Ep. 1494 Marilena Leta of Tenuta Gorghi Tondi | Wine Food & Travel With Marc Millon

Since twenty seventeen, the Italian wine podcast has exploded and expects to hit six million listens by the end of July twenty twenty three. We're celebrating this success by recognizing those who have shared the journey with us. And giving them the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing success of the shows. By buying a paper copy of the Italian wine Unplugged two point o or making a donation to help the ongoing running costs, members of the international Italian wine community will be given the chance to nominate future guests and even enter a prize draw to have lunch with Stevie Kim and Professor Atigio Shenza. To find out more, visit us at Italian wine podcast 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 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 continue our special sub series that highlights the winners of the prestigious five star wines and wines without walls competition. That took place earlier this year. Over the course of two days, and they were very, very long days, more than two thousand two hundred wines were tasted by an international jury of wine professionals, Italian winemakers, sommeliers, journalists and Italian Y ambassadors. Those wines, it's scored more than ninety points. Will be we're awarded certificates and will be included in the five star wines and wines without walls two thousand twenty three book that is coming out very soon. While the very best wines in each category were singled out for special awards. Now the wines without walls section of the five star competition gives recognition to the increasing range of wines produced by organic biodynamics, sustainable, and low intervention, which have become so much more important in recent years, not least as winemakers face the challenges of climate change. This morning, I'm delighted to welcome Marilena Leta of tenuta Gorgi Tomdi in Western Sicily. The winery that this year won the wine without walls award for best organic Frisante or semi sparkling wine. For it's Babio Terisiciliani. EGP Bianco Fritzanto, Lino Biologico. Many, congratulations, Marilena, to you and to all at Gordon Tonde. Thank you so much for being my guest. And how are you today? Thank you all for inviting us. Hello, Mark. Hello, everybody. Well, it was quite a surprise to to receive the the reward from five stars because we didn't think about it because we were preparing for Vin Italy, and we discovered just arriving that we are on the first place for our semi sparkling wine, Babio, that it's quite, you know, huge success since it was launched in two thousand and seventeen. Something we didn't expect it. Absolutely not. Well, it's a great achievement. And, It's nice to know that as you were preparing for Vin Italy that, you know, this came as a surprise. I was, one of the judges at Five Star and One without walls. And, you know, it's such a rigorous tasting. There's so many professional judges, tasting all the wines, and these special award winners get tasted again. So it really does recognize excellence in each category. Now Gorgi Tomdi is in Western Sicily. So I'd like you to take our listeners there. To really describe the landscape, the seascape, and this special area where the wines are where the wine area is in Western Sicily. First of all, it's a beautiful location because if he's in the middle of nature, on one side, we have the Mediterranean Sea and on the other side and partially inside, we have, a nature reserve, protected by the w w f since nineteen ninety eight. So we are basically in the middle, and we have in total a hundred and fifteen hectares of vineyards, mostly planted with white grapes because Western Sicily is the land for white wine. Gryllo Zibbo, Cartarato, are all the, main grape varietals that you can find in this area beaten by fierce sun, well, has these days, sea breeze, and growing on what was before. We can say millions years ago, sea floor. So a lot of fossils and cracked shells, as soon as you try to dig a little bit on the on the soil. Okay. So we're in western Sicily in the midst of unnatural reserve. And that's very important for Gorghe Tondy, isn't it? This link with nature and with producing, very natural wines. Tell us a little bit about the history of the estate and how it's being run today. Well, the story of the estate dates back a hundred years ago when the great grandmother of the current owner Anna Maria and Claracalla decided to purchase the the part of vineyards that he is today, our vineyards, a hundred and fifteen, a hundred and thirty hectares, more or less. In an area that was absolutely delightful for the best production of wild grapes at that time for the production of marshmallow wine. So they were no estate, no seller at that moment. And probably the great grandmother, Dora, today would be impressed of saying, not just the seller, but that the area she purchased for vineyards that has turned in the eighties into a nature reserve. This means that the beginning of the twentieth century, the one rig was led women. And, of course, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was something, you know, not so common, especially the in a region of the south of Italy such as Sicily. And this has always been a feminine business So today, there are the two sisters on the Maria and Clara. And since the beginning, being surrounded by all these nature beauties, they wanted to maintain, to preserve and to work within nature. Starting since the beginning, the Gorgi Tundi name comes from the name of the Nature Reserve that is Lake Prella and Gorgi Tundi. The Gorgi Tundi are a three little car lakes created, mostly due to erosion. So, basically, the thin floor crumbled down, and today is filled with water. So this humid area today represents something very, very important for migration birds and for a lot of more species living in this territory. So this is nature preserved. And inside of it, we have thirty five vectors. So ten percent of the nature reserve is the property of the date today. And since two thousand and sixteen, we can say that all we do inside of the area is certified organic. We worked organically before, but in two thousand and sixteen, we got the certification telling everybody that we were certified. 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 that was very, very important then because of this desire to live in this nature reserve to make wines respecting the environment. And that is the motivation then for becoming organic? Yeah. That was one of the main reasons, but also it is a direct consequence of the environment we have all around, not just the nature reserve, but most of all, the proximity to the seaside. We are in a very lucky place because having the the wind blowing all the time from different directions the sea breeze that brings salt on the vineyards, these elps a lot in fighting against pests, against fungus, against all kind of things that can affect in a bad way of vineyard. So going organic in such an area is absolutely easier compared to, for example, northern regions of Italy that have to against, you know, things like ale or other weather problems. Yes. Absolutely. Now it's interesting too that originally you said that, a hundred years ago this was in the heart and still is, of course, in the heart of the Marcella vineyard area. I guess the family would have then been selling the grapes or selling wine to the big, bali in Marisala to transform. They were basically part of one of the biggest family, pellegrino family. So they basically picked the grapes and bring them to Marcella for the vinification at the pellegrino winery. So both Anna Maria and Clana and mostly their mother comes from one of the branches of the pellegrino family. But in two thousand, they decided that They wanted to start a completely different projects going away from, you know, traditional wines and Marcella wine itself and bottling the beauty around them. So just wine, not fortified wine. Okay. So a real challenge then to transform these grapes. It traditionally had been grown to have high levels of sugar to make the strong base wines for the transformation into Marisela to make elegant and fresh especially the white wines from grapes like, as you say, and so that was an interesting decision to make. Was it really challenging in this heat and even now more so with climate change happening over those twenty years. I know, Marilena, right this minute, you're really suffering from extreme heat. How are the vines able to cope? Well, in the last decades, actually, we have been trying not to suffer so much because luckily we have gray varisals such the ones you mentioned before that are resistant to this kind of condition and have, kind of a life from butt break to harvest. It is very short. So avoiding the pick of heat that she can have, such the one we are having in this very moment. But the last year and this year, well, it's becoming very, very complicated because even very resistant grapes such as grillo or Catorato, for instance, that have a very thick skin and can resist the heat, and the sea salt coming from the sea in our special situation are having a little problem. And already, we have a part of of the production that is not in very good conditions, so far. So We are struggling a little bit, and, we are very close to the harvest moment because we normally start the end of July beginning of August. Oh my goodness. That's in extremely early. I didn't realize it was that early. Yeah. Especially for the sparkling wine. We make a sparkling wine out of Grillo, and for the sparking, of course, the the earliest is the best. So the younger vines of Grillo are are normally harvested in the beginning of August. And if it is too hot, to handle. Well, we need to go a little bit earlier, so the end of July. So I think that end of next week, we are going to start. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Wow. Okay. Well, I knew, Gogeton de wines, myself, I traveled to Western Sicily and have loved them and enjoyed them, and that a full range is produced from sparkling through the still wines, a Frizante, of course, which we'll talk about in a minute. The still whites, the rosato, the, and also the, but let's turn now to Babio, to this line that won the best organic semi sparkling award. Tell us about how this wine is made, what it's like. I haven't tasted it myself. Okay. So, Babio, let's start with the name. Babio is a sicilian word, meaning have fun, make a joke or something like that. It's a very typical sicilian word that can apply into a lot of situation, but funny situation all the time. And it contains the word bio, v I o, so biological, organic. So this was the beginning of everything. It was a brainstorming among colleagues here at the winery, and the name came up like this. And it was also the mood for these wines. So something funny, something easy to drink but most of all, something easy to understand even for people that are not used to drink wine because they normally drink beer, for example. So it's a it's a semi sparkling, as you said, that is made, with a tank methods. So it could be a spumante, but the only thing that is lack is a little bit more of pressure. So being lower in pressure, it is normally called Frisante, and it is a blend of three main grapes, and chino. That is something quite rare to find in this area, even if it was one of the four main grape varieties for Marcella white wines. Okay. So it's a fun wine, a wine to drink when it's forty eight degrees outside. When it's in the heat, a wine to enjoy. Perhaps a wine for a younger generation of wine drinkers too. At the beginning, this was the idea, you know, in two thousand and seventeen, the idea was the millennials. No? So that was the target we thought about. For that wine. But actually, it is more versatile than that. It can be the wine for anyone from those that barely drink to those that are absolutely, you know, and as we call them, that the long one to you know, taste something complicated or too brainy, and they decided to drink something easy just to relax. So basically, it's a wine that can go very well with everything and with everyone, every taste. Okay. Well, that sounds perfect. I can see why it was very popular with our judges too. Now, Grillo, you've mentioned, this is the great grape of western Sicily. Tell us about Grillo, and about maybe one or two of the still wines you produce, which I've enjoyed myself on my travels. Grilo, for us, is, you know, it's our soul because we have forty percent of the vineyards planted with grillo, and we basically make grillo in any way possible. So we can make sparkling grillo. We can make easy drinking white grillo. We can make a structured full valley grillo. And we can make oxidative style pre British Marcella or we'll try this wine, noble rot wine. This is what we make with the same grape variety. Of course, changing age of the vines, exposition, kind of soil, and, of course, vinification techniques, but this is what she can do with really super versatile as a great variety. Well, that's really important. And, you know, I think it's a great variety that maybe people out side of Sicily or outside of Italy are less familiar with, but I, you know, I always urge people to to try and discover Gurilo. It's certainly one of my favorites. I really do think it can produce as you say such varied and wonderful wines. Wines that go well with the gastronomy of Sicily with the gastronomy of Western Sicily. Can we turn now just to talking about a little bit about the foods that pair well with the Gorgeton de wines, particularly the foods of of Western Sicily. The food of Western Sicily has a big influence from the Arabian. So, in Madzara delvalo, where we are, there is this community of Tunisian, sharing their lives and sharing their spaces and sharing their tradition and cuisine with the with the sicilian. So, basically, we live in a in a city that is a living melting pot. And the cuisine of the western Sicily area is absolutely a mix of Arabian traditions and recipes such as couscous. Koscous is probably the main dish that represents this union. It's of course a fish couscous because Matar del Valo is also known for his fishing fleet, one of the biggest in Italy. And one of the jewel of the fisherman of the area is the rat prawn for Matar del Valo. So the Grillo is absolutely perfect. With this combination of flavor, grillo is a neutral grape varietal, so not so aromatic. And it has a very nice crispness and acidity and, a good structure. So with dishes, rich in fish and soup, such as the cusco's pears perfectly well. Okay. So you've mentioned that mozzaro del valle, this important fishing port still has this large community from Tunisia. But of course, the Arab influence dates back much much earlier to the time when when Sicily was controlled by the Arabs until the time of the Normans. So I guess foods and flavors and taste memories really go back a long time, particularly in Western Sicily where the food's quite different from Eastern Sicily, for example, isn't it? Yeah. Absolutely. Well, one of the main dishes that is probably known everywhere of South Sissili is Casata, but Casata is something that the Arabian brought us. And it is mostly a dish of western Sicily. And if today, you can find it everywhere. The Casata was a container where the this kind of pasturing was made. Let's call it, an ancient cheesecake if you want because it's made with ricotta cheese, and the cassatt was absolutely the container with that shape that you can see today decorated with all that candied fruits and everything. But at the beginning, it was very simple. It was just really a cake. Just filled with ricotta, and you flick down the container, and you add that shape. That is the actual shape of Casata cake. Oh, I didn't know that. And of course, those beautiful candied fruits also remembering that it was the Arabs who brought citrus fruit to Sicily and irrigation and so many innovations that really enriched the foods of Sicily, which is why I think the food in Sicily is certainly some of the most exciting anywhere in the country. Absolutely. You mentioned this wonderful product of shellfish of mozzarella, the gamba rosso, the red prawn. Now that is something very special. It it really seems to be only caught and landed in mozzarella. Is that right? And yet, it will be sent. I mean, I've had the red prawns in three star Michelin restaurants in Northern Italy always coming from Azara. And, you know, it's a really special. Yeah. It's a super rich shellfish, and you can have it in different size. The bigger one It's no more prone. It's something gigantic. It's fished near the coast of Sicily, but basically the area where you can fishes is very close to the Greek islands. So you can reach up to that area. And the fishermen stay out for one month, fishing them, and then bringing them back in Windsor. So, basically, it is called like this, but it is a Mediterranean prong, actually. Okay. And the unusual thing is that it's red, even when it's crude, when it's raw. Correct. Correct. And, it is very, very fat being a shellfish. So, basically, with the bigger ones, you can really taste something that is more like meat, enough fish because it's so, so rich in fat and you can absolutely pair it with super, structures white wines or even sparkling wines because you can really clean this fattiness that you have in your mouth when you have it, even raw. So cooked, it lose a little bit of this fat, but raw is probably the best way to to have it to savor it. Okay. Yes. I've had that, wonderful prawn raw And you're right. It really needs a big ish wine to pair with it. It can, really stand up to it. Now I'd also like to mention one thing that's no visitor to Mazzara del valle should miss seeing the magnificent bronze statue, the dancing satyr or the satyr. Can you tell us about this? Well, this is absolutely linked with the fisherman, of Maduro Delvalo because it is one of the oldest state of Greek origins that was found in a very strange occasion, at the beginning of the nineties. And, today is inside of a museum that is the Mosseo del Satil, the Saturn Museum. And it's a state to that, well, we can say, tells the story of a wineland such as Sicily East because, during the Greek times, we know that the Greek wrote the Visic culture techniques in Sicily, Sicily already produced some wine, but we didn't have the techniques. The Greek broke up to us, and the statue is one of the attraction of the activities that you can see in Masada Delvalo. Also a lot of archaeology all around the area. You have a lot of beautiful archaeological parts such as Cavedicusa or Celineonte, that is probably the most known area. But Cavedicusa was the area where the columns of the big temples where carved and then brought to Salinute to build the big temples. The seaside, the beaches, there are a lot of beautiful things to see in that area. It's definitely an area of the beaten paths compared to the for the other, most known areas of Sicily, especially for tourists. Yes. I agree. And I would really recommend our listeners do travel to Western Sicily and explore this beautiful area. Now, Marilena, if they do travel in Western Sicily. Can they visit the Gorgatundi winery? Absolutely. Yes. We are open all year round, and of course, as we are surrounded by nature, most of our visits and tasting at the one or include a part of the nature around us. You can have a picnic, or you can have just a stroll in the closed w w f area eventually with a with a specific guide because we have this collaboration with the WWF, and we normally, organize, specific events in summer. For example, in this moment, every Thursday, we are organizing an appetitivo just in front of the doors of the cellar, on the loans. We just wait for the sun to set because we are lucky enough to have the sunset just in front of our door. So it is a it is a beautiful place to to enjoy to stay relaxed and to just have a a glass of wine with a good company. Well, that sounds a wonderful way to experience the area, to experience the wines, to experience all that Gorgi Tonde are doing. And, it's something I look forward to joining you at one day. I love the idea of standing in front of the doors looking out to the sea and enjoying a glass of wine. When when you're really tasting wine where it's made, where the soul of that wine is, So that sounds very special. Well, we're waiting for you. I will definitely be coming to see you. Thank you so much for being my guest this morning. You've taken us into the heat of Western Sicily. I know It's been very hot, but you've still explained how you're coping with the heat of the wines you're making, the foods we can enjoy, and the beautiful places to see. So thanks for sharing the story. I hope the summer goes well. I hope the harvest next week goes well, and I look forward to seeing you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for you all for having me for having us. And, well, as soon as you can, come and see us. Well, probably in a in a lower temperature situation, but thanks thanks for everything. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Ciao for now. Bye bye. Bye. We hope you enjoyed 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 Italianwine podcast dot com. Until next time.