Ep. 1714 Raffaele Foglia Of Villa Bogdano | wine2wine Business Forum 2023

Welcome to the Italian Great Geek podcast. Join us as we explore personal stories of travel and tasting with Italy's must know grape for idols. Chart your own course with my Italian Great Geek journal, your personal tasting companion to accompany the series, available now on Amazon with thanks to Calangelo and partners for their generous support with this project. Official Media Partner, the Italian One Park is delighted to present a series of interviews and highlights from the twenty twenty three one to one business forum, featuring Italian wine producers and bringing together some of the most influential voices in the sector to discuss the hottest topics facing the industry today. Don't forget to tune in every Thursday at three PM or visit the Italian wine podcast dot com for more information. Good morning. This is Cynthia Chaplin at wine to wine business forum. And for the podcast marathon, today, I've got with me Rafael Foria from Villa in We are in Vanneton. Okay. It's the last, small town, the floor fueling. It's the only DOCG I had a I told you of later. Okay. The only of this DOCGintar regional DOCGine. Okay. So from Villa Bogdana, in Venetto. So you're a neighbor of mine. I live just outside of Verona, Thank you so much for coming today. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about Villa Buogdano. It's a lizone classic called our iconic wine, and absolutely the most representative, we have in our portfolio. Absolutely. Tell us a bit about the variety. The variety is, one hundred percent to Kaai Frulanau grapes. The most important thing that, it come from vines dating back in nineteen forty three. So, eighty years old. That's fantastic. It's unusual now because Yeah. It's pretty unusual because we are in a vanitas. It sort of became the trend that most producers would replanned after about thirty, thirty five years. So it's nice to hear that you still stick with it. Usually. Yeah. Absolutely. That's that's amazing. I know that the the tenuta itself is tenuta plandia, very old estate since eighteen eighties, and you've got all kinds of biodiversity going on. This is a big part of who you are at Villa Boobodana and at Anita Planetia. Tell us a little bit because you've been certified organics since nineteen ninety Yes. That's right. And that's again unusual. Not not that many. Maybe we were close to the first, having the certification by your the organic certification. Most important thing is the certification of Natura two thousand. For biodiverse, as you told, especially for a Woodland, we have the team back one thousand two hundred. So is the one of the ten remaining Woodland of, lowland. And it's really important to protect these sites because not only for their history, but they also play a huge role in the vineyard as well. Yeah. So we believe, especially in biodiversity, more than inorganic. I mean, for this reason, we put on our label, the flag of, the total two thousand because in our opinion, is a n higher level to demonstrate that we every day do the best in our vineyards to respect the natural and, plants and animals that leave really live in our United States. And it's important consumers want to know this now. They want to know that you're taking care of the vineyard being biodiverse this way. I know it's a big estate. How many hectares? Single bodied, state, and, we are talking about one hundred and eighty five, Hector. And how many are vineyards? Oh, we have forty two in crops, twelve in Woodland, and, about one hundred of, vineyards. But we are focused on, old vines because we have at least eighteen hectares of old vines, mainly tokkaia and merlot. And we take care every day, of this heritage that Fergoni said that that is, the Italian call it the the capital of all the vines in Italy. That's incredible. You also have a really special training method there. Yeah. That's right. The middle ages from the benedictine monks. Tell us about this training method. What does it look like and what is the benefit to the grapes? It looked like pretty strange because the vines are very close about one meter. So this help the vines go deeper and take the caranto. The calcium carbonated that is about eight, one meter above the ground. And gave the salty flag or to our wines. But in the meantime, the beringetia monks opened one in the last time and the other one in the right, the plant, the line. So that, Devon have the space, the natural space to produce more but with quality. You'll also call it, like a book. Right. Exactly. Because it's like a v, if you stay in front of the vineyard, you see like a v Oh, that's perfect. So getting some sunshine and some air Yes. I've been doing that. In as well. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, let's talk about this wine, the Leison Plasico DOCG two thousand and nineteen. Why did you select this wine as the wine that really represents Villibaldana? Lizzona, we stay in Lizzona. So Lizzona is the area, and the Lizzone class in the Dostasygy, the only one interregional Dosegy in Italy, between Fenito and frijio. Valley and frijole. That's right. Of course, it's, the wine that most of the other represents, the terroir, our special terroir. So one hundred percent Tokai frijolano. So when I've got this wine in my glass, what's it like? Bright straw yellow. Very clean, in the nose, the first you feel is, are sweet spices with, some notes of, candid fluid. But the of our wines are a balsamic note, especially Sajan Mint that you can feel also in the and finally, usual almondy note better Marzipana because it's sweeter than, real high monda. It sounds amazing. I'm gonna have to get a hold of mister head. Absolutely. But the winter's nineteen was really untypical because of hail storm. After that, the botwicks started. So the result is very typical. We are talking of, a white wine with the twenty nine gram per liter of extract. So a really incredible texture. And, with the spicy notes, very present, especially suffering. And, the result is an incredible line that the justice Robinson awarded with the seventeen point five. Pretty strange because the highest score that justice Robicle gave to about seventy a TOCational annual review it, but we are not the freeway. No. And that's what makes it special. I think it's something that I know our listeners are interested in hearing about how this TOCai freeway line was always an interesting story. Not being allowed to use the name to Kai after so many years of having used it. It's still really part of who we are in Veneto and freely. I think it's great that that wine is winning some awards. So are you exporting it? Yes. Absolutely. We are in a UK, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and we did some sales also in, Finland and Denmark. I mean, the estate is very old because, it's dating back, sixteenth century, but, the new ownership has taken over in twenty seventeen. So we are almost a startup. But, nevertheless, we started to support our wines. Well, you're the chief marketing officer. Yep. So what do you see happening at Philip bogdan in the next couple of years? What are your goals and your aspiration for for the tenuta, for the wines, for the seller? Thank you. Good question. It's not so easy because we live in a territory that is not well known. So we would like really to increase the authority of, of Lizona, and, of their wines. We know that it's so difficult, but we'll do our best so that all consumers can recognize the quality of wines coming from, design and have a smaller It's so important this idea of storytelling and getting this message out, especially with a wine that isn't hugely well known outside of Italy. So where can our listeners find you? Have you got a website, Instagram, tell them where to find you? Okay. Anybody can contact me by phone, and thanks to our website. Of course. Villa Bogdana? Yes. Because Triuto Planitzia is, the company name, but the label is Villa Bogdana one eight eight zero. The website is Bila Bordano. And have you got a social media presence? Are you? Yes. Instagram hila underscore Bordano underscore wines. Facebook, of course, we don't have still nicotine even if I'm confident to be present, as soon as possible. Perfect. Well, I think that's fantastic. And we wish you all the very best with, as you said, it's almost a startup, getting message out there. And I hope that our listeners will get interested in your wine the way that I have. I I wanna taste it now. So thank you so much Rafael. Really appreciate it. Alright. Thank you. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, email ifm, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider are donating through Italian wine podcast dot com, any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.