You're married to Federico Amadez, so I'm sure you know some of the history of the cantina. So fill us in a little bit about the cantina and what you're doing there. Okay. Yes. Cantina Amadez was established in early six cheese by two brothers, Arinago, and Tranga. And so then in nineteen seventy three, he said the new new white winery was built is Alberon Wovo. In first eighties, the Marietta method, permitage of identification and producing sparkling wines. Then going on towards nineteen ninety two, Gaza companies, or the the current, vineyards, was built, was bought, And there we have all, yeah, our our really out. And last two, two thousand twelve is a farmhouse, Alwinie, was built as an integrated, like, the amplified, the all the production. Wonderful. So everything is now all, all put together just the way you wanted it. Yes. It was a long process, but slowly, it was, like, a building step by step. Absolutely. And it was a worthy effort because as I said, you won best Vino Frisante this year. The wine that won the trophy is your Amelia e GTt Lambrusco primo fiore. And it's a really interesting unusual blend of Lambrusco Maestri Lambusco Salomino and enchilada. I think most people tend to think of Lambrusco as being either the dark purple Lambrusco, Grasparosa or the lovely bright pink, Lambrusco, so fill us in on the choice of these grapes for primo fiore and the character of the wine that comes out. The production was built step by step. So the choosing how to produce is is a long process. And so finally, we, we got the the result. We want to took to you. So when we drink this wine, when we pour it out of the bottle, unfortunately, I don't have a bottle to pour. So that's very sad. But when we pour it out of the bottle into our glass, what do we find? Because it's quite different from Grasparosa or Sabara? What do we see? What color is it? What does it smell like? How does it taste? Okay. Yeah. So we can see, very intense red and, bright and tense, and the taste is like flowers. And you can also perceive, berries Fantastic. And let's talk a little bit about the tannin because Lambert School always has a bit of tannin. What's the tannin structure in this one? This is smooth, tiny. It's great. Well, it's it sounds like a lovely wine. I'm gonna have to get my hands on it to try. I'm a big fan of Lambrusco. So this is a new one for me. I was here when you won the trophy, but, I didn't ever get to taste that wine, so I'm gonna make a make a special effort to do it. But I know that sustainability is very important to you and Cantina Amadeh started project of zero in two thousand and nineteen. Can you tell us a little bit about the project? Is the project as it was, even producing a web without added south sides. Fantastic. How does that help with the sustainability? We produce only organic grapes. So this is only only organic production. And from the beginning, we have always thought about the importance of reducing the environmental versus future generation. So during that, we always had, our philosophy from the beginning even in nineteen six in sixties, early sixties, is reusing battles. So we always try to to be eco friendly. Well, that's such an important thing. You this empty returnables, it's one of these things that makes Cantina Amadeh really special because most wineries gave up this empty returnable, idea a long time ago, but you've always had that sort of circular economy of production. And I I think if I understand correctly, you even go so far as to collect the empty bottles that were purchased from the cantina or delivered to somebody's house. How does that work out? We deliver, wines, bottles, and then, go back and, and collect them. And then they are re washing them, sunnified all the bottles. And and then they're used again. That's fantastic. As you said, so eco friendly and so sustainable. And I think you're helping the process to happen because as I understand you charge a deposit for the bottles And then when the bottles come back, you give the deposit back. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's a good idea. People will get back, you know, a few euros if they bring back six bundles, which is amazing. I remember as a child, we had this in the United States, and we used to go around and pick up cans and bottles so that we could take them back and get the money. So it helped on trash as well. It kept the environment much better. So I'm so excited that you're doing this. And we also started, as a new project. We are trying to, you know, to to develop is even collecting, corks bottles in order to give them to as another company who's producing renewable materials for isolation. Oh, that's incredible. Oh, that's fantastic. So reusing them. I guess they will break them up and reuse them and turn them into insulation. That's incredible. Fantastic. So you use solar solar panels. So it's quite dry to produce your new level ending in infinite energy source that creates, I guess, no harm, harmful greenhouse, gas, emissions, and so it's quite fragile as well. Exactly. And it doesn't use natural resources. And I imagine that if you make enough solar power, you can even sell it back to the to the power companies, which is always a good thing. Yes. Of course. We're in the middle of a terrible heat wave at the moment as I'm sure you know. It's it's thirty seven degrees in verona today, so hard to imagine, but all of this sunshine being used on your solar panels is is at least doing something good. So that's that's a plus for our hot sunny day. 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 foods, and taking in the scenery. Now back to the show. Before I let you go, I want to ask you what you think about the future of Lambrusco. I, as I said, I'm a huge fan of Lambriscoe, but a lot of people, especially outside of Italy, have a bad impression of Lambriscoe. They they don't think there's any good quality And I'm wondering how can we get that impression to change? Your your wine just won a big trophy. I think there's a lot of very good Lambriscoe out there. How can we market excellent high quality Lambriscoe in? Waive the flag for these delicious wines that are so easy to pair. What's your strategy? Chic. So, sure, La Lamruzka, yes, it's quite, I I I guess it's quite a young, wine. So it's just going to grow and become more strong and more popular outside, even our zone of immediate Romania or even even a month of that zone, So it's, it's going to be I guess, in my opinion, it's a wine that's perfect. It's it's easy to to drink, to abini, to to pairing with food, and it's very fresh. Young. It's not heavy as, as, as they're talking about alcohol grades. And I guess that it's also presented like a mode to to say Switzerland. So it's quite, so it's a sparkling, like, a million people. Exactly. I think that's really true. That's a good way to put it. Spargling like the emilia people. That's really nice. Well, I wanna thank you for your time, and thank you so much for coming on. We're we're extending our big congratulations to Katina Amadei for your award winning Lambrisco, and we wish you lots of good luck in the future. Thank you very much. Ciao. Ciao ciao. Oh. 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