Ep. 2078 Gianni Zucchetto of Ruggeri Winery | Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon

Food pairings change a lot based on where we're selling, where we're shipping. In Italy, obviously, especially in our area, Proxico is nearly a full meal style of wine. So you can drink it from an imperative up to a first course for desserts. Let's say that ideally prosidco is an imperative wine is, perfect to be paired with, seafood, with first dishes that can be, I don't know, for example, grilled vegetables spaghetti, maybe some pasta with, clams so that can be an idea. Then when we switch to the sweeter versions, it becomes more of a dessert wine, or it can be maybe in Asian countries, paired with a more spicy style of food, a much richer intensity of aromas. So, within the various styles, we managed to cover quite a vast array of foods. Who wants to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Join an exclusive network of four hundred Italian wine ambassadors across forty eight countries. Vine Italy International Academy is coming to Chicago on October nineteenth is twenty first. And while Mati Kazakhstan from November sixteenth to eighteenth. Don't miss out. Register now at vinegary dot com. Welcome to wine food and travel with me, Mark Minen 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 Minon, on Italian wine podcast. Today, we travel to the wine hills of Val de bienvenue in the Veneto to meet my guest, John Nie duccato, who is the export manager of Rugeri prossecco. Buongiorno Joni. Thanks so much for being my guest today. How are you? And is it a busy time in Valdo Bialdene? Hello, Mark. Thank you for having me, and hello to everybody listening. So I'm good. We're getting into the interesting phase of the year. We're getting close to harvest. We still have a couple of weeks ahead of us, before we actually start the big part of harvest, but we already had the first few tractors coming in and unloading yesterday. So it's usually began, but it's not still in full full methods. Okay. So those are early ripening vineyards that you've brought in now because the grapes were just drying? Exactly. Yes. Yes. But we're still talking about a very small percentages. The official date for the beginning of harvest is gonna be the ninth of September. Okay. So still a little bit of time, but then it's gonna be all hands to the deck, the busiest time of the year. Absolutely. Absolutely. So everybody's getting ready. You know, we have, obviously, we have our own vineyards, but then we work with more than a hundred suppliers, around the Veltopiatan area that bring us to rapes. So, it's gonna be hectic. It's gonna be free for hectic weeks, but it's the most interesting and the most, buzzing period of the year. So everybody is looking forward to it. Yeah. So I've been in Valddobbi Adene at harvest time in in a very exciting time. The smell in the air, the press grapes, the fermentation, the tractors coming and going. It's it's an amazing time. Now, Johnny, for our listeners who are located all around the world and who haven't been to Valle de Neconiliano to these special wine hills to this beautiful UNESCO world heritage site. Can you describe visually what the countryside is like? So our listeners can get a really vivid description Sure. So, I'm actually looking out of the window now. So I'm actually seeing what I'm gonna be talking about now. So we're in valdobbiadini, which is in the north east of Italy in the Venator region. We'll press nicely in the province of Treviso. So we're on the northern part of the province of Treviso, which is where the flat lands finish and where the mountains begin. So we're in that hybrid, hilly area. Where behind us, we have, flat lands all the way down to Venice and all the way down to Central Italy. And from badoubiadene onwards, we have the pre alps, and then we have the actual alps that begin. And go all the way into Austria and then into Germany. So it's, it's a very, intriguing and interesting area to be. It's a very hilly area. We have hills that go from a hundred to six hundred meters above sea level. As you were mentioning, well, DuBIadene and Corneliano became UNESCO World Heritage in twenty nineteen, and, can assure you, some of the views we have from some of the vineyards and some of the, viewpoints in the area are amazing. Yeah. It is it is really, of all of Italy's many, many beautiful wine lands. It is one of the most beautiful. It's a place I always enjoy returning to. Now, Johnny, before we begin hearing the story of Rujari, can you tell us your own story? How did you are you from Valdo Bialdene? Are you from area. And how did you come to be doing the job you do as export manager? Okay. So, not actually from, but I was born in London in the United Kingdom. Oh, my. Yeah. So my grandparents were from the Vladimir area and moved to the United Kingdom after the second world war as there wasn't a lot of jobs in the area. So my family continued there. I was born there, but then we moved back to Italy when I was five years old. So all of my schooling was done here in Italy. In the areas, just around Wadduby Adene. Study, I studied high school. I studied, university. I did translation. And interpreting languages, let's say. And as soon as I finished university, I immediately started working in wineries, and that's what I've been doing for the last fifteen years. So different positions, different wineries, And since the beginning of last year, the beginning of twenty twenty three, I've been following the holiday exports for for the Zulu winery. So the sixty markets, we sell to around the world. Let's say I I follow them directly. Wow. That's fascinating. That's a big task as well because I know, that the Rujari prosseccos are, as you say, exported all around the world and popular all around the world. So It's keeping you very busy. I'm sure. Absolutely. Now can you tell us the story of Rajati then, of of this company that's grown to be very important in the production of quality prossecco Superior, DOCG. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the history of Jiri is deeply rooted in the winemaker tradition of Adolfi Adena. If you look at ancient maps of the area, you'll actually see Kase Bizioi, which means Bizioil houses right in the heart of the CFTice area. The CFTice area is the most prestigious area within the, well, don't be adding a procedural production zone. As early as the mid nineteenth century, Elizio Bizola, and his son, Luigi, and a winery in that area. Luigi was actually, one of the first winemakers in Guadalvyanne. And then in the nineteen fifties, justino Bizal, founded this new winery together with his cousin, whose surname was actually a auxiliary So even if our winery is owned by the is was created by the Bizol family, we actually have because that was the surname that was adopted as the brand for the company itself. And, so in the early days, Missouri was one of the few producers around Walduby Adinet that was focusing on the production of sparkling wines. That's why they actually call us one of the founding five wineries impossible. Today, justino's son Paulo and his granddaughter isabella have taken the company forward with the same spirit and same ideas of their predecessors. Okay. Well, that's a that's a very important to know the the the historical background that this is a pioneering family because the prossecco boom has really happened in the recent decades and, you know, we find prossecco in large quantities all over the world. Certainly here in Britain, it's a hugely popular wine, but what I'd like to discuss before we whole focus in on the Rugetti products a little bit about what makes prossecco superiori docG from Corneliano Valdo Bialdene. So special in something a step above, prossecco doc, which is made in much larger quantity. Obviously, DOCG. Valdubiadene can be produced in the area as the name, says itself of Adobe adene and or connellyanne. So we're talking about the original birthplace of this wine. So historically speaking, where where we've had vineyards for centuries and where these vineyards have the best temperature, soil, and climate to grow in the perfect way. So, we're talking about an area, which is perfect for the growth and the production of the glera grapes that then produce possible. Then obviously, as you were saying, prosaico has boomed especially in the last ten years. So requests, increase. Obviously, Vada de is a very small town. There's not an infinite amount of areas where you can grow this sclera grade. So it's been expanded. Into a more widespread DOC appylation. But, if you're looking for the correct soil, correct temperature, a correct climate, while dobie Aden and Corneliano is where you need to be looking Okay. Well, that's that's very good. Now just a couple of more general points to cover for our listeners. What is special about the Glada grape for making sparkling wines? And can you briefly explain the Martinotti method Yeah. So if Leira is, semi, semi aromatic grape, and has a very good acidity to it, and these are two very important aspects to create a sparkling wine. That's why Leira is, it's the most suited grapes to create this fresh lively style of sparkling wine. The Martinati method is two phase fermentation. So we have a first fermentation, which is done immediately after harvest. So we're gonna be making them very soon in a couple of weeks time, and it's simply, the transformation of the grape juice into a still white wine, glera, still white wine. Then, when needed, There is a second phase. They call it Prazer Disperma. So, we get this steel white wine, and we start a secondary fermentation that then gives, the CO2, the typical bubbles to the prosseco and makes it, a sparkling wine, a spumante wine. So it's two separate fermentations, that's transformed the grape juice into a prosseco. Okay. And the, The prosecco can then be bottled directly from the tank, maintaining all of its freshness. Absolutely. Absolutely. So here in New Jersey, everything is done on premise. So, obviously, as I was saying before, we have harvest, so we have our own vineyards, and then we have our supplies bringing in their grapes. We press them here. In the winery, we have five presses, then we get the juice. We ferment it. We immediately ferment it. And once we have this still white wine, we lower temperature in the tanks and keep the wind there until it's needed. So, what makes us slightly different from other producers is that we do not make a huge production in October, November, and that's it. We produce based on demand. So our bottling line, because we have one works, throughout the year, but only bottles what is needed, what is requested from the market. So whenever we need a specific version of our docZ, we do the secondary fermentation, as I was mentioning before, and then we bottle it directly from the tank. Obviously with some filtering. Okay. So that means, for example, the UK market you would be sending over different batches through the year to meet the demand Awesome. Than maintaining that that real freshness. Which is so important for prosecco. Exactly. Exactly. So it's, the UK is one of our biggest markets, as you can imagine, together with Germany and the United States. But, yes, when you find a bottle of Rugeiri in the UK market, it's probably no more than free form of salt. Okay. So, that's what we try to do because we know it's a huge factor in the quality of the wine that gets into the market. So, that's how we organize here in Okay. Well, let's turn now to some of your main wines. And indeed, some of the categories of prossecco that Rugetti produces. I'd like to touch on some of your top wines, the Cortese Limited, I'm fascinated to know more about the Rivay ones and Cartice. But let's start with your your entry level prossecco Superior, DOCG. And on the label, are we looking for the name Valdo Briadene? Yes. We are. Absolutely. So here at Zeri, we have roughly, fourteen different styles of prosecco. And as I was saying before, we focus exclusively on this. So all of our wines are glera based and, we focus only on sparkling wines. So that's a very important thing, for our customers to know. We actually have three different lines. Let's say one which is the DOC, but it's very limited than we have. A DOCG, line, which is called the classics. And in this line, which is DOCG Coneliano, Adobbiadene, we can find four of the most sold prosicos we have. In all of the different allowed sugar content, for prosaic. So we have an extra brut, a brut, an extra dry, and a dry, increasing in sugar content. Then we go up, a knot and we go into what is our special selections, the wines that we're most known for. So we have, justino B, which is probably our quality flagship around the world. We have which is, a wine in a very limited production, which is made exclusively, using vines, which are eighty or plus years old, then we have, as we will mention in Carticea for us is actually, very important, because over the years, we have acquired an increasingly central role in the Carticea. And we actually, handle more or less twelve percent of the grapes of the Cartite third core. So for us, it's, it's a very important segment. Let's just talk a little bit about, that Cartiteze crew. Just explain to our listeners about this special hill, this special single vineyard site divided into many, many different owners. So you have a large percentage of that that hill. Yes. So, we actually own as as of Zeri, a couple of actors within the Cartice on one of the south facing slopes. So it's actually one of the most prestigious areas in the Cartice Sevali. Then all the other grapes are sourced by our farmers or local suppliers, with whom we work both for the Cartice, but also for the docG, grapes. One thing I wanna mention is that, we have more than a hundred supplies of grapes from the Baladubyaden area. Some of them have been working for generations together. So we've literally been purchasing their grapes for the last fifty sixty years. So there's a very strong bond, very strong, cooperation between auxiliary and and these growers, these farmers. And we actually have, a person in the winery, an Adronomist, which works for auxiliary, but also goes among all of these growers to, give suggestions, check quality so that everything's aligned, and we don't have any surprises you enhanced. So talking about the, where it's, let's say, the the ground crew of pursuit. So we have a more generic doc area, which is very big. Then we have a docG appylation, which is the that we've been mentioning until now. And then there is a specific valley called the Cartice Valley, which is next to between Santo Stefano, Sacol, and San Pito de Barbosa. It's one valley. It's one hundred and seven hectares in total. And as it was meant, as you were mentioning, it's divided between many, many producers. So nobody owns a large, vineyard. It's like microfragmented like you would have in burgundy just to give you an idea. And it's one of the most expensive, vineyards in the world. So it's, very high end, very important, and his historically recognized the area for the production of wine. Okay. Let's just talk about that wine itself. So that card Tits a hill. It and you're talking about the south slope. I've been on that hill, and it is so beautifully exposed. The grapes are really just fanned out to to get every ray of sun and the soil is so suited to the glitter grape that it produces a wine that, has great prestige and it's the name on the label will be cartizze, won't it? It's not prosecco or prossecco Superior. Prominent, the name that consumers look for is Cartice. Now, what about the style of the wine itself? So you are totally correct. Cartice does not have the word prosecco on the label. So it's it's a separate entity, and it's made to identify the highest, the highest level of the mall. So, Cartice, as you were saying, is extremely hilly, extremely sloppy. So our vineyard, which is, as I was saying, it's divided in two slots and it's, a total of two hectares ranges from two hundred to five hundred meters. So it's, it's extremely steep and literally every plant itself has full exposition to the sunshine. This obviously is a great thing, for the ripening of the fruit, but also for, to keep the the grapes dry and to avoid illnesses. Also because being so steep and so difficult, to to grow everything is done by hand. So everything from cutting the grass to, harvesting everything is done exclusively by hand. And they call it heroic Viticulture because we're talking about slopes which are can be fifty degrees. So it's actually even quite dangerous. So that's very, that's, an interesting fact to keep in mind. The soil composition, this, is very interesting because that used to be seabed. So millions of years ago, we used to have the sea, in this area, in the Kastitsa valley. Obviously, this is not the case at the moment, but this gives the soil a very high minerality. It's very common to find fossils everywhere in the area. When you just dig up, you'll find fossils, and we actually have quite a few in our vineyards. So, has a much higher minerality compared to other prosecco, other styles of prosecco, other prosecco, the OCG. Okay. And in terms of the level of sweetness, now you mentioned those four levels. That's, again, important for our listeners to understand the extra brood brute extra dry and dry increasingly in sweetness. That's always paradoxical that the dry is actually the sweetest. Now Cartice traditionally has has been an extra dry. Is that correct? Has been traditionally a dry version. So even sweeter. Okay. Yeah. It was a a dessert wine. So, we're talking about twenty, twenty five grams of sugar per liter. So we actually have two styles of Cartice, a historical, dry version that we still do up to the up to up to today, which has twenty eight grams of sugar per liter. And then more recently, we introduced, brewed version with eight grams of sugar per liter, which is much more, versatile and can be paired in an easier way with, with food. Let's say it's not exclusively a dessert wine, but it can be a more wide spread style of wine. Okay. That's interesting. That's interesting to hear how, the style of Cartice has evolved as well, perhaps to to suit, the changing markets or tastes. Absolutely. This is a good opportunity to discuss now prossecco Superior DOCG, Cartice as well, and the gastronomy of your area. Really may be bringing in some local foods, Johnnie, but also I know as export manager, you're taking this one to the far east. You're taking lines to America to the UK to Germany. And so let's also focus a bit after we hear about your local foods. On some international pairings. Okay. So, yeah, as you were mentioning beforehand, there is a switch, a swift in, the style of, placebo that's been, consumed around the world. Especially in the UK, where you're at or in the US, we're experiencing a switch towards a drier style. So extra dry. So that's twelve, eighteen grams of sugar, pollita still remains, the biggest segment, for prosecco. But, we are experiencing a swift, a switch towards a drier style. Towards, a BRUT style. So so something around nine, ten grams of sugar per liter. And this goes back to what I was saying beforehand about the Cartice and the new style of wine we introduced a few years back. Obviously, food pairings change a lot based on where we're selling, where we're shipping. In Italy, obviously, especially in our area, Prociko is nearly a full meal style of wine so you can drink it from an imperative up to a first course for dessert. Let's say that ideally prosaic core is an imperative wine is, perfect to be paired with, seafood, with first dishes that can be, I don't know, for example, grilled vegetable spaghetti, maybe some pasta with, clams or, so that can be an idea. Then when we switched to the sweeter versions. So like when we're talking about a dry prosecco that has this twenty eight grams of sugar per liter, it becomes more of a dessert wine, or it can be maybe in Asian countries, paired with a more spicy style of food, a much richer intensity of aromas. So, within the various styles, we managed to cover quite a vast array of fruits. That's interesting, Johnny. I guess as your as your role as export manager and, and traveling around the world, when you're presenting wines on two clients, you must be doing a lot of this over wonderful meals I'm imagining. And different styles of food and and it must be very interesting to see how those different markets enjoy your wines and see them fitting in with their way of life as well as way of eating. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's obviously, our job is, has its downsides, but the upside is surely, being able to travel the world and see and immerse yourself in different cultures. And understand how diverse and how interesting the world is. Why not trying to bring some of our Italian lifestyle or Italian way of living to to these customers show them how we celebrate occasions with by uncorking a bottle of prosecco, how we can pair it with some sort of foods that maybe they didn't think about beforehand. So, yes, we're selling wine, but it's also, a cultural cultural experience, a cultural exchange. And that ties back to what I've studied at university. Everybody wants to change, exchange opinions and exchange culture. Yeah. That's that's a really, really good point. And I guess for our listeners, one of the best ways to really, immerse themselves in the world of of Italian culture is by visiting the wine country and, and, Valdo, this UNESCO heritage site. Is, as I said at the beginning, one of the most beautiful wine lens to visit. So let's turn a little bit now to the Rugetti wine hospitality and what you can offer to our listeners who might find their way to you. So, that's a good question. Actually, the jury and hospitality have always worked together. We probably we're probably one of the first wineries to start a real hospitality program meant that it's, say, it's possible to book experiences online, in order to make it easier for all of our foreign customers to understand what their, what they can do, decide their own date, their own time, So, obviously, we offer tastings within the winery itself. We offer tours of the winery. We can take our customers up into the in our we can organize all different styles of experiences. So, for us, the hospitality segment is very important. We have a team dedicated exclusively to that that can speak many different languages. So we actually, we got rated as one of, supervisors best activities in, so we actually have a lot of people coming by. And getting to know, and, and the style of, Pacific. Okay. And what have what about, for example, I know you've got some wine and food experiences What what would that involve? How what would you be offering? Yeah. So, there's two different styles. So, first of all, our hospitality manager, Marco, organizes every couple of weeks, every couple of months, some specific wine dinners, wine pairing dinners. So maybe you'll it's a fixed day to fix our. You come here and we do a vertical tasting of our justino b because that's something we do very often with our barseco. We have different vintages. And we, let our customers taste the different vintages, the evolution of the wine because all of our wines are made with that idea in mind, and each vint is is paired with a specific style of foods or a specific Those are the fixed events. Then instead, if you're passing by and you wanna organize a tour at the winery, we can also get some, lunch ready for you. We can organize some something to eat together with the tasting, or if you need to do any style of event with your company, we can organize it. So we're very dynamic and, open to all different kinds of opportunities. Okay. Well, that sounds great. And that sounds just a sort of thing that I know many of our listeners enjoy. It's a sort of thing I enjoy when I'm traveling around. So I'm sure that some people will make their way to you and I look forward to visiting as well. Johnny, it's been really great catching up with you today hearing your story, the ruggeri story, and you've taken us to the world of prossecco Superior, DOCG, Valdo Beyondene. I know it's a long name, but I think it's important for people to understand that this top level prosecco comes from a very specific place. So thank you for taking us there, Johnny. Thank you for your time, and we hope to see you all here very soon. Chow. We hope you enjoyed today's episode of wine, food, and travel. With me, Mark Miller 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 wine podcast dot com. Until next time.