Ep. 541 Stephanie Biondi | Voices

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm Rebecca Lawrence, and this is voices. In this set of interviews, I will be focusing on issues of inclusion, diversity, and allyship through inter at conversations with wine industry professionals from all over the globe. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps us cover equipment, production and publication costs, and remember to subscribe and rate our show wherever you tune in. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast with me Rebecca Lawrence. I'm pleased to be in conversation today with Stephanie Biondi who's joining us from Aetna in Sicily. Welcome to the podcast, Stephanie, and thank you so much for taking the time to have a conversation with me today. I was hoping you could introduce yourself to our listeners and maybe tell them a little bit about what you do. Okay. Right. Well, I'm British, as you can hear, but I've been living in Sicily since ninety one, met Shiro at the towards the end of the nineties, and his family have had these vineyards on the foothills of, Mountetna planted on craters, but they've virtually been abandoned. So we decided take it upon ourselves to sort of like this legacy that being left to him, we decided we needed to replant, really, because it saddened us to see this, you know, these craters with, you know, crumbling terraces with very few vines left whose, Chirra's father was actually making wine from the vines, but just selling Sean's Sunday morning, selling its fauca. Cheah is actually grandfather and great uncle. They were actually, producing wine at the turn of the century and winning prizes at Lyon and Paris, but then that all went into into decline after the the second World War. But Chiras father, you know, he continued making wine, but we realized that, well, the wine he was making was fairly done in a very artisan way and we felt we could, well, try and sort of improve on that. But the main objective, as I said, was to replant the vineyards because they were so beautiful. And, so, obviously, it was the the vineyards were in their full sort of, you know, they were producing at their full potential end, but so been abandoned after the second World War, and this is when we decided to start and embark on this, adventure to restore the vineyards, making a little bit of wine along the way in order to pay for the the planting and the restoration of the vineyards, let's say. So now here we are a little bit further along the line. We started off with producing about five thousand bottles in ninety nine, and now we are producing about two hundred and fifty thousand, and, with about seven it is. So it's just being, you know, increasing the production slowly, slowly along the way restoring the vineyards, increasing the production, until where we've got today. So that's really a little bit of the background, what we're doing now. So, of course, I also have to ask you to rewind a little bit more because obviously, as you said, you're you're British, but now living in Italy, but I understand you also spent your childhood in Nigeria. So before we do a bit more of a deep dine into the kind of wines. Tell us a little bit about, you know, how you came to be in Sicily. Like, what was the what was the journey from from UK to Nigeria to Sicily? Tell us a little bit about that. Well, okay. Well, actually, I was actually brought up in in Nigeria. My parents went in the early fifties to Nigeria. So whilst there, I would, we would actually get my first introduction to wine was actually was in Nigeria funnily enough because we would go on holidays to Cameroon across the border, which was French actually. My parents used to fill the car with Desjon's of of of wine and then go back to Nigeria. And, I mean, they've tried to force me to drink it, but it was actually I think even my pallet then, I realized it was actually, it offers civilized, it had been, you know, temperatures of, you know, sort of forty degrees. So it was really awful, but my parents, you know, they they carried on drinking it. Then we would have for holidays, it's hilarious. But then all then we'd go on holidays, when my parents came back from Nigeria on leave during the summer. We'd go on holidays to Italy. They had a place in Ibiza. My mother used to do I remember Astdi Spomante, and it was just awful. And it was sent to the boarding school when I was nine, but my parents at a house in Suffolk. So after having left school, I moved to Suffolk, and that was at the end of the seventies when they had the wine bar boom. And and I remember I used to go to this wine bar called the butts or the corkscrew or something. And the only wine you could get was this German, like, blue nun, And that too was undrinkable. It was awful. So I would be drinking beer. But then, next step with my wine, sort of education as it were. I had a close friend Barbara who was going out with this guy a hotelier who had, like, it was like a a lovely, country house hotel, and she couldn't drive. So she would ask me to take her to the hotel in the evenings where she would be invited for dinner. I would get invited in for having a polativo, which I was introduced then to Sancerre, which I fell in love with. And then Ian, Ian Hatfield, who owned the hotel, would then invite me to stay for dinner. And Barbara, my friend would kick me under the table together. I thought, no way I'm gonna stay. So then, I we I was introduced to a lot of the classic burgundy wines. So I was drinking things like Chateau Margaux, Lafite, Latout, amazing wines. So this was my sort of introduction to it. Thanks to Barbara and thanks to Ian. And then, as I said, my parents had a house in Ibiza, and then holidaying in Ibiza, where, of course, then we were drinking lots of Rio and lots of Spanish wines. I met some people from Sicily came to visit in Sicily that came a few times, and then just, Sicily, have you been? I have. Yes. You have. I love it. It's terribly seductive. It really is dangerously seductive. And, and so I ended up staying. Yes. I followed my heart, not my head, and came. So first visit was the end of the eighties, and then I moved I was here in ninety one, early nineties, and and then a few a little bit down the line. I then met Chiro. Yes. I because it was the awful thing about Sicily is that I used to come back from england with all this energy, with all these, you know, innovative projects I wanted to do, like, children's playgrounds, you know, for trying to, improve, you know, like, getting people to advertising, and now we see lots of advertising roundabouts to improve that, you know, I'd go to the como and they'd say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this project, which was, fantastic. But it was, you know, a bit challenging initially coming to Sicily, but, having spent many years in Nigeria, I think that that did help, you know, sort of going with the flow, carrying a book in my handbag all the time, and, Yes. So obviously, you work very closely with your husband in the winery. I wanted to ask a little bit about, like, working one on one with your partner. I know must must be I imagine this must be quite challenge. Do you divide the roles equally, or are you just accepting the inevitable arguments and going with the flow? Well, our roles are they're fairly fairly well defined. We've got manfredi, Chiro's nephew, his sister's, son, who works in the, in naturally the seller. So he takes care of the seller during the harvest and things. Chiro takes care of a lot of the, the factor of the invoices and things. He's, I tend to concentrate a little bit on the, the, the incoming, you know, the, the clients, being the visitors who want to come. So the the, you know, we are fairly I mean, like, when it comes to offling and the blending, we all sit down tasting together. So it's a little bit, you know, they're fairly well defined. But this, as you well know, is is pretty male dominated, sort of society here, particularly in Sicily. And I do sort of Shira does make the final decisions. I make lots of suggestions, but it says his, at the end of the day, his decisions, which I, you know, I'm having this responsibility. I don't think I'd want, so I'm rather happy for him to make a lot of the decisions. I mean, we do, me, me and manfredi, we do sort of, make lots of suggestions and things, but at the end of the day, it's, I think Cheah makes the decisions. Yeah. Because as I said, is is this been a fairly male dominated. The women, I mean, women are very tough here. They really are because not only do they have the traditional roles about mother looking after the house, but they also network as well. So they really are, and they remind me a lot actually. Have you read Angela's ashes by Frank La Court? Yes. Of course. So those those Irish ladies that would go down to sort of like queue for mattresses for clothes, and the men would be sort of sticking up. That that reminds me very much of that, these sicilian women, they are very, very, yes. Very resilient. Yes. Indeed. Yes. Yes. So, well, yes. So you can say that, our roles are fairly defined ish. Yes. I like the defined ish, very diplomatic. So I want to return to you you mentioned sort of early on in your wine journey having been able to taste some of the great wines from Burgundy, and I know this has become a bit of a fascination for you and a little bit adopted in your processing methods. So how do you find this combination of of burgundian methods maybe with the indigenous vines and terwar of Aetna? How did you put these two things together? Well, this is, it was actually, inspired by a visit to Burgundy because we were fortunate enough to, Robert Camuto, who you probably, I know you wrote a book called Palmento. He came a few years ago and became firm friends with. One evening, we were having dinner in the vineyard, and he came with, and, and Kermit Lynch. So as a result of this, Or bear invited us to go to burgundy to visit him and the cellar vineyards, which was absolutely magnificent. This was in two thousand and eleven in February, and having, tasted his, you know, we'd we'd tasted the grand grande de Chiselle Saint Leuvoir, and, and more hachey. And that was the two thousand and one, and we just looked at each other and thought, my god, this is amazing. Then, we were very reluctant to sort of ask, you know, sort of, for any sort of advice. What we should do, we just sort of listen to, you know, but we're just in awe, really. So but then, Kermit invited us to well, he'd actually arrange for us to visit other other winemakers, small winemakers. So we felt more comfortable than able to ask, you know, about the winemaking process and what to do and so forth. And so, except, Paul Fousa, there was a wonderful, Robert, we worked visited him, him and his son were there. Fantastic. And we spent ages there. And then when we came back, Cheah, so come on, let's try and make a little bit short for our, So we decided, to start this was in two thousand eleven. So the first thing to do is, so what we did, instead of planting lots of chardonnay, we thought, you know, we'd copy the concept, not the, not the form. And so we decided to have a few experiment and see what came out. So we did just following their suggestions. So we would, like, just to, you know, having picked the the grapes, we've left them on their skins for twenty four hours, low temperature. At that time, it was very difficult because we didn't have a refrigeration unit. So we were using bottles of cold, frozen water, luring into into the grapes to try and keep the temperature down, very Heath Robinson sort of style, and then taking the wine into town where the cellar is and, and then starting the fermentation in o. The first three years wasn't that great, a little bit oxidized because of the transportation. And then from the twenty fifteen, we got a little bit happy. Then there was the batonage to how, we were doing batonage once a week. The twenty fourteen, we said, well, let's do every, you know, once every two weeks. So it we're still at this experimental stage, but the results, we actually we're really quite sort of pleased with. And, you know, over the years, we've managed to sort of slightly improve. The only concern that we now is we're afraid of evolving too quickly with the the Batonage, which I believe in Burgundy as well, they too are finding this. So, you know, we're still it's still work in progress, but we're, this was, as I say, the inspiration behind it and just using the same, you know, same, the same great varieties, but we use it from the top of the vineyard chanto, and this is the name of the crew, the single vineyard, chanto that we make with the, with this method, because the useless white, the other white we do is just very, easy peasy, just fermenting the juice in stainless steel. So two totally two different styles of wine, and we usually serve this. When we do a tasting, we usually serve the canter, at the end. And it's wonderful to see everybody's faces as they put their nose into the glass. They say, wow, you know, what's what's what's this? So it's a very interesting, you know, style that we've introduced. So as I said, inspired by that wonderful visit, thanks to Robert. Yeah. I think that's really interesting to hear, and and particularly with the with the white wine taking this approach because colleagues of mine who do a lot of blind tasting have often said that when you taste the red wines of Aetna against the red wines of burgundy, that lots of people can get confused. So it's really interesting to see you taking this on particularly with the white wines I think that's a really great and exciting project for the winery. Yes. Because we I mean, we the the wines we make are actually to suit our palette, what we enjoy. We're actually helped by initially had a consultant that helped us, but the most important person I think who who put us in the right direction who shared our same sort of, like, that this type of stylist, who had Cristiano Garrella. I don't know if you, know Cristiana. He actually he he was a young lad. He started working with, Sella, Cantina Sella, and he's an your mom then. He came down, fell in love with that, and it came down, it was I think it was two thousand and nine and ten. And he came down at saucer and grapes, which we made the wine under his instructions. So he helped us and guided us, like not doing a very long maceration, getting this lovely acidity, this elegance, not you know, and the color slightly lighter, this sort of style, which we enjoy drinking and, but it was very difficult at the beginning, you know, talking about this style is that particularly with Germany, because the German market, you know, when we'd send samples, they say no, no, because they didn't think it was like sicilian because there's such a difference as you, you know, as you said between Etna and the rest of sicily. And initially, people just wanted Nero Davala would go to the verona finishing. Everybody said, no, don't know, Nero Dorno dava. But over the years, people have become, you know, very, you as you said, I mean, acne has become very, very popular particularly with people who enjoy the the, you know, the the burgundy style, this, like, you know, nice, elegant, acidity and so forth. That actually leads really nicely into my next question, which was going to touch on the fact that, you know, the the Aetna wines, the DOC up in Aetna has begun to receive quite a lot of attention from experts and consumers in recent years. And I I wondered what your view on this was and why you think that these wines have suddenly begun to find an appeal in in a broader market? Well, I think purely for this, because these characteristics, and people are very, very surprised when they come, and they they discover these wines are, you know, these high stewed wines. So, I mean, like Eric Kasimov came over because he wanted to explore what was happening on Aetna and mainly for Kanicante, which is another gentleman who came who actually bought a vineyard here and and produces in Sonoma. He thinks that Kallicante is going to be one of the best, one of the best white varieties in the world, you know, this guy Kevin Harvey. So he's become, you know, fell in love with Calicante. And it's it's similar because we get these visitors, and we've had people from even from Santolini. We've compared this you know, with the, acetico, you know, the ketticante, you've got it's got the same similar characteristics, and it's lovely of this age worthiness because people think a white wine can't, but but the Otis white, for example, you know, tasting two thousand fourteen, going further and further back, And, you know, when it's just bottled, you've got this lovely crispy crunchy lemony, this citrusy, this salty, and which then evolves and becomes sort of slightly honeyed. It becomes, you know, lots of layers, a little bit more sort of aromatic So I think, you know, there is a lot of people recognize this Calicante as being one of the, leading voracious it could be in, in, in the world. Yes. You're making me desperately want a glass. I know, I know, I'm I'm I'm dribbling as I'm salivating describing it. It's it's almost lunchtime as we're doing this, and I'm just imagining a beautiful glass of Karicante. Yeah. Yeah. And also we've got, as I mentioned, you've got the Karicante Minnela and also the Katicante. It's about probably ninety percent of the Caticante but we've got quite a lot of Manila in the in the vineyard as well. And so, because I think Benanti, Benanti, once they did a a minelli in Poretta, which, which they stopped. But one thing I must say about Aetna, when we started, there was this real sense solidarity, this real sense of sort of camaraderie and and we'd we'd often meet together and sort of have dinner here at at the vineyards. And, it was lovely, you know, it really was the sense of, of a family. Because when we started mining now, there's probably about nine other producers on Aetna who were bottling. And then now if you think, it's about one hundred and sixty producers now on Aetna. So it really has become, which is great because a lot of the vineyards have been abandoned you've got people coming in, buying up the vineyards replanting. So there's been like a renaissance, I think is Andrea Franketti, virtue, as the renaissance, and also Martha Bratzier, who was the, who came and, and I think, flew the flag and sort of, with all their marketing teams helped you know, get focus on Aetna, thanks to them as well. And also Benanti, who's one of the the pioneers, as as you know, and there's, you know, Marcony Galosi, you know, Biergrande, there's, yes, lots of people to, to thank for this, And but it's the most important thing though is what we try to do is maintain the quality. That's the importance. And, and so this is something that, you know, we're we're trying to continue. It's been it's been really nice to to see the sort of gradual regeneration of the area around Aetna. Cause as you say, when I first visited, there were still quite a lot of vineyards just completely abandoned, and now you've got such fantastic terroir and such a wonderful microclimate And also on Aetna itself, you have microclimates. Obviously, the north and the south faces are very different, which I think is, for me, one of the things that makes the Aetna wines so fascinating and why I think as you say, one of the things you're doing is doing these kind of single vineyard bottlings. I think they is a really great direction for producers on Aetna because it is so specific and does mirror the wines of Burgundy and also Barolo in the sense of having these very particular microclimates and terroir that really are incredibly well reflected in the wines. Yes. Cause there's also any dementia about the north and the south. Initially, people were talking about Echna as a whole. And then having divided up now into the contradas, you got the north and the south. And and then it was interesting because like every single north is best south. And then when Gya, when he added a Gya, when he bought her vineyards in the south for south of Aetna, but it's all the south mustn't be that hot after all if Andrew Gai comes in. Yeah. And, yes, it's interesting as you say. I mean, it's so diverse. Even here on the south side, and we've got an erupt from a hundred and twenty five BC, which the lava flow, the crater is where the bill the vineyards are are built on the the spent crater. But the lava flow goes down to Fabio Constantino. He's got a vineyard via Grande. So he's actually vineyards are planted on our the the the love from our eruptions that were. And there is and there's like and there's a thread. You can see that there's a similarity that as you say quite rightly, I mean, it really is so diverse. Hence, we're not in competition with each other. They really are from vineyard to vineyard, you know, she's San Ofori and Sanicolor, two separate eruptions. And the vine, you know, where you should taste the wine side by side, some people say, well, is the minification different? Is that the the grapes different? But it's just as you say because of the terroir, it's just the the soil. I often wonder if this is also where this sense of community that you talk about comes from, because like you say, you're not in competition with each other. You're just showing what each of the different plots can do, and I really got a sense of the kind of community spirit of winemakers and every winery I visit they, you know, they would say, oh, have you been to this winery? Have you been in have you seen what these guys are doing? They were just wanted to share the whole of Aetna. Yes. It's an amazing collaboration, you know, particularly amongst the, you know, the early producers, and we would send people, as you say, we'd ring up and I'd ring, you know, just say, but also we'd ring, Alberto, we'd ring a liter of inequality, various people, you know, say, oh, yes, we've got some people here. No. No. Great. Great. Yes. It's fantastic. Yes. I I love it. So thinking about the future, obviously, it's been a quite a challenging couple of years for everyone, but let's let's look ahead with positivity, and I wondered what you think the future is for maybe Aetna, but also particularly for for what you're doing. You said at the top we were talking that you've just started planting some new vines. So tell us a little bit about what's what's happening for you in the next few years. Well, we've, as I said, we've purchased another little bit of Sanicolor. So the production of Sanicolor, which is a very, very popular, it's one of the most popular crews. Which is actually usually sold out before it's even bottled. You know, we have to allocate it. So we're going to be able to increase that production. Then I think we're not going to be, we're purchasing another little piece of land, but I think we want to increase production to about thirty thousand bottles in that search. Because we got me, Chia, as I said, and manfredi, my our son, Alex, is actually in Toronto working within the the the the wine business, doing these sort of hospitality and so forth. But he actually came back just before COVID with the with the idea to to help us with the incoming and with the visitors, but then obviously that all fell. That's stopped. So he's actually gone back to Toronto, but this is the thing when you talk about the future of Sicily as well, where why was in New York once, and there was a an Italian chat though, we were doing a tasting. And he said there's so many people leaving Italy to go abroad. You know, who is left in Italy to to to take, you know, the country forward because all the brilliant people are leaving. And I actually, teach English and, a lot of the parents you're investing, a lot in their children in order for them to go abroad, to further their education. And the and hopefully, they will actually, you know, come back because this is this is a problem, but, you know, but the the government and all the the problems at the moment, but But as, as we mentioned earlier, that Circilians are very resilient, and we live on a volcano. We have tremors, but, you know, at the end of the day, that they are very, you know, resilient, and they do manage overcome any obstacles, any problems that are thrown their way. So, and if it managed to reinvent ourselves in wonderful ways during this period, I mean, our sales have been we sold nothing from March until sort of, actually, September. As I said, very few visited. Oh, in the in the summer, we had a lot of a lot of visitors, but then of course that went down again. So it's been a difficult time, but I think it can only get better. Yes. Things can only get better. Well, I really look forward to seeing how the new the new plot develops and the wines that come out of it. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining me on the Italian wine podcast today. Where can our listeners find you and the wines online or on social media? Well, we've we've got the website, levinirbion dicontiti, dot I c. The website, but also, we've got social media Chirra's a great photographer. So he's, he's, he's, on Instagram as Cheerobion, and I'm on Instagram as Steph Biondi. So, there's, you know, we're very sort of servants. There's lots of photographs of, you know, the vines, vineyards, wine, food, the dogs. And, so, they can find us there. Okay. Stephanie, thank you so much. Thanks a lot. It's wonderful talking to you. Thanks so much. Okay. Bye bye. Listen to the Italian one podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.