Ep. 2229 Paolo Bombetti of Colleformica Winery | Wine, Food & Travel with Marc Millon

It's a very beautiful area and very rich soil for for the wine. For these reasons, from two thousand years ago, that we produce wine, ancient Roman, do the wine in Sela Romani Herria. They continue until today. 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 Minen, on Italian wine podcast. Today, we traveled to Latio, and more specifically to Valetri, to the Castelio Romani, to the south of Rome, to meet my guest, Paolo Bombetti, Vaziena, Vitivinikola, Kola, formica. Thank you so much for being my guest. How are you today? Today, everything okay. Thank you very much, Mark. Thank you very much. To invite me here for this conversation and hello to everybody. Thank you, Paolo. Is is it a beautiful day where you are? So and so. It's a little bit cloudy. I'm in Rome. I'm not in the lead right now. I'm in Rome because I live here and I have the dining yard and the salary in Belitri, but I live in Rome. So today, I'm enrollment. I'm not in the living. Okay. Well, I'm going to ask you to pretend that you are in Valetri, to pretend that you are on your wine farm, And can you please describe for our listeners where you are, the Castelli Romani, and your land and where Cola formica is located? Yes. Okay. So, Cola formica is located in Belitri. Belita is forty five kilometers south of Rome. It's the last city of Casselli Romani area. It's a very rich area because it's volcanic soil. We have a couple of, volcanic lake. One is very famous because there is the house of the pop. During the summer, Caselgandolfo. And believe it is the last city of Caselli Romani. We are more or less at three hundred meters. It's a fantastic area for the wine because we are twenty, twenty five kilometers from the sea. And fifteen, twenty kilometers from the mountains. So we are in the middle, and it's a very beautiful area and very rich soil for for the wine. For these reasons, from two thousand years ago that we produce wine and sent Roman to the wine in Caseria. They continue until until today. It's not a very famous area for the wine. Just because, the city of Rome just won a lot of quantity of wine. For this, little of Syria and and the little restaurant after the second world war. The Casselli Romani Area produce a lot of wine for Rome. And when you do a lot of wine, maybe the quality, you can do the your best. Okay. Okay. Paulo, this rim of volcanic hills south of Rome, where the Castelli Romani are located. These beautiful villages that often have palaces and castles or like, as you say, the popes, residents at Castel Gandolfo, going down to Valetri, which I remember is a beautiful town. But you've described the area with the, the cooling breezes from the Mediterranean, the influence of the Appenini, the mountains to the east. This rich volcanic soil had an abundance of sunshine. So we have a an area where wine has been produced for more than two thousand years. These wines were very famous for ancient Rome, for the Romans, who loved the wines from Frascati from Moreno, from Valetri, all from this area. Making their way to Rome. But as you say, Paolo, this has been an area where the wines have often been bulk wines that went to the Osteria, not quality wines. Your family have been growing grapes for over a hundred years. Tell us tell us a little bit about your family story because is actually fairly new enterprise. Isn't it? Yes. Yes. We call our company, calling for Micah because the area that there is our country house. It's called Kontrada, Kole formica, area. And for this, the name of the seller was very easy. And it's our house, from one hundred and thirty, one hundred and forty years ago. They start to be there at the grandfather of my father. And my father was born there in nineteen forty, and after he studied in moving Roma for the university. And, I was born in Roma with my sisters, but, they used to live there with my grandfather and grandmother. So I used to spend a couple of months during the summer with my grandfather and grandmother helping their doing the bread in the wood oven. There there used to be chicken, rabbit, and so it was a very, very beautiful place that was born, and I was a grow up during the summer. And, or less, all the Christmas Easter, and the the weekend. Me, my family, and especially my father used to live there. One foot and especially, I've heard. And in twenty eighteen, we decided to bottle the wine and to create something to maintain this place because before this, we just sell the grapes to some big seller around the later. And my father used to do some wine for him, not very good wine. But in twenty eighteen, we decided to do this to try to gain some money to maintain this place because it was a amazing place, very beautiful place, and it was our place. Okay, Paolo. That's a that's a beautiful story that this has been in your family for over a hundred thirty years that your great grandfather was on the farm, and you would go out, for summers and holidays to the farm, which would have been a mixed farm then Paulo. Not a specialized wine farm. You said you there would be chickens and other activities as well as growing grapes. Is that still the case today? Do you have more activities than just growing grapes? Ala, no. We don't have chicken and rabbit. Now, we used to have this until my grandfather and my grandmother was alive. We just have three actors. He's not so big. Three actor was, maybe the house that can use to live one family before, in central Italy, but more or less in Italy. Now it's very difficult to live with the just reactors. But in these reactors, we have two actors of, grapes. And the other actor, we have one hundred and twenty, one hundred and thirty olive oil trees, very old. The oldest are one hundred years old, one hundred and ten years old. And after we have through it, trees, more or less we have, all the things, because I told to you, it's very rich soil. So we have from a peach, apricot, now it's winter. So there are oranges and lemon figs, and after we do vegetables every season. One actor is for this, but the vegetables and the olive oil is just for the consumer of the family. And maybe some friends, we sell some olive oils for some friends. Okay. It sounds like a paradise. It's a beautiful place. It's a beautiful place. Maybe it's not the most beautiful place in Italy, but it's a beautiful place. Very quiet. And for me, it's very beautiful because, normally, I spent two, three days in military and the rest of the of the week in Rome because I have my family, my wife, and, one son, and, one daughter. But when I go there and they spend this two, three days there. I feel in paradise. I go outside the the ring road of Rome, and it was fantastic. Okay. Paulo, what were you doing before you decided to dedicate yourself to Kole formica? I have a couple of, lives before, because I studied university international management, and I started to work in London, like an insurance broker in the city. So I I live for one year in two thousand and four. So twenty years ago, and I continue after enrollment with an insurance broker. This is the first life. The second life, I decided to open a bed and breakfast room, and, I have this bed and breakfast until until COVID period because I started in twenty eighteen with the wine. So from twenty eighteen, twenty twenty, I do both bed in breakfast and wine, but after the COVID period, the the lockdown and everything, I take the decision to dedicate all all of the time for the wine because you have to see there. You have to feel there, to sit there, to walk in the banya very soon. So you you have to dedicate all all of the time for this. Okay. Okay. That's really interesting. Now I'm imagining Paulo that the way your family always cultivated the grapes was in a very natural way of growing grapes and making the wine. And you are also taking a minimal intervention, a natural approach to growing grapes and wine. Is is that the reason why you wanted to follow this strada to maintain the way the farm had always been? Or did you have other reasons for wanting to make wines in this sustainable way of farming? No. No. No. Yes. Yes. We we want to maintain and we want to continue this street. When we decide in two thousand seventeen, to bottle it, the wine was very clear that we have to follow this street. So we don't use a chemical in the backyard. And we try to do less is possible less is possible if the weather and the, and if, we can, obviously. So we don't use chemical in the the vineyard. And also in the cellar, we don't filter the wine. We don't clarify buy the wine and we use a Easter from from the seller. Okay. Doing it this way, we think that is the best way because wine is alive. And if you start to do chemical things, and if you try to modify the wine to modify also the grapes in the vineyard, you you you go to kill the wine that we think that is alive. And so every here is different. Every here is different. The weather is different. The temperature is different. The quantity of rain is different. So every here you'll be obtained a different wine. And it's not like a beer that you can use a desolated water. So beer, it's it's the same beer in Australia in Japan or in Canada. Mine is completely different and alive. And so we have to respect to try to do the best. No. That's a beautiful way of putting it that, you're really expressing the terroir, but also expressing the different challenges that each year brings. And every year, of course brings its own challenges. Paulo, let's just briefly touch on the four grape varieties that you cultivate. And then I'd like to talk about three of the wines that you make, the formica, Sparkling a wine that that I've enjoyed here with Genaro is the Arancha, a tomica, really extraordinary wine, and also the primativo. But first of all, tell us the grape varieties and and maybe something of the work in the vineyard. Okay. So we have the classical, grape for the white wine, the classic grape, from our area. So there is Malbashedicandia and the Trebiano. Malbashedicandia is a little bit aromatic, grape, And so, normally, they use seventy eighty percent of Malbasidicante and they cut a little bit with the trebiano. Twenty thirty percent with the trebiano just to cut these aromatic grape a little bit. So all our white wine is with these two grapes, and more or less eighty percent, eighty five percent. Malaceli and fifteen, twenty percent, the Trebiano. For Micapata, it's a sparkling wine, and it's a it's a fermented in the bottle with fruits and master. So we fruits and the mustard during the harvest, and we have fruits and the mass, normally, in February, March. So when we have to bottle it, the the wine, we put the quantity to the ferment to create the bubbles in the bottle. It's a very easy drink wine, a very, very happy wine, I think. So, Paulo, I've not I've not come across the use of frozen must before for the secondary fermentation often. Wine producers might add sugar to make that secondary fermentation and yeast, but this is the frozen must after the harvest. The secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle Is this a pet nut? A petio natural style of wine? Meto de and cestrale? You know that all the time, we speak about the pet nut and cestrale. One person say one thinks and other person say another things. I think it's a pet nut. Yes. But, other people sometimes say that it's a stressful, I call pet nut. Okay. So the the sediment remains in the bottle? Exactly. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Remaining the bottle. And we normally, when we we open a bottle, we move and put all together the yeast and and the liquid. And so I think that this is is much much much better. Okay. That's interesting because there are two ways of drinking that aren't there. Some people leave it to settle on the bottom and then drink it, but otherwise, and and some prefer to have it all mixed. I agree often when the wine is good, I like to have that flavor throughout the wine of the yeast settlement as well as the the wine itself mixed in. The beautiful of the wine is this. Each person prefer something and prefer, like, more one wine than another. One the temperature of the wine. And so the this is the beautiful of the of the wine. If every person can decide what to think, how to think, what, what to drink, how to drink, and the this is the Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Now those same grape varieties, primarily in Malvasia Dikandia and Trebiano, are utilized in your other white wines, the formica Jala, the Bianco Fiori, The wine I've sampled and really enjoyed is the, tell us about this wine. We do a little introduce to the three steel wine because we try to do also a particular things because we we do this tree wine with the same grapes, the same day of harvest with three different, verification. So it's, all of three, Malacie deicana, eighty percent, with eighty percent, eighty five percent, and fifteen, twenty percent Rubiano. Bianco Furi, it's directly press. For Micahjala, it's a four or five days skin contact. And the Ranchat omega is one hundred twenty days, one hundred and ten days skin contact. So with this, we also want to show to the people that drink our wine how you can do with the same grape, the same day of harvest, three different wines. For us, for Micahjala is the wine that normally My grandfather used to do in our area. It's the wine of Caseliromani. Some skin contact for a few days. And and so it's the wine of Caseliromani. Paulo. Paulo, that when you say it's the wine you're a grandfather, would have drunk made and drunk the wine of the Castelio Romani. This would have been the type of wine. One would go into those Osterie in the Castelio Romani. And I remember this going back almost forty years ago, and it would never be in a bottle. It would come in a carafe, and you would maybe have some paper wrapped porchetta to enjoy and eat with your hands. Is it something that that you can drink in a different Yes. Exactly. Yes. Normally, they first get it. You go there with something to it. You can bring something to it from your home. And when you go to to first get it, they give you the wine, just the wine. And you can see it. You have the table. Yes. Normally, it not bottled one just, from a carafe. And, yes, is the one of Caseda, do these fraskettes still exist? Yes. In Ericha. Ericha is, the place that they do the porqueta. And in, in a region, there are the Fraskita, not like fifty, seventy, sixty, seventy years ago. Now, you have to take the food there, but more or less, there are some characteristic, characteristic fraskita. Okay. Okay. And so then the Bianco fiore. So the Bianco fiore is directly. Correct? So this is the, most of fiore, the free run juice. Exactly. We put it directly in the press, and the the formica jala is four, five skin contact and Aranchita will leave his skin contact until until January. Okay. Next week, we'll go on to take out the skin from the Aranchita two thousand twenty four. So. Okay. Aranchita was something new because it's a wine that, in our area, no one do. But for five years ago, twenty twenty with my father, we have a still a little tank, and they said, papa, why we don't leave a wine there for two, three weeks. And so we leave for two, three weeks after we test. And we said, okay, it's good. Why we don't leave it for one week or or the two weeks? At the end, we arrived to one hundred and forty days in the first year. And it was something special. The smell is fantastic. We call Arancha. Arancha is orange in English, atomic orange, because the the the real smell of orange. I don't know if we have the influence of our trees outside. We have lemon and orange, a lot of trees there. But we have, really the smell of, a groomy. That's really fascinating, Paulo. I remember tasting this with Janaro, and I noted the Agroomy on the nose. And of course, when people hear here in England about an orange wine, some people think the wines are made from oranges. Of course, we're referring to the skin contact whites that take on that orange color. But I remember that your wine, the Arancha Tomica, does have this distinct bouquet, beautiful perfume of a groomy of citrus fruits. Yes. Yes. Yes. And we are very happy and very proud also because we do something new. Something new that before it doesn't exist in our So this orange style of wine wasn't something that was again going back old tradition. So so so the lengthy skin contact wasn't the way wine was made. Yes. But not for such a lengthy period of resting on the skins. Okay. Fascinating. I think it's a wonderful wine, and I would like to also comment on your extraordinary wine labels. Who designs these? It's a friend of mine I do the logo. I do the logo. The logo of the formica, the end. Yes. I also made a mistake, and I understand that after because if you see the hunter have four legs in the logo, but normally the hunter six label. Oh, I didn't know that. But I think it's it's much more beautiful, like, with the whip for It's a it's a great logo. It's very, very good. And I enjoy I enjoy the labels of your wines. They're fun. I think Paolo, they're they're expressing the joy and the fun of wines that make you happy. I think yes. I think yes. Life is so short. That's why you have to drink a good wine and when you drink good wine, you have to see a good label, very happy label. You have to get fun. For this also, the the most happy label is the most serious wine, Aranchita. So Aranchita is a very serious wine, orange wine, and I put the most funny and reliable, I think this, we don't like senior things. So, yes, we we work. We do in the in the serious way. We do our best, especially during in the banya that we worked very hard. But after when you drink, you have to sit You can drink a good glass of wine. It's something that will barbecue or or take a porchetta. I like to talk to you. Or it's just a piece of bread with olive oil and salt, and so you can get you can get from. Yes. Absolutely. Let's just talk about let's talk about your primativo. I know you make a San Jose as well, but let's talk about the primativo. I think I tasted this one as well. A beautiful expression of primativo, a grape we normally associate with puglia. Exactly. Exactly. Because, historically, primitive grapes are a grape that, used to be from the center of Italy to the south. So from the south Fumbria, Latio Abruzzo, Campania. But in the last years after the second world war, going uh-uh disappeared in our area. I think because I told to you that Room won a lot of wine and primitive grip are very difficult to to works in the banyard. So maybe for this going, disappear at the from our area. But when we decided to bottle the wine, in two thousand seventeen, we have to replace one part of the banyard. And, with my father, we decided to put a primitive. So we replanted the one little part of our banyard, and it it's something, special because I think only only for me, I have primitivo in the in our area. It's a challenge because, now I understand why it disappeared because it's very difficult grips to work. It's very compact grape. So when started to in the second part of August in the first vein in our area, you have to pay attention. And then now we understand why the primitive is in puglia because in puglia, they don't have this problem humidity and wind during the summer, the last part of the summer. It's much more dry. But I think, we are studying the primitivo and we are to try to do our best. It's difficult, but I think, we're gonna arrive to a good result. Also, now it's a good result, but, we're gonna do better. Okay. So it's a challenging grape to grow in the wine hills of the Castelio Romani. Paulo, let's turn now. You've we've touched on a few foods. But let's I think these wines are wines, like all Italian wines that are best enjoyed with food and with local foods. Are there foods particular to the Castelio Romani or perhaps you might want to talk about some Roman foods that pair particularly well with your wines. I think I think, our wines are perfect for the Roman food. The Roman food, it's very stronger. Very so carbonara, Patricia. The guanciale. Yes. With one guanciale. So it's very, very, very strong food. And I think our wine with the aromaticity, we speak about, for example, the white with the aromatic grape can, clean the mouth after with this, with this food. Also with porchetta that you tell you before, and they're still white wine, but I think also the the sparkling wine, the formica pizza jala that you told before or formica pizza also. And I think it's it's a wine from, our dish. Our dish in in Casselli Romani and the and the enrollment. Okay. So working very well with the strong flavored Roman specialties that that that that people love. Paulo, what about visiting if our listeners would like to visit, is this possible? Yes. It's possible. I'm trying to organize better and better because I told to you I don't live there. But we do sometimes some visit with some group of people. And so I visit to the to the vineyard, to the seller, to taste the wine from the tank, and open some bottle of wine. And I would like to improve more this. But if some listener are, interested in to visit us in colorful media, we are very happy. We can contact us and we can organize. Okay. That's very good to know. I'd certainly like to visit myself. Yes. Yes. We with you when you come in Rome, when you come in in Italy. Well, thank you so much, Paulo. It's been really great to talk to you to hear about Kola formica about this link with your family of maintaining the family country farm outside of Rome, of making wines as your family have done for a hundred years, but now making them bottling them with these fabulous labels and indeed, exporting them so that I can enjoy them here in Southwest, Devon, in England, and indeed, I'm sure your wines are found elsewhere. So thank you so much for sharing your story with us for taking us to Valat three. And I hope that we can meet one day soon. Mark, thank you very much to you. It will love your listeners. And, I hope to to see you. Thank you, Paolo. Thank you very much. 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, Chinchin.