Ep. 2404 Vitis in Vulture Winery in Basilicata | Wine, Food & Travel with Marc Millon (5StarWines - the Book 2025 Series)

When we dig, to make the cellar, and, we found an ancient Romani, town. That they make, yes, iron. They work with the iron, to make us ward, shield, and other thing of that. But the particular review of our, archaeological site are, Petoy. Petoy was on all inside of that, zone. That Romaniq use, for the fermentation of high quality wines. So we are very lucky where we have to build the the seller, Romaniq, population made the wine Fascinating people with stories to share, fabulous wines, and the best local foods to accompany them, and beautiful places to discover and visit. All of this and more on wine food and travel with me, Mark Millen, on the Italian wine podcast. Join me for a new episode every Tuesday. Welcome to wine food and travel with me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Today, I'm delighted to continue a special subseries that highlights the winners of the prestigious five star wines competition that took place in April, just prior to Vin Italy twenty twenty five. Those wines had scored more than ninety points. Have been included in the five star twenty twenty five book. Well, the very best wines in each category were singled out for special awards. Today, we traveled to basilicata, to the wine hills of Volt today. Where on an ancient and extinct volcano grapes have been grown for maybe two thousand years or more. And where we meet today's guest, Giuseppe Aviliano, the president of the Vitus in voltore cooperative winery, who's wine, Forerento, two thousand twenty four, Vasiliicata, IGP, Rosato, won the five star wines, best Jose wine award with a score of ninety three points. Many congratulations to Zappe to you and to your team at Vitas in volt today. It's a great achievement. How are you today? Good morning to everyone. It's a very pleasure to be here with you, Mark. And, we are very proud of this achievement for our seller. And, this is a good, point to start this, new ARvest that you are prepared for. So it's very important for us this. Okay. Great. Well, it is a great achievement. As I say, I was one of the judges during, the two, three days of analysis of more than two thousand lines. And I know there were many very good Rosato wines submitted. And so to win the highest award is a real achievement. Giuseppe, we are in Vasili Carta now. Our listeners are located all around the world, and many may not been to basilicata. I've actually only been there twice myself in many years of travel in Italy, but it's a beautiful, a still undiscovered region. Can you tell us, first of all, a little bit about basilicata? And about the vineyards of Vult today? We are located in a north part of basilica region. We are in Lavelo. The first town, in the north of basilicata. The basilica region have the the Bulturaria. Vulturaria is an area where, was an extinct volcano, Vulturicola. And, now, thanks, of that. We can make, that is our principal vineyard. In our region. But also, we have a different kind of, vineyard, like, Chardene, Palangino, Moscato, Malvasia, also Primitivo, Sierra, and Merlo. So, a little part of, native grape, and also international grape. Okay. So just to, for our our listeners to place basilicata, we are in the south of Italy. Yep. You're in North basilicata. So is that bordering, Campania? And also a little bit of Portia. Yeah. We are in California. Yeah. Okay. And there's a little even a little bit of basilicata that has the ionian coast. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have the the part of Polycoro town on that part. And, on the other side, we have Maratea. Okay. So we have two kind of sea and also we have in the middle of the region, beautiful part of mountains. Like, Petra Bertosa, where you can make the angel fly is a very attractive for the tourist. What what what is that? Yeah. It's a zipline between, two town and you make this, in a freeway without nothing, just a zipline, and, you go down to Petra Bertosa, from Caselle Medzano. It's a very adrenalineic, tourist things. Yeah. Oh my. That sounds amazing. Yeah. Giuseppe tell us the story of Vitus in volt today. We born in, two thousand six. And, principally, we make only bulk wine and the sell only grape. After five years, me with my brothers, Antonio and Jambiro made this cooperative, make wine directing from us. And now today, we produce two hundred thousand bottles. Per year. And, today, we have two hundred fifty hectares. One hundred hectares are us from us and my family. And the other part is, divided by fifty members of the cooperative PTC Vultura. Also, we have a beautiful cellar in the heart of Lavelo. The cellar is surrounded by beautiful Vineyard, of Alyanigodel Vultra. And, we have a little, beautiful archaeological site inside of our cellar. Okay. So that's a really interesting story. You began in two thousand six originally selling bulk wines, but now bottling wines and working with up to fifty small growers. From my experience in the Volter area, there's still a lot of Very, very small growers who have patches of old vines and perhaps those are the people that you're working with on this ancient wine land, who then supply you with the high quality grapes needed to produce your wines. Is that how you're working? Yeah. Yeah. So we have, the lucky to work with, difficult kind of off grape, like, Alainigo del Voutre, because Alainigo del Voutre is a very particular grape, and, we are very proud to be here, and to have a big achievement with that grape in a Rosay way, obviously. And it's not easy to grow and, to work, in a vineyard and in a cellar, to because, we have a very important, laws that make the Alyanigu that would play a d o c for our region. For example, in a a actor of Vineyard, we can make at least the eighty tons perimeters to make DOC. And, AdiOCG, we have sixty tons perimeters. So low yields from old vines. Tell us a little bit about the volt today landscape. You're on this dink, this mighty, very large volcano, I recall, on the lower slopes, but slopes that reach up to quite a high altitude. Tell us about the altitude and fines because I think, you know, I think a lot of people listening around the world. We think that everything in the south is always sunny and Mhmm. But I I've been to volt today in the winter, and it was incredibly cold. And, you know, it it's a different landscape than perhaps what we think of as Southern Italy. On this volcanic flank. Yeah. But the region have a different, kind of, altitude. So we are in Lavelo, and we are about, above the sea, two hundred meters. But, if we can reach we can arrive at six hundred meters. So we have a different kind of, of that altitude. And also that, in the wind there, have a very a very rigid, cold. Yeah. Yeah. I can remember that cold. It felt like I was in the mountains of Northern Italy. Yeah. It's it's quite similar. Yeah. Yeah. Now, the Anianiko in Volterre has a very long history. Can you tell us a little bit about this long history? Grapes have been grown for literally thousands of years. Yeah. We know that, Alani Gota Bultry arrives from the Greece, and, it was called in that time, Atlantic. Elani Kuma from the Greece and they bring that from the Greece to south of Italy and also know that he will be planted in our region because he's very strong grape it resist at aig and the low temperature. So we have a lucky of that, because, they try to plant in other region, like Pulia, Campania, but it's not the same. So it's changed totally from other region. So they find that, a basilicata region is very, very good fit for that, that kind of grape or that vineyard. Okay. So Alianico, which I think is one of the absolute great red wine grapes of Italy alongside Nabiolo and San gervais and Alianico, and maybe we could add Narello Masca now into that mix But Alianico, of course, finds expression in Campania and for Tarazi and in the Alianico de what is unique about Alianico dello today? What are the characteristics that an allianico del voltore has. First of all, the difference between, company, Alianico, and our allianico is, the percentage that we use for make in a company, they can use, above eighty five percent. We have use, we must use one hundred percent of Alianico to make Alianico del Voutre. And, also, we have, a strong character like wine, and the typical inch of our product is, the black pepper. Very typical of Alainnogadel Gutierrez. Yes. A really intense expression of Alianico. Now, let's turn. We're talking about, of course, Alianico. Del voltaire, d o c g, the red wine, but let's turn now to your award winning wine. Yep. But Silicata, g p Rosata. Can you tell us a little bit about this wine? So, this wine is completely made of Alianco del Voutre grape. We make our harvest before the full of maturation. So we start to harvest, Alianico to make, at the half of September. And, we work Alani go grape, like, white wine. So we put the grape in the press just for two hours to extract the minimum part of the color because Alani go to a peel grape. Have a most of color inside of the the peel. So it's very important for us, that, the grapes stay in contact with the most, at maximum time of two hours. After that, we put that on a steel tanker. To make the the fermentation. After that, is the in, steel bottle for six months. And after you finish the two months in a bottle before we start to sell that Okay. So it's a a classic Rosay left on the skins briefly to extract color. Is it a pale Rosay or a medium in color? I haven't had this wine myself. Yeah. Yeah. No. It's a a simple pillar, but, the the pillow of Alainwalutre is very full of color. Okay. So stay just in the press before the fermentation, into contact with the pill, to extract the middle part of color. Yeah. Well, I know there were a lot of rosatos sampled at five star wines I don't know if I tasted your wine because we taste blind, of course. Mhmm. But, after wines receive their points, the panel of judges, the, panel chairman all retaste the wines and then retaste them again. For the wines that receive awards. So your wine would have been tasted repeatedly. And the judges wrote a tasting note, and they said, a serious characterful gastronomic rose with delicate fresh red fruits and pepper on the nose. Yep. On the rounded palette, texture. There's refreshing acidity and juicy fruit core, which lingers on the finish. A memorable example of this style. Is that a fair description of your wine? Yeah. Yeah. This description fit regularly on this hour or Okay. Great. Well, they were obviously very impressed, and they said it's a a gastronomic Rosay. So I'd like to turn now in general to the gastronomy of basilicata. As I say, a lot of people will not have been to but I know there's some wonderful local food that every visitor should try. So let's talk in general about some of these food specialties of basilicata. And the wines from Vites in Volterre that would pair well with some of your local dishes. Yeah. So we produce a principal red wine. So I start from, pairing with red wine. Okay. Typical dishes of our region is a salted cod with tomato sauce and also with medium banana butter like our labellum and also, potolique typical of our region is a very fit, or other kind of, game, meet. They are very fit with our Alengo del Bultura, wines. With our rosette, we usually recommend to pairing with, white meat, like a rabbit, typical hour zone. And, for our white wine, we usually make a fish super, and, they are very interesting with, with that. Yeah. Okay. Is there a lot of pepperoncino in the cuicino of basilicata? Not pepperoncino, but we also work with, pepperoncino. Is not spicy, but it's very crunchy, and we use it for condiment. Okay. What would be a typical primo pieto? In our town, our typical dishes, it would, raviolo with ricotta cheese inside this week. Fried, and with, tomato sauce and pepperoni, it's called it, in our dialect, katsunjeet. Katsunjeet. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And what would wine would you pair with that? With that, Alyanigodal Voutre basic, with not too much, wood part inside, is very, good pairing. Okay. And then, typical secundo would be would be this padolica beef cooked in or or? Oh, okay. That sounds great. So you'd have a more mature, a more complex ala yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada with that. Now, Giuseppe, I know, I know you have a very beautiful and modern Cantina. Did you build that when you began the Co features involved today? Yeah. We start to build the the seller in two thousand. And we finished the work in two thousand six, just to when we start to make, our first book wine and another kind of that. The architect that make, our seller is Ikaru mori. He's a Japanese architect the same, that to build the feldis and Gregorio and, Alaya. So we are very proud to work with, Ikaruomori. Yes. And, She, project our seller with, three kind of material, food, iron, and stone. They are the two principle material that, she used to make that, that seller. And, all the seller is covered by volcanic, from, ultrasound. And you have a small archaeological museum in the cellar? Not a museum, but archaeological zone, because when we dig, to make the cellar, and, we found an ancient Romani, town. That they make, yes, iron. They work with the iron to make sword, shield, and other thing of that. But the particular review of our, archaeological site are, it was on all inside of that, zone. That Romaniq use, for the fermentation of high quality wines. So we are very lucky where we have to build the the seller, Romaniq, population made the wine Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. So the Petoya are the big old Dolium that the Yeah. The fermentation vessels in terracotta. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Amazing. That shows you how linked to the past, you know, a a why a modern winery such as yours has roots that can literally go back two thousand years. Yeah. Giuseppe final question, Our listeners, I'm sure, would be intrigued to know more and perhaps to visit you. Can they visit Vitus involved today? And what do you offer? We are open, six days on seven in the week. And we work, principally with the booking of the visitor. And, yeah, we have three kind of, tasting in the cellar. We start with the basic tasting with only three wines and, typical dishes of our local a product. And we finish with eight kind of wine tasting because we produce in total six kind of wine. So you can choose what do you prefer to taste and we are here. And we are ready to to ask people. Okay. Great. Well, that's that's wonderful. And are there local restaurants, in your area where you can recommend people to find, wonderful food? There is a restaurant in the ancient part of our town, call it Fortum, like, name of our wine that make, typical dishes of our town and the basilica region. Okay. What does Fortum? What does that name come from? That's the name of the award winning one. Yeah. Foreign to me, sir, a romantic name of our town. Oh, okay. Yeah. And La Beiloum another name of our region is the Greek name of our town. And then we use that to call our, Alernico del Boutre wines. Okay. Great. Well, Giuseppe, thank you very much for telling us the story of Vitus involved today. Exactly. I was talking about, the Anianico grape. This great grape of Italy used to make great red wines and also now a great Rosato wine, the best Rosato in the five star tastings. It's been a real pleasure to meet you here today, and I hope, that This heat wave you're going through, and all of Italy is going through is not too severe and, and you have another good growing season. But, many thanks. I hope to meet you, perhaps to visit one day. Thank you. We hope today's episode of wine food and travel with me, Mark Millen, on the Italian wine podcast has transported you to somewhere special. Please remember to like share and subscribe wherever you get your pods. Likewise, you can visit us at Italian wine podcast dot com. Until next time, Chincin.