Ep. 861 Sicily Gita Scolastica Day 3 Recap | Marc Millon | Wine People 2021

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally international wine and spirits exhibition, the fifty fourth edition of Vinitally will be held from the tenth to the thirteenth of April right here in verona to discover more about Vinitally and get your tickets. Visit vineitally dot com. This year, the Italian wine podcast will be live and in person in Pavilion six. Stand a seven. So come on down and say hello. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, modify email IFM and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italianwine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time, Chichi. Chitoscolastica recap. We're now in Tarmina. It's Sunday morning. I wake up and I look out from my balcony and I can't even see Aetna today. As the clouds have moved in, the wind is switched around to an easterly. The sea is rough outside the streets of Messina, and it's a completely different day. We left Aetna yesterday very early in the morning. Stevy Andrea and Davidey were returning back to Verona for the Mazi prize which was being awarded to Professor Artilio Shenza. We, on the other hand, were coming off the volcano to Tarmina where we are here for three days to take part in master classes for Tarmina Gourmet. Almost as soon as we left the volcano as we were picked up from our hotel at lingua Glosa, Aetna erupted We didn't hear the boom nor did we hear the rumbles, the previous night, which apparently were going on. But it was another eruption. In fact, the fifty ninth this year. And by the time we arrived in Taromina and checked into the hotel Diodoro where we are for a couple of nights and where the Tarmina gourmet events are taking place. It began to rain black volcanic ash quite hard. Almost like small hailstones. Soon, this black ash had covered the balconies. It had covered the streets. It rained on us as we walked, quite extraordinary. A centimeter maybe two just in the streets of Tarmina and over covering everything, cars, people, terraces, everything. Returning to our time for the Jita Skolastica on Aetna. On day three, from Paso Picharo, We visited another important wine property in the same northern area of Aetna, the Palmetto Constanto. The Palmetto Constanto was begun by Valadia and her husband, and it has been the most remarkable transformation of an ancient abandoned vineyard on the north side of Aetna in the contrada of Santo spirito, as well as the transformation of an ancient abandoned apartmento, a large one, into the most modern winery to produce a range of Aetna wines that continue to respect the tradition of Aetna and yet which are produced in a modern style that is very impressive. The vineyards themselves on the dry stone terraces leading up the mountain have been restored respecting the tradition Plantation in Alvarado at Nail in the Quincunx formation, and indeed many of the wines are over one hundred years old. We're beginning to get an understanding of this concept of contrada wines, wines from the different parts of Aetna that reflect a crew terroir that reflect the area from which they are made. At Palmetto Constanto, they're taking this even further producing not just contrada wines, but wines, fintified from particular parcels within the contrada to really give a reflection of terroir, of place, of particularities of how small changes in soil can be reflected in the wines themselves. The was a big one, a big stone building. And this now houses, the modern Palmetto Constanto winery. Very impressive, very impressive wines, particularly enjoyed pasting these crew wines four six six, four six eight, and four six four, subtle differences, but also notable. Four six four much richer, much harder tannins, a lion that needs time to continue to age, whereas the four six six was more forthcoming, brighter fruit. And it will be very interesting to see how these wines continued to develop. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the restored area above the winery of local foods produced from vegetables from the Palamento's own orto, and Salcica Alcshedo once again to accompany these wonderful red wines of Aetna. From Palmetto Constanto, a project that has been done in a remarkably short time, just eleven or twelve years to transform this abandoned mountainside into a vibrant new entity, this new winery, and the transformation, of course, of the vineyards themselves. We went from this very impressive large operation to a tiny boutique winery, which is, has been created with extreme passion and enthusiasm by Steph E. M, who greeted us warmly when we arrived, but Steph who has been at Shara for about five or six years. Again, a new project came to Aetna because he wanted to make wine. He'd been working as a winemaker in France, having worked previously as a sommelier in America and then in France as well looking for somewhere to make wines in a style that he wanted, and he found this on Aetna where he was able to find old vines high altitude with cool temperatures and to make style of natural wines that most interest him. A winery on a completely different scale than we had previously visited tiny handcrafted wine that most twelve thousand bottles can be produced in a good year, but wines made with real personality, passion, enthusiasm, enthusiasm, and love, and orange wine, his white made from Katicante, and Cartoratto, very, very interesting, intriguing fermentation, in amphora, a wine that was particularly enjoyable with some of the salumi that he had put out for us. And Steph was eager to show us his highest vineyard, small vineyard situated at one thousand two hundred meters up the slopes of Aetna. He wanted us to taste the wine actually in the vineyard, and he was so compellingly persuasive that we abandoned the strict timetable of our visit to follow him up the mountain, driving up the flanks of Aetna, almost to where the tree lines stopped passing abandoned terraces, seeing sheep and cows in the road. The smoking volcano always just beyond just tantalizing the above us. Twelve hundred meters is very high for a vineyard in Europe. Indeed, the vineyards of Aetna rank amongst the highest in Europe, if not the highest, I had always thought that the vineyards of Margier La Salle on the slopes of Montebianco in the valley diosta were the highest vineyards in Europe. But in fact, some of these vineyards on Aetna exceed even those lofty altitudes. And so we came up and up and up, into to finally reach Stepf's vineyard, a small patch of ancient vines growing high and isolation on the flanks of the volcano. And we made our way into the vineyard, and Steph then uncorked a couple of bottles who had brought our glasses with us, and we were able to try this wine that I expected to be quite ethereal and perhaps sheer coming from such a high altitude, but we're in Sicily, of course, and the sunshine is strong, and the protection on this north face allows the grapes, surprisingly, garnacha type of green ash, old vines planted up on the mountain to ripen to quite a full and luscious stylus, wine that was beautiful to sample way up on the slopes of Aetna. Our final visit on Aetna was to the contrade Santo spirito wine, a winery that is the project of the Moretti family who have other vineyards elsewhere in Italy that notably the tenuta set Teponte in arezzo in Tuscany, as well as the Pojo in the Marima, the feudal Macari below Aetna in the area around So we were met there by Fabiana Fabiana Santi Lorini, and the agronomist of the estate. Again, to see a vineyard in the contrada of Santospirito. A vineyard planted again with these ancient vines, vines well over one hundred years old, in many cases, pre phylloxera wines, wines that never needed to be grafted onto American rootstock, partly through age, through being planted before phylloxera came to Sicily, but also because in this fine, coarse volcanic soil of Aetna, the phylloxera, a type of aphid, a pest that brows into roots and destroys vines that vineyard pests cannot survive in this volcanic soil. So again, it was another opportunity to learn about the restoration of ancient vines on Aetna. And this story of how one of the oldest wine producing areas in the world, certainly in Italy, where vines have been grown for literally thousands of years. Some say that the legendary times the Greeks, for example, Homer's Odyssey, the one eyed cyclops polyphemus talks about his vines and perhaps those grew on the slopes of Hetna. But the story of how wine, how vineyards were abandoned too labor intensive to yield financial returns once the market for Cushing lines had gone those navigable lines that could be taken down to riposto to travel by boat by ships, sturdy enough to survive a sea voyage up to Northern Europe, to bolster less strong wines from Northern Italy and France when that market had gone and the vineyards were abandoned. We're now seeing this incredible story of reinvestment in these ancient vines restoring them storing the lands repairing the dry stone terraces because on this volcanic soil at high altitude with old vines, wines can be made that are quite unlike any others, wines with elegance and finesse and power. And this is the story of Avantna. So we then went down to Randazzo to enjoy a another wine tasting and a simple dinner amongst wine producers amongst friends, people we had met along the way, Pietro Russo, the winemaker from Donna Fugata, who I'd interviewed just days earlier when he was making wine on The island of Pantalaria was there. And Gabriale, Italy's first master of wine joined us for the evening. So it was a wonderful conclusion to three days of learning, casting, feeling what Aetna is, feeling this volcano, smelling the volcano, touching the volcanic soil, and again seeing these ancient old vines, a real opportunity to learn, to enjoy, and to cover. And so as Aetna was erupting without us realizing it at the time, we came down to Tarumina. We're on the coast now in the northeast of Sicily. I'm looking out over the sea now with The waves pounding on the beaches. It's quite a rough day ahead of us. It looks like we'll have some more rain, but we're here for two more days of master class tastings that are being organized for Tarmina gourmet. Very very well done of already attended some fascinating tastings. One of the most interesting yesterday was a blind tasting of of wines from the two thousand sixteen vintage for Bruno de Montalcino. Four barolo and four at Naroso. Really fascinating to see how these wines share some similarities and how, they're also one can deduct from color, from can and from acidity. Perhaps make educated guesses of which wine is which. We have a few more days of tastings before we return home. It's been a really fantastic Jetas Galastica, and it really demonstrates, I think, to all of us Italian wine ambassadors that the oil and struggle that it takes to pass the Via Italian wine Ambassador exam is worth the effort because it is through study, study in theory, study through the lectures, through taste that we can really gain a deeper understanding that is then furthered and enriched with a Gita scholastica like this. So if you are thinking of enrolling in the Via Italian wine, Ambassador course, I highly recommend it. The deeper understanding of Italian wine across the country is a study well worth pursuing, and the enjoyment as well comes from the community that Via has created the community that we're enjoying here amongst other students, all of us from very differing backgrounds and places in this community that is and created and nurtured by Stevie Kim and the team at Via Avinita International Academy. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by VIN Italy International Wine and spirits exhibition, the biggest drinks trade fair in the world. For more information about VIN Italy and tickets, visit VIN Italy dot com, and remember to subscribe to Italian wine podcast and catch us on SoundCloud spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Lemings Denon. I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. This is a labor of love and we are committed to bringing you free content every day. Of course, this takes time and effort not to mention the cost of equipment, production, and editing. We would be grateful for your donations, suggestions, requests, and ideas. For more information on how to get in touch, go to Italian wine podcast dot com.