Ep. 1606 Salvatore Evangelista of Cantina Terre D'Aione | 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. Today, I'm very happy to welcome Salvatorre Evangelista to the show. He is the company representative from Terre d I own it, the winery that won best white wine at this year's edition of five star wine, the selection. So welcome to the show. Thank you for coming, and congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. And maybe we are. Well, we know that Terry de aionne is in your pina in Campania, and the Carpenito family has been growing grapes there for about a hundred and fifty years. But it wasn't until two thousand and six that they decided to make their own wines. So can you tell us a little bit about the history of the cantina and why they decided to start making wines? Yes. Of course. So the, the property is actually owned by the family, car, Pinedo family, which they're originally from this small town in Ethiopia, and the province of Elino, which the name of the town is actually two four. That's where the, the, actually, the epicenter of the, the gray coding tool for comes from. You know, there are, altogether, there are eight commas, around the two four that they are able to make the docG, gray coding tool for. But as the the name says, two four is the, you know, the pinnacle for the area. And the the Greeco, itself, the the the Greek Greeco, as you can the the sound to go, you know, goes. Grego is, actually, one of those, grape varietal came from the Greek people that came from, from Greece back, you know, let's say one thousand years before Rome was created. Just like the Greco, which is a white varietal, the other red the red white varietal, is Alianico, that also is a transformation for the word Atlantic. So it's a a lady who became identical. So that's the, the nomenclature of the the both grapes. So the final carpinito, you know, as the roots in this small village of two four, of back in the days, like, hundreds, hundreds, years ago. And, all of the ancestors are all made. The wines, you know, for their own consumptions, up to when the, with the grandfather of a Angelo Carpito, which is actually the owner of the the the the the container and the vineyards start to commercialize the wines, you know, of course, in bulk like then. And then when, the the father, the grandfather, the father, Angelo started to steal the tradition of the cell wines, in both. But then, Angel himself back in, late eighties start to, to bottle the wines, you know, you know, make it the winery with the, you know, the the battery line and all the stuff you need to buy your bottle. Yeah. And then he he start basically in the late eighties to, you know, to make the wines that nowadays is still bottled with a little difference of label changed in the through the years. The new packaging that is actually now the the wine is, you know, commercialized right now is just came to be, about two years ago with the new labeling and, so on and so forth. Well, the the wine that won the trophy is, obviously, your Greco d two photo DOCG made with a hundred percent native Greco grapes, as you said. And I really love this grape. It's a late ripener, and typically it gets a text sterile mouth feel. It has a lot of structure to it. So can you tell us a little bit about the wine making and the character of this wine that won the trophy? Yes. You know, so, first of all, as you know, the the the the best wines are, you know, always, come to be for the best care of the vineyards. So, you know, they they spend lots of time in the vineyards with the, you know, the help of agronomist and, you know, other people, they they work with the vineyards. Thoroughly throughout the year, you know, doing some green harvest and we, you know, just take the best care of the the vineyards as as much as possible. When it comes the point making is very simple, your process of, just pick up the best grapes at the best arriving time, weather permitting, of course, just like, you know, the maceration and, you know, the keeping the, you know, whole, temperature, you know, fermentation, and, you know, temperature control. The maceration takes just, takes only, like, few days. You know, you usually, it's about six, seven days of meditation, and then it's just the the most important thing is the temperature control and they are very cleaning, you know, environment in the in the in the in the winery. And, of course, you're making this one all in steel, two to achayo. Right? Well, breathing is stainless steel. Yes. Is, you know, this grip is gonna be very fresh and very normal, normal, thorough. Exactly. So when when I pour it into my glass, what do I smell? What do I get? Well, it's first of all, the, you know, the fact that the the the the cool the way school two four two four is actually the kind of soil. You know, two four is, oh, you know, is very well known in the they are the entire region because the entire region or companion is a volcanic region, everywhere in companion, mostly companion or everywhere in companion. The Romans used to call companion Felix because, wherever you are, you you grow anything, you know, not just the, you know, grapes, you know, vegetables, you know, back then they they have the, the tomatoes. But when the tomatoes arrived from South America, look who happened, you know, even the tomato itself, they found the best location in, behind the other side of a monthly subius, and they had San Marzano. Even the tomatoes found their, you know, the best soil to go was there. So it's like, y'all, it's a land piece by god, and, the volcanic soil makes, you know, the entire difference. And, when it comes to grips, just like, in this case, specific case, the Grenco, yes, is a very, very mineral kind of terroir. And, yeah, those minerals that, you know, they you can actually feel both in the in the in the nose and the mouth. That's the first thing you actually the minerality is there. And, of course, it's as a full, floral, you know, bouquet. And that's all, the zesty flavors of, you know, the the minerals that you can feel tingles on the on the tongue. That's a beautiful description of a of a Greco di tinfoil. That's It's so true. Yeah. Because in the same time, if you actually plant this service active arrival anywhere else in Italy, yeah, you will get the, you know, a good wine, but, yeah, it would be missing a good, you know, other things. So, yeah. How old are your vines? The vines are like, you know, they're they're all two either are ten hectares of, vines, very often, fifty percent of, you know, actually, more or sixty percent of those vines are all greco. And, average age is about, you know, twelve years. There are some holders about average, twelve years. I know, Terry, the I-one has branched out also into hospitality. What what sort of facilities and events? Are you doing? Can our listeners come and visit you? Of course. Yes. They are, you know, about five years ago, we opened up the, above the winery, which is a different structure, as a beautiful, about, I was saying, let's say square feet is about, you know, six hundred square no. Actually, sorry. You know, six thousand square feet is a, yeah, I was about to say six hundred. It's six thousand square feet. That's huge. Nice. Yes. It's been really nice. Yes. It has, like, nice, you know, kitchen area where you're we prepare, you know, with the local chef from the town. Comes here prepare, you know, local foods with, everything grown in the area, vegetables, and, you know, meats and stuff. And, yeah, of course, with our own wines, people can, go to the website teradata dot com. Right? And then we can, you know, we can, there's all kind of events that they can join. Perfect. If we can just, you know, if they want somebody wants to just make a a special event, just their own, they can just, you know, we're gonna try and get some people down to your opinion to see you, down to to That would be wonderful. I know you're also making grappa and Spumante with Greco now. Who's the idea was this? How how's the feedback been on on the Grappa and the Spumante? Yes. We have the the the the the the the I mean, this one thing with the Greco is, to the Greco, but we actually, we are trying to make, you know, because to make Spomante here is it would be, like, kinda like the proceed or kind of method. You know? Maginald. So we'll, right now, we bring the grips when at the facility that does that, you know, by which we will make more year once we have our own, you know, facilities. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But it's actually an interesting project because, yes, we're done in a small amount and, you know, the The results were wonderful. You know, Grego is really great, but also for a Polycoma, obviously, bubbles. So we would definitely make more. Perfect. How high up are your vineyards? It's about, yeah, six hundred meters from sea level. They'll be great for a Sumante. That sounds amazing. It is. You still have that nice facility. Of course. Yes. Yeah. I am. And then that's why we'll, I love it. And I would like to to see Andrew make more, more and more because I will I will I'm a good consumer myself. So It sounds delicious. I'm gonna have to come and try it. Sure. So how about the grandpa? What's happening? Yeah. Can you just, you know, yeah, we don't make our course here. We we gotta bring the vinars share, which is a we bring to a local, you know, distillery and then they make it up. So I think many people who are listening to us don't know that it's against the law to make Grubba at a winery. You can't distill things at a winery. You have to take it the product to the distillery and they do it for you. Yeah. Yeah. At least you make a very, very small quantity for real just personal consumption, but it's like, you make just a few balls. But with a, you know, a small alambique, but if you wanna make a few balls, then you gotta go through the, the network of the the license distillery and then they gotta put the stamp, and you'll get a pay on the fees and then get cheese, you know, the, the own other things. Yes. It'll he likes taxes. There's always gonna be tax. Is it worth it? What's how's it how's it in the glass? When when I've got my Greco grappa, How is it? What color is it? And first of all, is it spinning it? It's very smooth. Yeah, it's very smooth. It's just, when it comes to graph, if somebody's, you know, I say connoisseur or grappa can detect the difference. You know, if somebody just, like, brings grappa once in a while, you know, but you didn't know about it. You gotta be, you know, your pilot needs to be very, you know, trained. It's very smooth. It's like, it doesn't give you, the most important for spirits, especially, like, speeds like grab, and, you know, I think the keyword is is smoothness. Yes. If you don't want that journey. The burning that I have, like, the throat that is burning. Yeah. So that's probably definitely. Wine to wine business forum. Everything you need to get ahead in the world of wine. Supercise your business network. Share business ideas with the biggest voices in the industry. Join us in Verona on November thirteen to fourteen twenty twenty three. Tickets available now at point wine dot net. Well, these are both really interesting. I'm gonna have to come back. I love your pena. I I need to come and see you. But, before I let you go, let me just ask you, you know, sort of your thoughts about your pena at the moment. It's it's one of those places when I'm talking to my clients and, you know, outside of Italy. They don't know where it is that it's it's hard to explain it. And we have such amazing wines coming from there now. You know, you want a trophy. Lots of, producers really creating excellent wines. What's your strategy to sort of put your pena on the map? When when I'm telling my clients in New York, they should buy Compania wine, and it should be your pena wine. How are we gonna get their attention and and get these wines on the map? Well, in general, as I said before, Compania is, first of all, you know, everybody knows that, your Roman Empire, Rome was the capital of, you know, the Empire of course. But probably, though, too many people knows that, actually, the Roman Empire basically started a more in the company than the Rome itself because Naples, which is, actually, was a Greek, you know, city, one of the of the top Greek city on the of the south of Italy. The the Greek people came from, you know, the Sissony, who was all, you know, Calabrio, you know, Balipos was like the, you know, the metropolis of, of the Greek, Italy, back then, and, back in the the north part of it, and then the central part of it was the Triscans. So the Triscans are saying that the Greeks basically had joined forces, even from Bay itself. Pay itself was actually the trust considers. No that's not even many people knows that before it was a the corruption. Yeah. So that the the connection between the Romans and the trust principles was actually made earlier in company, And as miss Fakt was probably just like down the road here in in that small town is called Kapua. Kapua means like it had. So, basically, that's what's actually Kapua was the general, headquarter over the Roman army was in Capua. It's only, like, by car, if a companion who was basically, before Roman Empire was, like, yeah, the stronghold of, of the empire. Well, I think this is the story we have to get out there. This this history Not only not only being, like, one thousand years old. The Vipos be one thousand years older than Rogue itself. And that the the wines of, were produced here. Opinion area. It's two for itself. It's only, like, about thirty, thirty five, forty minutes from Annapoli. And many people goes to visit Napa, but they will go to visit Pompe. So they can use a short, you know, short ride to come to a p and I discovered this wonderful area. And it is beautiful. I've been many times. It's one of my favorite areas, in Campania, and the views are stunning. The landscape is beautiful, but I I think you've put your finger on it. We have to do more storytelling about Compania and Irpina because this is this is history. This is fantastic and these ancient wines that have been there for such a long time. This is how we're gonna get people buying Compania wine. Yes. Just to you, even though the microclimate here is completely different because we're talking about, when in the, in the, like, in the regular times of the year, even in the summer times, it's always about ten degrees. Almost ten degrees Celsius difference between the, you know, the down in Naples area to appear because it's, like, way up. You're so lucky. It's it's thirty seven degrees in Barona today. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So that's why this, this, kind of, climate difference between the, the winter, the, or the night and days. So that's what makes the grips, you know, growing, you know, in the perfect condition. Well, I can't wait to come back and visit your opinion again, and I'm gonna have to come and see I haven't been there yet. So I have something to look forward to. That's spumante Greco Ditufo. So I just wanna congratulate you once again on your trophy and your wonderful wine. And I hope everyone who's listening will come down there to see you soon. Thank you very much, and we look forward to see you soon. You're welcome. Chaz alvatorre, to be like. Nice to meet you. Nice to talk to you. Bye bye. Thank you for listening. And remember to tune in next Wednesday, when I'll be chatting with another fascinating guest. Italian wine podcast is among the leading wine podcast cast in the world and the only one with a daily show tune in every day and discover all our different shows. You can find us at Italian wine podcast dot com, SoundCloud, Spotify, Himalaya, or wherever you get your pods.