Ep. 1415 Federico Giuntini | Wine Food & Travel With Marc Millon

Hey, guys. Check out Italian wine unplugged two point o brought to you by Mama jumbo shrimp, a fully updated second edition, reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from cross the globe. The book also includes an addition by professoria tinja. Italy's leading vine geneticist. To pick up a copy today, just head to Amazon dot com or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to wine food and travel with me, Mark Billen, on Italian wine podcast. Listen in as we journey to some of Italy's most beautiful places in the company of those who know them best. The families who grow grapes and make fabulous wines. Through their stories, we will learn not just about their wines, but also about their ways of life, the local and regional foods and specialities that pair naturally with their wines. And the most beautiful places to visit. We have a wonderful journey of discovery ahead of us, and I hope you will join me. Welcome to wine food and travel with me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Today, I'm delighted to travel to Tuscany to visit an important wine zone, Kianti Rufina, an area that is completely different to its perhaps better known neighbor, Kianti Clasico. Roofing is located in the foothills that lead up to the high Penine mountains and has a landscaping wines that are unique and outstanding. My guest today, federico Junini of the Selva Pianna line of State joins me. Good morning, Federico. Thanks very much for being with me. How are you? Fine. Thanks, Mark. Thank you very much for having us here. A great pleasure. Well, it's a great pleasure for me. I actually visited Selva Piana more than thirty years ago. We met briefly at the time. I was with your father, and I remember such a beautiful estate and wines that I've enjoyed over the years here in England. So, first of all, let's talk about the area. Can you describe the landscape and really give our listeners a picture of this unique wine zone. So roofing is very tuscany, but a little different from the landscape and the idea that we have generally about the nice and gentle hill of the southern part of Ocanti Glasgow. Here, we are in a very pre mountains, landscape, Sonaro valleys, high hills, and the proximity of the Pen nine made the landscape more similar to a three mountain area. And so it's also an area very rich in woodland, very rich in olive trees, growth, and not that much vineyard. Okay. That's important. It's not such a specialist, monoculture. As we find in other parts of Tuscany. And you've got these high mountains. Of course, the mountains lead across to Amelia Romagna. And this was one of the main roads that would lead connect Florence, for example, with bologna, an important historic road. And in fact, your estate, Salvapiana, was located along this road really as for defensive purposes. Is that correct? Yes. I said, butiana, like many other winery nowadays, or the state was beat first as a watching tower over the valley. These tower were overlooking one each other, and they were beat to protect Florence. Also, the village of Montecribe, there is one of the main towns, was first built as a fortified village with an army always there. Because Italy, you know, it's an old country, but very young nation and we have been fighting one each other for centuries. Sure. Of course. Now who would have been the invaders that needed Florence needed to be protected from? People coming from All different ones. Black many. Many different ones from the French? Neostrian and other small king, don't in which Italy was divided. So we have this all along the CAV Valley, this narrow valley, a series of watch towers that were protecting and could raise the alarm if invaders were coming. Now that watchtower is actually on the label of the Salvapiana wines. I've I know that label well. Yes. The label is a very classic label, and it represents Salvapiana as it was when it was bought by Mikale Junini in eighteen and twenty six, and the tower is in the middle of the villa. Okay. Well, let's just hear the Selvapiana story. You've mentioned a Mikale Junini who first bought the estate. Tell us a little bit about the family. Michael Junini was a kind of banker between end of the eighteen and beginning of the nineteenth center, and he made a quite good amount of money and invest a lot in the states. And he got three daughters and one, son. And that draw daughter were were married with the old noble family of Tus and Florence, and they may catch the properties. And when he closed the bank, the private bank Ferna started to be a real farmer. And then they went all through the difficulties of crop sharing, the two world wars. And in the fifteenth, Franchesca Juntini that you met, started to produce, and started to try to make quality wines in the mid sixties at the end of crop sharing. There was a big change for tuscany. A massive change then. So this is the end of the, the crop sharing. And when the farms really had to find a new way to work and to continue after the system that had been in place for, what, eight hundred years. So it was a big period of transition, and and your father, Doctor. Franchescol was really instrumental in creating Selva Piana as a real quality wine estate. Yeah. It was very tough times in the sixties and seventies. Properties change hands for very little money. There was not great hopes for farming or for winemating at that time. But slowly slowly, if you want to put a date or an event, they started to change the history of Tuscany wine was when, Tarantin already produced the thing in yellow. That was probably the wine they show to all the other producer, there was something better than just selling wine in bulk to the big negotiating. Yes. Because as you say, at that time, a lot of wine was sold, I think in Ponte Cielle to the big wine merchants that were selling chianti and the straw covered bottles. Yes. If you think that in Punta said there was two main, Ruffino, and Malini, and in Rufina, they are a village of the appalachian, at the certain point, two thousand inhabitants, twenty five Nagosyan. So there was a big, trade of wine, but not great attention quality at that time. Slowly slowly, we started in the middle of the seventeenth to see again quality wines and great attention in the wines. It was a long process. Of course. Of course. And Rufina always had an identity and the potential to make not just good wine, but to make great wine. The conditions in these foothills of the mountains of the Apanini are such that there's a unique character to the wines of Canti Rufina. Tell us a little bit about this. For sure. If you think that, in seventeen and six things when the grand duke of Tuscany made probably the first law in Europe to protect the wine producing area, and the name for area. At that time, we are more or less the same areas, and they were already well known as a great wine producing area. What has made a difference here as the proximity of the Appenine, and then unique kind of soil that we have. But also, my main is is the Penine. Because we have a climate and more than one. First, we enjoy cooler climate. Then we enjoy a great swing between night and day. And second, that the ripening season is a little bit longer and more uniform, and especially in the last vintages, they are so warm. Never exceed in sugar. So the wines of roofing and normally are very well balanced with fine, ripe tendons, probably not big about it, but very good elegance. Italian wine podcast. If you think you love wine as much as we do, then give us a like and a follow anywhere you get your pods. Okay. So this freshness from the acidity, the cooler weather of the mountains is really helping in these years of excessive heat that Tuscany and all of Italy has suffered from. These cooler climates the range and temperature between night and day helping to create these wines that are always balanced and have, as you say, great elegance that are equally enjoyed very much tasting your wines at Venetoli this year. Wines that I had tasted over the years, as I say here, in England. And what struck me as well was that the wines of Silver Piana have a great capacity to age. I tasted a gorgeous nineteen eighty one, wine we'll talk about in a minute. The gist was still so vivid and vibrant and full of life. So we're really talking about a wine that goes back to those early years when doctor Franchesco was beginning to really put the wines of Salvapiana on the map. Incredible that wine was still so fresh. Yeah. We are quite lucky that we have a good library. And, Franchesco started to work on single vineyard, Boseciale, in seventy nine. That was mostly due to his friendship, also with the luigi Veronelli. That was, you know, the first one of the most important wine, right, that they had here in Italy back in the days. And due to this friendship, mister Bernonelli, we'll push many Italian producer to work on through single vineyard and quality wine. So after that, in seventy nine, Francesco started to bottle Busard Cales, a single vineyard. It was also the second vintage that he was a help in doing this by Franco Bernabe. He started here his cut here as a counselingologist and still helping us. Well, that's really interesting that Boutarquiali goes back to nineteen seventy nine. And that gorgeous wine that I tasted was one of the early examples. It was in a sense in the same era of Tignanello and really was a super tuscan. It's a hundred percent sangiovese. Is that right? The time was nearly illegal to make sangiovese, one hundred percent, a wine called Giente or Giente roofing, but Francesco that you have met in such an honest band, but he decides that the best one is Selvakiana, and one of the best one in the appalachian, should be in the appalachian. So he never joined the idea of IGT or Vini Dhatabala, and then became the super task and the monument that really changed the history of Tuscany wine. He always wanted to have Wushakal in the county roof. You know, I perfectly remember when I started to help him in eighteen seven. We had a meeting with Franchesco Franco Nabe and myself, and we tried to convince Francesco to put Busher Cali in the being with a tabla group. Because for us, it was, could have been a good chance to increase prices. That, to be honest. And it was so firm to keep Busher can de Canti roofing a debt. Nowadays, we had to say that he was right. That's a really interesting story, federico. This curiosity that maybe not all of our listeners know that when the Supertuscan wines were launched, tinianalo, Saskikai, a These were wines that, as you say, had to be put in the Vino Datavala category, the lowest category for some of the highest quality and most expensive wines in Italy. So it was an anomaly, but I understand the belief that your father had in Kianti Rufina in keeping this great wine, butcher Kiali within the Kianti Rufina de Nominazione. Tell us a little bit then about your Kianti Rufina, and then you courses, the crew wines, butcher Kiale, and Erqui. So the Kanti roofina is our business card. It's the wine that really show what can be a Kanti roofina maximum to be of age in the cellar, and it's a wine that is, fresh fruity, nice drinkability, good acidity to match food. And this is a wine that is made from a blend of all our vineyards, accept Buset Cali. And he's a wine that really tell a lot about the identity of roofing up. And we do a very simple in terms of winemaking, long maturation, natural east, large cask and cement for aging. Even if it an entry level wine, has a longer life. In the last ten years, we started to lay down in our library seller. Also some, bottles of the county roof around. And it really can go much farther in terms of aging that we expect, and it's a very wide It's a wine I always enjoy drinking. It's a beautiful. As you say, this is not an easy drinking chianti. Although it's the Selva Piana entry wine, it's a gorgeous elegant example. It's like a pinot noir for maybe lunch. Okay. Tell us about Turkey, then this is another crew line less well known than But a different expression from your different vineyards. If is the project of Franchesco, here is the project of my sister and myself, we bought the land in nineteen ninety eight we planned the vineyard in nineteen ninety nine, and then we waited to have a very well aged vineyard to release a single vineyard this ever. There was first vintage two thousand and sixteen. And we have been very lucky to be able to buy that property. This is seven kilometers away from Selvapiana in the village of Ponte Severe. It's a nine feet theater, a little bit like a concadoro where we have a from Frisco de Iveroni, eight feet capitan. There are four properties. It's a top of a hill southeast facing, and the soil is very different from. If bushes is more rich in clay and limestone, ERC has much more an iron. So the wine is a completely different profile. We were looking for many years to be able to have in a second single vineyard, but we needed a different length of soil. And so we were very lucky to be able to buy that property. And it's very different from the color. If you compare Yes. Let's compare bucciarquiale with our key. Bucciarali is more similar to the guy. All the wine. It is more similar to castaneda. So in bucciarali, you have lots of freshness a good, minerality and earthiness and cherry. In it, we have more black fruit and more graffiti. And the wine's richer, big body wine compared to Busher Kelly. Even if they are made in the same way, Yes. I tasted the two thousand eighteen. It is a big, powerful wine. Beautiful wine. What does tera elect de mean on the label? That elect is a project from our consortium. That elect is a trademark and all the producer that joined the project had to respect two main rules. The wine must come from a single vineyard, and the wine must be one hundred percent on your base. And it must be aged at least thirty months. Of of this thirty one, twelve in Oak. So this is something that we work a lot together as with the other producer. It will be the best way to put again roofing as an operation in the map of a high quality wine of tuscane. It's, Okay. That's important. Federico. And Terrilekte, then it's a county roofina project with the consortium. And if one sees that on the label, it's the highest quality rather like the Grandsellazione in county classical. Yes. Something like that, but we have stricter rules in terms of grapes. Justice, is mandatory to have single vineyard. So we have to declare the vineyard. So if the vine is to act as must be to act with the next year. The next step that we are talking with the other producer is that the beginning of the election should be organic farm because nowadays of the twenty producer that we are here in Rufina, twelve, we are already certified. And the other producer doing organic farming. So that would be another step to have a terrelet as a very unique project. Okay. Great. Well, thank you for explaining that. Puerto Rico, you've already mentioned that your wines are very good wines to accompany food. Can we talk a little bit about the gastronomy of your area? What are some of the typical foods that you would say pair very well with the wines of Salvapiana? In many parts of the task and the tradition is the same for the roofina, the simple part of our food. So all the appetizer pasta, pasta, with summer dishes, like, and, papa, tomato. This wonderful bread salad. Yeah. And it's very good with the white meat as well, like, chicken, roasted chicken, and vegetables. If you don't eat meat, roofing is very good with just vegetables as well of, creamy cheeses, like fresh pecorino. Instead, buchete, they're key. They need more serious meat, pasta with the serious mizzles, like white bar, beers. Sometimes I like a lot is, dark and lumber, or cheese. It's well aged cheese. Yes. Certainly. And I know that you export wines around the world. And I think these elegant styles of Chianti Rufina from Salva Piana go very well with more refined cuisine as well. Tuscan cuisine is, I think, beautiful, lee rustic, but also the finer cuisines go well with the elegance. Of your wines. Yeah. It's quite easy to match them with a good food. So the acidity that we have in our wines have to go to many different food. Yes. That's very important. That essential acidity that roofina has perhaps at other areas of Tuscany don't quite have that same defining backbone. Finally in Puerto Rico, wine hospitality, roofena is a beautiful area to visit. As I say, it's probably less well known to many people who come to Tuscany than perhaps a county classical, but it's a really stunning area. I know I've passed through driving across into Tuscany or out of Tuscany, but it's an area really one should come and stop in. Tell us a little bit about wine hospitality in the area and at Silver Piana. In the area, we are growing a lot. It's still a gem to be discovered more. We have a three or four state. They really are working very well in hospitality. Probably the best example here in the area is, Castel Lodel Trebio, where Anna started many years ago to work on hospitality and she's doing very, very well. And then we have a few good restaurants, very classic, very typical, very authentic, And at Selvapiana, we still don't have a agiturismo or a restaurant here, but we do lots of wine tasting, and we offer many different possibilities of tastings. And we are working together with the other producer to try to get more wine people in the area to discover the area and the folger are wiser. Okay. That's very important that you're all working together to help promote beautiful area with such beautiful wines. And for our listeners who want to experience Selvapiana at the source to taste wines on the property. There are possibilities that can be arranged. Yes. We have a form on our website. Okay. Great. So if people go to the Selvapiana website, and the address of that website. It's w w w dot selvapiana dot it. Okay. So w w w dot selvapiana dot it. Great. Feder Rico has been a real pleasure meeting you here this morning, talking to you. My pleasure, Mike. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. And, you've taken our listeners to an important and beautiful area, and you've explained so well the wines of Silva Piana and also a little bit about the history of this e estate. So thank you very much for being my guest today. Thank you. Thank you, but thank you very much. Hope to see again here the property sooner. We hope you enjoy today's episode of wine, food, and travel. With me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Please remember to like, share, and subscribe right here, or wherever you get your pods. Likewise, you can visit us at Italian podcast dot com. Until next time.