Ep. 670 Werner Waldboth | Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon

Welcome to wine food and travel with me, Mark Millen, 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'll 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. This morning, I'm traveling over the Brenner Pass to descend into the autonomous region of Trentino Alto Adighe or Trentino Souturo as it is also known to visit one of Italy's most historic wine estates, and one of the oldest active wine estates in the world. Closter Neustift, or in this trilingual region, Babacia Dino Vachella. My guest this morning is Werner Waldenbosch, who is the head of sales and marketing at Moistre. Guten tag, Bongroverno. Good morning, Werner. Thank you so much for being our guest. I know it's a busy moment of the year in the wine country, so we really appreciate you joining us. How are you today? Hi. Good morning. I'm fine. Thanks. Thanks a lot. So actually here in our area, at the moment, it isn't that's been that busy yet because we didn't start with the harvest. We probably will start next week. So we are right. A couple of days from the the real intense time of a year. So you've got just a few moments of calm to sort of fortify ourselves before everything goes crazy. Right. Now, the Closter Neistiff is a very special and unique place. Since it since its foundation, in eleven forty two as an Augustinian monastery. The vocation of grape growing and wine making has been at the heart of monastic life. Can you tell us a little bit about this very special place? Special thing about our winery is or the ministry is that we are not just an active winery for our most eight hundred and eighty years, but we are still being, active ministry as well. And so that, therefore, There's, between the winery, the winemaking process, all that stuff. We have, also a lot of, of, of culture, but even religion always speaks, speaks, a role as a road. We still have, nineteen of monks here. Which are living here in the monastery. And therefore, it's a very nice combination of everything and therefore a very special place. I guess wine, has always been certainly historically the monasteries have been essential to preserving marine making through the dark ages and, and then in later times too. With close to Neustif, the foundation of the monastery was linked to wealthy benefactors, leaving the monastery tracks of land. And these are still some of your finest vineyards that are still in production today. Is that correct? That's that's right. Even that's just a small portion. So we actually do, own a seven hectares So more or less, fifty acres or a little bit more in the surrounding, of of the Abby itself, which we did own already a couple of hundred years ago, or which always has been property of the of the monastery because you have to imagine that when in time of the secularization, which was at the beginning of the nineteenth century with Napole on it, he took away from the monasteries or from the church all their properties and gave it to the farmers. And therefore, then the the monastery became a lot smaller. And, so we have just a little part of the of the vineyards we already had before. And we were able to, to maintain until after, and also afterwards. A big part or bigger part of the, the vineyards were then bought after that period. And so, today, we, aside of this seven hectares. We have other, around twenty hectares, which we report later. Okay. And you're still working with a lot of the local farmers who bring their grapes to the Neustif liners. Right. So, in, in, general, here in Artadigy, copper disc are quite important. So, as seventy percent of the whole production into Artadigy is produced by copper disc. And also here in our area, the farmers, it was sixty farmers, decided to found, cooperative. It was in nineteen sixty one. And the difference to the other cooperatives, other other farmers in other areas, our strategy, they decided to not build a winery, but to sell the grapes to winery. Therefore, in nineteen sixty two, the Ebot or the former Ebot or the Ebot at the time went to the the president of this cooperative and ask them if they will be interested in selling the grape to Avaterin Occella. And therefore, it's now fifty nine years ago, started this collaboration with that local farmer. So it both the most of the farmers here in the surroundings of Novachella and the Abi or the winery of the Abi. And therefore, we don't have or don't produce wines just out of the twenty six hectares we do own, but we have other sixty hectares of vineyards, which, where the grapes are delivered to the, to the monastery and what we do produce the wine out of it. Okay. That's a fascinating relationship. Cats, it's good, and it's a big advantage for both sites because on the market side, we can act as a private company. But on the other hand, on the on this production side, we have this cooperative, which is quite a good model for for for for this side. Let's say. Sure. Sure. Now, the Amazian inochala today produces a large range of white as well as red table wines. The state is probably best known for your outstanding whites from aromatic and semi aromatic grape varieties. We're in the most northerly of all of it to these wine growing areas. What are the conditions the terrain, the microclimate that make Isaac Tower, the Azarco valley. So we'll suit it to the production of these high quality white wines. Yeah. Valizarko, in fact, there's quite special here in Aldadija. First of all, it's the the northernmost area. So, if you are here and maybe have visited or have the opportunity to visit our winery, you see that, with our winery or a few miles, further north, wine growing as or the vineyards are finishing because it's getting too cold. So we are really on, on the edge of Viticulture. So it's still it's being possible, but it's not easy. And it has to do with a cool climate. So we are we are in the north but we are, quite high as well. So the, the lowest vineyards we have are at, six thirty meters, which is two thousand feet of altitude. And we are going up to eight hundred fifty meters or two thousand eight hundred feet. And so we are north. We are quite high. And the third factor with why we have the special gray varieties and why we have the special conditions is the, the wound systems here in our villages. I mean, our strategy, we have a strong impact of the aura, which is a warm system coming from the Mediterranean, and this has a big impact on our data. It brings warm air to our data. But as the Baliozarko is, quite a small valley in the area of Palzano. This wind system can't enter that well in our valley. And therefore, the impact of these winds is lower. And therefore, we have a temperature difference between, let's say, bricks and and other important fine growing areas, let's say, a piano, for example, of two degrees Celsius or four degrees Fahrenheit. And there's a big impact on this. On the other hand, we, the soils we have quite similar in in whole Autodigy or even very different because we have our Marenical deposits as Autodigy during the different glacial dams was always covered by Vacations. And so we have these Marenical deposits, which are composed of a lot of, various components. And therefore, we have kind of the the same soils here, which is mechanical deposits, but the mechanical deposits in general are very, very, very different by itself as the components are different. They are always very light, light soils, and and therefore very sweated for for grape, for wine growing as well. Okay. So it's that mix of the terrain, the particular climate of those warm air sweeping up to hit the mountain and of course the altitude of the vineyards that that that gives such aromas to the wines. I know the Propositives range is a very special range linked to the history of the monastery. Can you tell us a little bit about this range of wines? Yes. The Propositist range was introduced at the end of the of the twenty centuries in the late nineties, and the idea was to create a special wine, which is dedicated to the abbots of the monastery because Proposito is the Latin word for abbot. And so these wines are dedicated to the abbots, fifty eight abbots, from the founding of the monastery until now. So of the efforts of the last eight hundred and seventy nine years. And, the idea was to create a very special wine, from the best spots we have. And therefore, we define the best areas with the best expositions, and then with with the oldest, with the oldest wines there, we reduce the yields, a lot, so lower yields. And in the cellar, used different treatments, maybe longer aging on the findings or more blood aging. And so it was born this special wine product line, which is always, he had a higher quality line. We're a special wines. And then we started in in the nineties. And step by step, we added the different grape varieties. So we started with La Gryne, you know, narrowed, and then Kernard, then Sylvana, And today, we have most of our wines in both quality lines. So we call that, basic lines, for us, it's the classic line, and then the Propositives line, which is the special product line with the, with the higher quality wines. Okay. So when, people see a bottle of prepositists, they know that's the sort of the top quality, the crew wines of of the Avatidinovachella. Currently, you mentioned is an interesting grape. It's one we're less familiar with. I recall drinking a Propositist kernel when I was last in Sutturo in February two thousand twenty just before the world changed and I absolutely loved it. Can you tell us some of its characteristics and why it's able to express itself so fully in his article in the valley. Colonel is a quite a modern grape variety. So it was a German, a new German, grape variety created in nineteen twenty nine. And the idea of what behind was to create a variety which is resistant to the frost and brings high yield. So, which would be, very treated for areas like ours, which are have cold winters and to the, treated or ideal for that time because then the the 1920s, they wanted to produce a lot of high yields and a lot of wine out of every hectare. And therefore, they took riesling, German riesling, and Skiava, and did that cross and the result was quite unexpected. So it was a very aromatic wine with a good fruit, even spicy and a good freshness. The problem of the kernel at that time or in Germany was that if it was brought to high yields. It was quite a flat wine. Therefore, in Germany, Corona never had, a big success. Then in the nineteen sixties, the colonel came to Valasarco, and as we, until the the late eighties or the beginning, we are the beginning of the 80s. We had often problems which went winter frost. The farmers pushed a lot in kernel because kernel had less problems with winter frost. And so in the, in the 70s, 80s, the nineties slowly that the vineyard areas increased. And we as winery then in nineteen ninety two started to produce wine out of describe variety. And on the market side, it was quite a big success because as I said, it's a very fruity wine. So it dances the nose. And then on the on the palate, it has a spicy and fresh character. And and, yeah, people was enjoying that. And so during the last twenty, twenty five years, or a redone in which thirty years, kernel became for us became the most important grape variety in terms of of quantity. Right. No. It's a wine I loved when I last tasted it. Can we turn our attention now a little bit more towards food. The strategic location of Abazir de nova Chada, close to Neustif. The bottom of the branner pass has made it a notable tapa for literally centuries. Pillograms on Route to Rome, pausing here for hospitality. Today, I guess, You have wine pilgrims tourists from Northern Europe pausing to taste wine to buy. The place they all had to is the, the stiff color or the Abbey tap room. Is it such an atmospheric and historic place to do so? Tell us about the stiff color and, and maybe some of the local foods that can be sampled with your wines and which wines pair best with them. Yeah. Actually, we don't have just wine tourists here at at Tabatia de Noychella because we we have a quite an important museum as well and a convention center. And there are for there are lots of people coming to us, which are not just trying, you know, want to taste wine, but also to see the the the monastery itself because it's it's, quite interesting and it's worth visiting it. And the shift cutter, we are focusing a lot on on local product. So we, we offer mostly just cold food. So so not warm plates, but depending on on the local products such as a speck or local cheeses or specialty we have here is just the smoked sausages. We we produce here in our daggler, especially bread, like the the shuttle broad, and and that's what we the shuttle broad is is a special bread from arthritis. So it's, it's a dried bread, and the name shuttle broad comes from, from the shaking process, which is done during the production of the of the bread. And the doing this shaking process, the the bread gets quite flat. So it's a a thin flat, a round bread, which is hard. Yeah. It's it's very typical for our area. So perfect. With a glass of wine, perfect with a glass of wine with, some spec. Now, the foods of alto adige, sootaro, are completely different to any other region in Italy. Can you just give us one or two of the classic not to be missed dishes to try when anyone is visiting the region and perhaps the wines that best pair with them. Yeah. We have the the big advantage to have an impact of the German and Italian cuisine and therefore have a a very traditional dishes, which are on the other hand, have this this lightness of the Italian cuisine. And if you would mention some traditional foods from this area, you have, of course, to try shoots cropped from which are where avioli fits spinach. On the other hand, we have dumplings, of course, very typical for a strategy with spinach or just with spec or with anything. So that's quite important. And, for our area, very typical product is a wine soup as well, which we are making. That's made with Sylvana. It's it. That's normally made with Sylvana in our area as Sylvana is the most difficult wine for this area. And also more, heartier game to go with the red wines of the region. Right. Bernard, is there a particular restaurant perhaps you could recommend near or around where our listeners could experience the true authentic foods of of the region? Yeah. There's a a very good restaurant. I could suggest in brickson, which is the the finestenburg or an Italian hostescuro, which is traditional. It's not start, but the restaurant not always has to be start, but it's very good, very high quality traditional cuisine. Oh, that sounds perfect. And they could encounter the wines of the Abazia there. Right. Of course. I hope that people who are passing and out of Italy or making a journey to Sutturo, we'll find we'll make an effort to find the Abaceli Novicella. I've been on a couple of occasions myself, and I think it's a very special place that's unique in the history of Italian wine. So I'm really glad we've had a chance to have this chat today, and I thank you for joining us here on Italian wine podcast. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Bye bye for now. I 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 italian wine podcast dot com. Until next time. Hi, everybody. 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