Ana TERCIC from San Floriano in Collio - S05E18

[00:00:00] Welcome to La Taverna Friuli Wines, the definitive podcast on wines from Friuli Venezia Giulia. I'm your host Wayne Young. Hey Friuli Wine fans, welcome back to La Taverna Friuli Wines. I'm Wayne Young. How's everybody doing? Summer has arrived. Welcome to summer.

[00:00:53] It's hot one there on the East Coast in the United States, huh? Here in Friuli, it's been very nice threatening some rain, but it's been a very mild beginning of summer after a wet and very

[00:01:05] challenging May and early June. Hopefully 2024 will be a great vintage. Today we have a wonderful conversation with a lovely lady, Ana Tercic from San Floriano in Collio. I really like the end of this conversation when we talk about how there's a new sense of togetherness and

[00:01:27] regional promotion amongst young winemakers in Friuli Venezia Giulia. And that's exactly what we need here. So without further ado, let's get right into this conversation with Ana Tercic from the Tercic Winery in Collio. Obviously one of the biggest problems that most people have

[00:01:55] in Italy with English is they understand, but they're really scared to talk. So you must be a little bit more courageous than the typical person. Yes, but that's also because Italian it's not my main language, my mother language. It's Slovenian actually. So in my family we

[00:02:15] all speak Slovenian within ourselves. And then in school we learn Italian and then also English. Actually I had a lot of problems with English. Yes, because especially like in middle school there was not so much effort from the professor to learn English, but then in high

[00:02:42] school there was a very good professor which at the time I really hated it because she was very strict. But now thanks to her I learned the basics and then I moved on with the books

[00:02:55] and then the more you speak the easier it gets. And then I had the chance to live with a British guy when I was doing my internship, not an internship, a working

[00:03:08] experience when I was in Bordeaux. So when I was working all day with him he gave me the tips how to speak British English. Which is the worst kind of English. It's terrible. They don't pronounce their r's and they spell their words with extra letters.

[00:03:31] I know there are different types of English, different accent. I am more used to I think American because of all the movies and music and everything. So it is a little bit easier. Tell me about this experience in Bordeaux. Before we start talking about the winery.

[00:03:51] So you did a work experience in Bordeaux in wine? Yes, I worked in a winery in the region of the Choux Lakes. I don't want to pronounce it in the Entrée du Mer. My French is not that good so I didn't want to.

[00:04:09] Mine is non-existent so it's fine. And yes, I worked there. It was actually a little bit a bigger winery but that was still very interesting to understand how to work in a bigger environment with a lot of people.

[00:04:26] Because my winery we are just three of us. The winery is just me and my dad so it's very simple to organize yourself. And in a bigger winery you have to understand what to do to maximize everything and not lose time. So that was a very good thing

[00:04:46] to really understand. To do that first I have to do before and organize pampe and everything. But then also it was very interesting to learn how they everything that they do they speak

[00:05:02] with everyone in the cellar and you know on the top level. So that was also something very interesting and yeah all the tasting that they were doing and how they communicate with each other and the opening mind that was really interesting for me.

[00:05:20] And not knowing French wasn't a problem for you? No actually no in Bordeaux they are very open. I mean my experience was that I had very very young analogist that he was like my tutor I would say the person I was communicating with

[00:05:37] you know when I had the questions or why are we doing this why not that why are you using that. And he was very young so he was 41 at the time so now he's 44 and so he was doing

[00:05:53] he worked a lot in Australia and New Zealand so because of that he was very open-minded and and also because of Australia and New Zealand you speak English. Exactly yeah and so but his father spoke to me in French which is why I learned a little bit

[00:06:12] but not that much because I was there just for three months so that's not enough. So tell me about the winery your winery Terčić in Colio. Yes yes we are in the village called San Floriano del Colio in Slovenian language

[00:06:30] and we are a family winery my father and my mother started it in 1993. Okay so last year was 30 years anniversary and I've been working for about four years now with Dean the winery and with the communication and people and but

[00:06:54] I've been working 11 years now in the vineyard. So wow okay and that's how old are you Ana? I'm 27 I will be soon very soon 28. Okay yes so 11 years that you've been working in the winery so since you were 16 basically.

[00:07:09] 17 years because now I will be 28 in next Monday so next Monday 3rd of June yeah so yeah but yes we are a family winery for now it's just me my mom and my dad

[00:07:26] that we are working on everything I am mainly in the vineyard but nowadays I'm a lot more traveling you know after Covid people are requesting come here present the winery and because I know a little bit better English than my dad he's like go go yeah.

[00:07:46] Go yeah go speak English with the American people yeah. No he knows very well but he's maybe a little bit shy so he doesn't want to because maybe he has a stronger accent so he wants to be in the vineyard.

[00:08:02] Yeah and you're young it's fun to travel when you're young. Yes it is I actually just came home from Copenhagen. Yes that's right how did that go? Very well the city was really really nice people also and they actually drink a lot

[00:08:16] of wine I did not expect they are five millions and they drink a lot of wine. Good yeah hopefully a lot of your wine. Yeah a lot of Friulian wine that's good yeah that's super good.

[00:08:28] Yeah and so yes it was kind of nice trip to see and they were very open-minded you know even if they didn't know exactly about the Tribola or Friulano our local grapes they were very interested in discovering it so it was nice.

[00:08:45] Is that a market that you've been in for a while or is that something new for your winery? No we started actually last year so it was an event or every two years they do this event

[00:08:58] so this year we also went and it was it was very nice. That you know I was speaking with Benjamin Yazidaric who said he was going to Copenhagen so he must have been with you. No with me there was Nicola Armacara from Armacara wineries.

[00:09:14] Who also speaks English really well. Yes yes he does I actually was very fortunate that he came with me because they cancelled my flight to Venice and they and I had to buy another ticket to go to Bergamo and he

[00:09:29] was flying from Bergamo so I was very lucky that I could return home with him. And so did he like drive you home from Bergamo? Exactly yes. Lucky. Yes very lucky. Otherwise it would have been a bus or train. Which would take like six hours.

[00:09:47] It would have been it's better that you were there with him. Yes yeah. A very chivalrous guy to give you a ride home. Shout out to Nicola Armacara for making sure you get home safe. Yes.

[00:09:58] Cool cool so how much wine do you guys make I mean obviously if you're small in a three-person operation we're not talking 100,000 bottles. No no we have 10 hectares more precisely. That's pretty big though 10 hectares for three people that's not a little bit.

[00:10:15] Yeah more precisely it's 9.5 hectares but we're running out to 10. And we produce 30,000 bottles every year. Yeah all right. The good thing is that we have 14 plots you know all on 10 hectares so it's a

[00:10:31] lot of work you know to move with the tractor and with your workers especially during vintage time. But the good thing is that you have different expositions different type of soil and also different age of the vines of the vineyards so that's very interesting you know when

[00:10:52] you are making wine to see an example that that plot is very good for ribola but it's not good maybe for pinot grigio or sauvignon. Okay. So that is the good thing it is a lot of work but we are now kind of used it so

[00:11:07] we are more like it's a good thing so that you have all of this. How big is each plot more or less? Well the smallest one is just 3,000 meters. Okay you said 14. Yeah. So 14 yeah 10 hectares divided by 14 that's less than a hectare for each pot.

[00:11:24] Yes exactly yes the biggest one it's actually near not the nearest to the cellar but like one kilometer from the cellar so that's the biggest one that we have the ribola and pinot grigio there but we have it located in San Floriano Steverean but we also have

[00:11:42] something in the Izonzo DOC which is on the flatland near Lucinico and Farra yes. Okay okay. Yes we have divided in two areas so 14 plots in San Floriano and in the flatland. So both of these areas make 14 plots. Okay. Yes.

[00:12:03] So is there a big difference in working in a place like Izonzo rather than working up in San Floriano? Well in the Izonzo area it's everything easier because it's everything flat so it's

[00:12:17] very easy to go there and even if the some hours before it rained the next hour it is almost dry so that's perfect for working but I'm more used to work in the Colio area

[00:12:31] because we live there me and my family live just 100 meters above the cellar so I'm used to you know walking up with the hills and the forest and the vineyard in the flatland

[00:12:44] I think it's just easier to work but and there it is a different soil so they need a different maintenance of the vineyard if I can say like that. Sure. And so yes I would say that those are the difference.

[00:13:01] The example in the Colio area in San Floriano for every summer when it's near harvest time we have to close with the electric fence otherwise we have problems with wild boars or the deers they come and eat you know the grapes.

[00:13:19] Of course a lot of people are complaining about problems. Yes in the last years the last three years it is a little bit less so at least we don't have so much problems but still we have to close everything otherwise they will

[00:13:33] just go they will enter and eat everything so and that problem you don't have it in the flatland so that's one thing that the hills have these problems and the flatland does not have them. And your dad's sort of entry into the world of wine was that something

[00:13:52] very new or was that something that sort of carried over from a previous generation or how did that all kind of start back in 1993? So my family the Tercic family is living in Scevarian for about 300 years now.

[00:14:09] We always saw the first male you know born from the Tercic always we lived in San Floriano and we for what can I say in about 100 years we always worked the vineyard so we always have

[00:14:26] land but my grandfather which is the father of my father he worked the vineyards but he sold the grapes to the big wineries in Cormons back in the 1770s and 80s and he primarily

[00:14:44] loved the animals so he had the cows you know for milk and little cows for the meat. I don't know how to explain that. Like veal for making? Cavs. Yeah yeah and but he really loved the animals but in the 90s I think there was this

[00:15:07] or you would have more than like 50 cows otherwise you would not go on you know with the business or you would stop. Okay. That's not just my case of my family there were actually other families who had this

[00:15:23] you know they had to choose or they go on with the animals or they go on with the vineyards. So you needed sort of like a big quantity of animals to make enough milk for it to be sort of financially viable.

[00:15:37] Yes because otherwise it was becoming there was a lot of work and not so much money and everything and we did not have the space you know for the cows and so my dad decided

[00:15:50] that he wanted to make his own wine, his own labels so he started in the 93. He started with the Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay which we still have the vineyards from where he was producing it and then slowly he started adding like Ribolla, Sauvignon, Merlot and lastly Friolano. Okay.

[00:16:12] Yeah. So and you were you always wanting to go and work in the winery or did you have other ideas when you were younger? So I of course I was born in this family so the harvest was always every year so

[00:16:29] I was very happy when was the harvest period because my family it is a big family I mean the cousins and you know the third cousins so we were kind of big family and

[00:16:44] in the first years when all of these cousins of my father had the children they were all coming together to harvest and so all of our kids were together and so we were like harvesting if you know what I mean. Yeah. So we were more like playing.

[00:17:00] Playing exactly so that was very nice but still it gave me the idea that it is a nice time of the year where you gather together and you play with your cousins that

[00:17:11] maybe you don't see so much and then when I was growing up I was I remember I was 17 when I started working in the vineyards with my grandmother because my grandmother she's now 83 and she's still working with me in the vineyard. Fantastic. Yeah. Love it.

[00:17:32] And so I remember I went to see her in the vineyard in the summer to bring her some water and something to eat and I asked like grandma what are you doing you know and she was just explaining that she was selecting the shoots you know. Okay.

[00:17:52] And she said you should try and I said okay and then I just tried and I really much enjoyed how the vines was then very clean and everything was in order you know

[00:18:04] and you have maybe a little bit less but the one that you remain they were growing very like stronger and more healthier so then I just started going every day with her in the vineyard and then every summer I work with her and some other workers

[00:18:24] and then slowly I was really every summer with her not in the winter because I was still in school high school so this is how I started before that I wanted to be a lawyer but then I understood that that was not for me.

[00:18:43] Okay well what made you understand that? Because you have to be you know in a closed environment and you have to be in a lot of papers and you have to deal with a lot of problems and I understood that that was not for me. Okay.

[00:18:57] You know I liked when there was justice you know to make that you know if someone had done something wrong that there was justice for the other person. Okay.

[00:19:10] But I understand that that was not my war if I can say in this way so I much more enjoyed being on outside and see actually how the life is of the vine because you see this is I think

[00:19:25] the beauty of our work that in the winter there is no life and then in spring the gems start to open and there are shoots and you see all the process of how life is coming to life you know. Right.

[00:19:42] And when you see that I think every year it's something it is a beauty in that because yeah you see how life is created so and how life will not stop you know for

[00:19:57] at example last year we had hail very very bad hail and still the vine succeeded in maturing the grapes so and I think from that you can always learn something new you know that you should not stop when the problems arrive. Okay.

[00:20:15] But you should just be like the vine that she will push through and then come to the grape maturation. Sounds very philosophical. Because of philosophy I actually was in the so in Italy it's the Liceo Classico

[00:20:32] so it's like a classic study with Greek philosophy and Latin and so maybe that was a little bit. That's something that is I think sorely missing from American education I think I was just on

[00:20:48] the tail end of that maybe there was a little bit of that type of education going on in high school but yeah I think it would be much better if we all learned a little bit of

[00:20:59] Greek philosophy and music and things like that that we would consider classic you know education the Liceo Classico. Yes. But now it's all sort of just geared towards you know making sure you can use a keyboard well

[00:21:13] so I don't think that's very useful but I mean I so many times I've heard from people who work in the in the wine business or especially in wineries they say they can't

[00:21:23] not be in contact with the outside with nature with the vines and be there and even though it's hard there's some sort of deeper connection that comes out of that and obviously you felt that.

[00:21:37] Yes yes I felt it I'm feeling it still now because I every year like I wait for spring to come and start you know to see how life just comes you know and I think now it's the

[00:21:53] most beautiful time because when you walk inside the vineyard you smell all of the flowering of the vines and that's so so good as a smell and I've never smelled something so

[00:22:06] good and there is not even one perfume or aroma that you can feel it like chemically done. So that is something that just we have the one that has a vineyard and when you walk there

[00:22:20] it's just I don't know I cannot say breathtaking but maybe yeah when the smell is so good that you just I don't know. So if you had to pick a time of the year that was your favorite it

[00:22:33] would be now? Yes even if now it's the worst time for works outside in the vineyard because you have so much and the vine is just growing every day right so you see today it is maybe

[00:22:44] smaller and you go tomorrow and it is much bigger yes and so but in that you see how life really pushes to grow you know. What's the hardest thing about working outside about

[00:22:57] working in the vineyard? I think a little bit the stress that you want to be done everything good in a proper way and that it has to be done in a period of time you know because you cannot

[00:23:13] like select the shoots when the vine is flowering I mean it's not that good because you are compromising maybe the flowering because it's such a delicate period okay you know and you should not know yes because so when the flowering is occurring it is very important

[00:23:30] that there is no rain and that they're a good day so this week has we hope it will be okay but it is better if it's not raining and the flowering just starts and ends with good weather

[00:23:43] right so that then everything is is okay for her all right pollinated and exactly fertilized yes yes so you have to really work in a certain period to do it the best you can

[00:23:56] and that is the most stressful stressful time because we also have a lot of like old vineyard so some of them when the vine is growing you know the shoots are growing they become taller

[00:24:12] and taller by the day you have to put them inside the wires and because we have old vineyard we have to do it that manually so you have to put it in inside the wires and close it so that

[00:24:25] it grows like vertically vertically yes and then you still have to select the shoots so that is a little bit like how do we gonna do it but then every year you do it so but it is just a little

[00:24:39] bit stressful on that but so it's a lot of work to do in a little bit of time yes yes also because like I said before it's me and my dad so my dad is the one who actually do all

[00:24:50] the spraying you know to protect the vines he's riding he's riding the tractor yes exactly yes that's the tractor i'm the only thing that I can do but uh I mean it's not my cup of tea if

[00:25:02] I can say because I'm a little bit scared you know with all the hills yes and slopes and all that yeah it's yeah it's dangerous it is yes and he started becoming he became a tractor

[00:25:14] when he was 11 so because you know he was a boy and my grandfather was just yeah yeah go go and you know we'll go play on the tractor yeah yeah yeah just go and so it's not like today that

[00:25:24] you cannot do that because it's a child and you cannot put a child on a tractor yeah exactly but back in the days it was a little bit easier so my father just went there and he started so

[00:25:35] he has more than 40 years of experience and he knows very well all the vineyards and how to do it but I don't have that so gotta start somewhere yeah I prefer I can see the anxiety

[00:25:50] yeah just in your posture yeah you're just like oh I really don't want to drive that tractor no no no no no no well anyway so yeah so well you let I guess he'll do it as long as he

[00:26:01] possibly can yeah I hope so I hope so yeah yeah otherwise he's just gonna come to you one day and guess what it's your job no I hope not no no no I will have to find someone

[00:26:11] if I get really so you really don't want to do that no also because I have also other things in the winery to do so you know I'm the one more responsible on the market

[00:26:24] and he's not okay so if I leave that part then yeah who does it who does yeah yeah have you traveled a lot no but I'm starting now so obviously you had to live through covid

[00:26:36] yeah yes yes and actually in 2020 it was the year when I started working like abroad no I started working in the cellar like in the winery properly like I started doing everything not just in the summer but I was working full time yeah full time yeah yeah after

[00:26:55] after I graduated I started working with my family yeah okay and you studied enology yes I did the three years university in Udine okay yeah viticultura and enologia viticulture and enology and then I wanted to go a little bit away you know to do more experience but

[00:27:16] then covid came and then I just started working at home which was also pretty nice because I started my instagram page which made me connected to a lot of people around Italy

[00:27:28] a lot of friends very cool yes that I'm still now in contact so that was very nice and I discovered how much I like photography you know capturing the moments of like flowering

[00:27:39] do I follow your instagram page I'm gonna check as soon as possible maybe yes I would think yes I think so yeah yeah if not I'll do it right away yeah so this is your personal instagram

[00:27:50] page no it's the it's the personal it's the winery page okay so yeah I'm putting a lot more effort in that page than on my personal one because yeah I cannot do both very well

[00:28:02] yeah but I prefer on the you know the winery page that that is because in covid time that was something that I did not realize until covid came that maybe people who live in Milan or Rome

[00:28:15] they don't they didn't have what we had you know the vineyards and the green part and they were just closing these very small apartments and they couldn't go out so for them when they

[00:28:28] visited me in summer or next year they say that for them was also interesting to see how the you know for us life was stopped but for the vine it just went on of course nothing

[00:28:42] was happening and so for them that was very interesting also to learn maybe a little bit about a cycle of of a vineyard of a vine sorry yeah so that is all we all had so much time

[00:28:55] yeah then so either you started baking bread yeah or pizza or pizza exactly yeah uh or you know or just cooking in general like which is what I did yeah um and but you spend a lot

[00:29:07] more time on social media and you see the outdoors when you were trapped in a small apartment in a city I always felt really bad for people in New York who were stuck in little

[00:29:16] tiny apartments with no no outside area no terrace it was a cool service that you did to people to give them at least a little sense of being connected to the outside yeah yeah and

[00:29:28] you enjoy doing that yes I actually do now I don't have so much time you know to also think of what I want to tell people but I always try you know when there are some

[00:29:41] cool lights or there is special something that I see in the vineyards I try to catch it and then posted it and I think was maybe the summer of 2020 or 21 when we the two of us met

[00:29:56] maybe because we we met at a tasting you know with Nicolas yes so he's always the one who connects people so I think that was the time when we was at 21 yeah probably or I don't

[00:30:10] remember it was yeah I'm not sure so what are things looking like this year what I mean we've had a lot of rain but that's kind of become normal in May yeah yeah so how what are things

[00:30:22] looking like for you for this with this vintage apart from rain on and off so the vintage would be kind of good but we had a bad frost I think was the end of April and that damaged

[00:30:36] like one vineyard pretty bad and half of a vineyard of Sauvignon was a little bit damaged but now now it's okay it's starting life has started again this is the thing I said before

[00:30:49] that we have to learn what there should be a little bit of production in those vineyards I think so yes in not not as usual but something we will harvest the most important is that we

[00:31:00] would have the you know the wood for next year to do the guillot okay that was the most important but for now the vintage seems seems quite quite good I mean also not as much perinospora as

[00:31:14] last year we for now I was walking today in some vineyards I did not see anything fortunately okay we will see maybe next week if my dad was was good with the spraying but for now it

[00:31:27] seems okay okay so that's good sign you know for the leaves and because I remember last year at this time perinospora was out of control but we never had so much problems I think because

[00:31:40] we have so much plots you know that on that way there are some areas maybe where perinospora will hit harder but we never had so much problems is it because of the vineyards are sort of isolated from one another so it can't spread from vineyard to vineyard or

[00:31:59] yes I mean we of course we are surrounded also by some by of my neighbor vineyards so maybe that also helps sometimes that you know they are spraying and something will cover also your

[00:32:12] vineyard but I don't know we never had that big problems with perinospora so that's good and we I also saw that there is not so much grapes on the on the vines so if now flowering

[00:32:26] it depends how how it will go how it will finish but for what I can see in some Pinot Grigio vineyards there is there is there are no problem with the flowering it already finished

[00:32:40] and it went it went well okay so fingers crossed so not too much quantity but could be some good quality yes I hope so for what I can see yes there are obviously some

[00:32:52] vineyards like Ribolla Gialla who produces a lot you know like four grapes on one shoot okay that's a lot of quantities and that's one work that we almost every year do not almost

[00:33:05] we do it every year on the Ribolla we do the green harvest so we take some grapes away when do you do that? Usually around mid-July or maybe at the beginning of July depends a little

[00:33:21] bit on the year so this year we are a little bit two weeks in advance two weeks early yeah two weeks early so yeah I think it will be or at the end of June beginning of July depends

[00:33:33] a little bit okay describe a little bit for me because I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who don't know a little bit San Floriano yeah what kind of place it is yeah I've been there

[00:33:43] but I want to hear from you who's a resident how would describe this area? Well it's my home so of course it's the most beautiful one village and it is a very small one we live I think

[00:33:57] we are maybe 800 people there and we know each other pretty well so you know because there are some families have been living there for a lot of time so you know the grandfather

[00:34:09] the cousin the uncles and aunts so by that it is very nice because you know all of your neighbors and maybe with some of them you practically grew up with them okay so that's

[00:34:21] very nice and I love it because we have a lot of forest surrounding the vineyards which is good side because you have some very nice spots to go there and maybe just walk the bad thing is

[00:34:34] how I said before is that we have during animals yeah animals but you know you work with nature so you have to have good and bad side on everything and we are an area which is in the

[00:34:48] diocese okay and it is very near oslavie which is the other village nearby and then if you go to go to udine you have cormons and capriva and then you go on with dolegnas so what's

[00:35:05] what's special about wine from san floriano is there something that's different about san floriano than the rest of colio so I would say I would say this about the forest how much we

[00:35:17] have so how much biodiversity we have I've never seen anywhere else so much forest that has not been you know cut off to make vineyards so I would say that and we have of course as everyone

[00:35:31] we have different expositions okay you know so and we have the upper part maybe who has more sun so near the near the church and then the down part maybe that does not have so much

[00:35:46] sun so this is a little bit and um and yes another thing that I not told you before but stevere and it's actually one of the maybe three villages for that they we speak stovian

[00:36:02] and then we speak italian okay between us no so that is also it's not about wine but it's just about culture maybe that is something that people don't know and regarding the your question about vineyards and wines yeah I would say about this about

[00:36:22] forests and we have this soil that maybe a lot of people know or don't that it's called right so we have this marlin sandstone which is called ponca and yes there are some parts also in our vineyards where in some plots sorry where we have more

[00:36:45] mar or more sandstone okay it depends where you are located now so near our cellar I would say that we have more marl and if you go more on the north part you have more sandstone

[00:37:01] okay is there particular varieties that do better on one than on the other or is everything usually sort of mixed it is more mixed it is more mixed yes okay this plot

[00:37:13] here we're gonna just put ribola gialla because no yes we do that so mostly on the highest part of our plots we put ribola gialla because the ribola vines need more sun you know and sun

[00:37:28] to have it mostly all day so because of the maturation the ribola has a very thick skin so it's important that it is very well matured when you are hand picking and so yes we have

[00:37:42] some upper parts where we put ribola gialla and the down parts where we put that example pinot grigio or savinon okay yeah so where it's a little bit cooler yes yes another example on a one

[00:37:56] one vineyard of savinon which is not made in like a typical way or how we are making vineyards because in san floriano and all in the colo you do it on terraces you know right

[00:38:10] here we do it vertically so we went like vertically down and so the down part it is more sandstone and the upper part is more marl okay so we also put different clones to help

[00:38:25] so you are you're mostly white wines i only heard you mention one red variety merlot yeah merlot yeah yeah and all the rest are white so is everything mono-varietal yes so um in the vineyards yes actually not really we have one vineyard very attached to the cellar

[00:38:46] when uh because when we were planting it my grandfather he was still alive but he was diagnosed with alzheimer and dementia so uh when he was planting it he did not understand

[00:38:59] that we had to do the upper part ribola and the down part pinot grigio so that vineyard it's all mixed up really yes it is very interesting when you will come to my to my

[00:39:10] cellar you will see and now it's the perfect time to see because the leaves of ribola gialla it is more um on the yellow part so it's more like a light green and the pinot grigio it's

[00:39:22] more a dark green and they're all mixed and they are mixed and you can see so it is not a problem but you can clearly see that ribola gialla it is best done when it's upper on the

[00:39:35] upside and the pinot grigio is better if it's done more on the a little bit down part so do you do you pass through that vineyard and just collect yeah first ribola okay no first

[00:39:47] pinot grigio and then ribola so you don't you know sort of pick up everything oh no no because with the pinot grigio you start harvesting around the uh how can i say the first week of

[00:39:59] september and the ribola it's usually the last week of september so you have three weeks passing by a lot of time yeah and because otherwise ribola it's not very mature and you can extract

[00:40:11] the green part and then in the wine you can feel that and do you make any blended wines or is everything single grape wines that come in the bottle no we have one blend that it's called

[00:40:23] vino degli orti and usually the base of that wine it's pinot bianco or pinot grigio usually it's one of those two and then we put friolano or savignon this is mainly it is pinot grigio

[00:40:36] and pinot bianco and a tiny part of friolano or savignon okay it depends a little bit on the vintage and how me and my dad want to present the wine if more maybe on the aromatic style

[00:40:48] or more on the minerals style yeah so is uh because before you mentioned oslavia being sort of right next door yes do you guys do sort of macerated style orange wines or are

[00:41:01] you more sort of the the fresh typical coleo stainless steel super clean style yeah we do more on the if i can use the word traditional way we do a little bit of cold skin maceration

[00:41:17] but we don't do the fermentation on the skin okay they do it for a longer time so we usually leave the the skin in contact with one another for about 24 hour maximum for ribolla and then

[00:41:34] we press it and then it goes in the stainless steel and then we do the fermentation okay so it's not in contact with the skin and this is um this how they do it but we do not do it so

[00:41:46] you would call this a little bit more traditional style or yeah it's hard because it is hard yes i don't know that's almost become traditional yeah and more modern is mortis or orange yes

[00:41:58] but orange obviously is an older yeah method yeah so i don't know i would say yeah maybe as you said it before it is better to say that the more fresh way more modern i don't know yeah

[00:42:12] conventional i don't know there's no way maybe you can sort of say that maybe we can use in the 80s 90s or maybe even not because they used the concrete tanks back then so so even then yeah it's hard we do it the stainless stainless steel style

[00:42:27] but the wine that we are tasting today planta this is our chardonnay and it's a special chardonnay because it comes from just one single vineyard and uh it is made in oak okay

[00:42:40] yeah is it fermented in oak uh half yes okay yes we start the fermentation in the stainless steel and then halfway we do we transfer it to the oak is this your only wine that you make in

[00:42:52] in wood um for this vintage yes uh in some vintages we do also the pinot grigio in wood in wood yes interesting yes it's called dar so the 2021 was in the wood and 2022 i decided to do half and half so half wood and half steel

[00:43:14] and i i very much like the results so maybe next time we will taste that but it's still doing the evolution in the bottle because we we do at least six seven months in

[00:43:31] the bottle and then we release it on the market okay yeah so today i brought you here to 2020 can i have a little bit more of course yeah thanks welcome this is i love this wine because

[00:43:43] it's it's chardonnay done in wood but it's very fresh very elegant thank you it's not all vanilla and butterscotch it has a lot of acidity to it i remember the first time i

[00:43:55] tasted it there was lots of you know lots of acidity and brightness and freshness but you get the power of of chardonnay here as well so yeah and minerally so come yeah very nice

[00:44:05] very well done thank you this is the second really good chardonnay and i'm not a chardonnay drinker oh really yeah no no no i'm open to everything but and even i'm not even

[00:44:16] that well known for my love for ripolla jala okay yeah i remember i remember right yeah but um yeah normally i go more towards malvizia or friolano but this is the second one i've

[00:44:27] tasted in the last four or five days that i've been like wow that really really good chardonnay being done that is that exceeds my expectations which is always nice yeah you know to to you

[00:44:40] know expect oh okay chardonnay and then you go oh wow i actually like this this is really good so compliments thank you thank you yes chardonnay as i mentioned it before it was

[00:44:52] one of the first great variety that my dad bottled in 1993 okay and he always was inspired by burgundy style so you know they used they use oak but we use mostly used oak so this

[00:45:09] is why you don't feel so much oak and vanilla in this wine we use just a 30 percent and it's yes 225 liters it stays there for about nine months in 2020 i remember i was doing a lot of

[00:45:25] batonage to open a little bit the wines and to give it a little bit more body you know okay and so just just so for people who might not understand what what are you doing when

[00:45:37] you do batonage so because we start the fermentation in the steel vats no but half fermentation so after four or five days we transfer the wine which is still fermenting in the barrels okay in the barrack then the the yeasts that have finished the fermentation

[00:45:59] their skin if i can say like this remains inside the the barrack okay but that skin it is very very interesting it gives the the wine some more body and more um you know some aromas and some structure but because they are heavier than the

[00:46:22] wine itself it goes down to the bottom of the barrel and what you do you practically want that the whole mass of wine the whole yeah all 225 liters are in contact with these leaves you practically have to move them and how do you do you use this stick

[00:46:42] you go in and you start moving it basically stirring them up exactly exactly and when you do that you practically can see because first it is darker because of course it's the wine it's not dark but you cannot see and then at some point after maybe 20 seconds when

[00:46:59] you are moving it you just see you start seeing that this not so clear wine comes up and then you know that the batonage has been done and the more you do it the more you

[00:47:11] open the wine and the more the wine it is ready to be drink and maybe it's more lovely in the beginning so usually we do that till december you know we are moving this maybe once

[00:47:24] every 10 days or once every week it depends for us it's very important to taste the wine to know how to how much to do it no and um and then nothing when the wine you think it's it's good

[00:47:39] with the batonage you just stop and then in the next six months so from january till june you just stop the wine uh the barrack with the wine yeah because you don't want space exactly

[00:47:52] yes and because the barrack it's an alive material i can say he takes the wine and you have to fill it with other wine because otherwise the oxidation process will start and that's that's not very

[00:48:04] good no you want to avoid that yeah and then the planta it stays for about one year and a half in the bottle okay and then we we present it to the market so you you you mentioned even

[00:48:15] before this is a year and a half in the bottle you said a lot of your wines do some extra time yeah sort of maturing in the bottle yes we try at least six months seven months uh some

[00:48:27] wines especially the planta and the dar which is the pinot grigio at least one year and a half and the others seven seven months it would be good but even nine months it is good

[00:48:40] and our wines i think now that we are tasting in 2020 the in on the fourth to the sixth year of the life of the wine it is best to be drink and i think it expresses themselves very

[00:48:53] very well okay so many people think that you know white wine should be consumed young no i mean it depends how you are working i think but our work in the vineyards and how we work

[00:49:07] in the cellar it is and because of our territory i mean we have exceptional land and climate and can we can do wines that can be aged in times i mean you remember the ribolla that you brought

[00:49:23] for my tasting and it was what 2007 so it was 17 years exactly and it was perfectly fine wine and you see that we can do wines that can be aged well so if you work properly in the

[00:49:38] vineyard and in the cellar and then you just wait a little bit uh then a little patience exactly then you can drink very interesting wines yeah so we haven't talked much about

[00:49:52] merlot yeah the only red wine you make yeah so we make merlot just because we have two very interesting plots and they are in very good position in my village so one is just above

[00:50:09] okay and that part it's always ventilated so there is always wind especially in summer and you know for the merlot it is important that it dries very well so we think and we saw that when it is a little bit drier so not completely i'm not

[00:50:28] saying that but uh that it is sun all day and there is wind all the water goes away and then it's very concentrated and when then you do the maceration because with the merlot

[00:50:41] we do the maceration and the fermentation you know okay uh when you when you have these good plots we decided to make merlot we have one there near the cellar and one that it's 200

[00:50:54] meters from the cellar and they are both very ventilated they have the sun all day and the vines actually have more than 50 years oh yes okay so they are old clones of merlot that we actually don't know where they come actually because my grandfather he did not

[00:51:11] remember of course back in the days they did not have you know the um 700 different exactly exactly this is why we also we we have just that red varieties because in steverean uh san

[00:51:28] floriano it is best maybe for white wines i it's windier by you isn't it yes it depends where you are yeah yeah because we live just under the subatine so the mountain and we have

[00:51:42] a little bit more wind but i don't know all of my neighbors also we produce maybe just one or two varieties of red but just because you have the good plots okay and all of us

[00:51:52] we are planting the more white varieties do you do you have a favorite white variety or is it like choosing a child no actually so if i'm talking about the vines you know yeah i like the differentiation the vines or the wines let's talk about the vines

[00:52:10] yeah about the vines i very much like the chardonnay vine because it is so easy to manage it is so beautiful like really really nice vines you know with this green very powerful green color

[00:52:26] okay and it doesn't have much problems you know with the nutrition and with the growth and it's just very very nice to see how the vineyard is looking but also i think the ribolla

[00:52:39] gialla it is a very nice vineyard it is more like light green and it needs a little bit more work on it because you have to choose you know the the grapes no like i said before

[00:52:52] the green harvest you have to do it that very well and you don't have to do that with chardonnay we do it we do it also with chardonnay but because on chardonnay we have much older vineyard

[00:53:04] it produces less so we don't have to do that much on how we do it on ribolla ribolla is just yeah she's producing a lot super vigorous lots of grapes but during harvest period i think it is

[00:53:18] very beautiful to see the very strong yellow color on the ribolla so that is also very very nice and these big grapes you know and they are like gold and this is very very nice to see

[00:53:32] but also i think also pinot grigio and merlot they are very nice because they have these different colors you know pinot grigio has this purple color and merlot has this very dark color

[00:53:44] so it's all very very nice this is for the vines so you see that i actually did not choose no you i just said three of the seven that you have yeah yeah yeah still regarding the

[00:53:57] wines i don't know i think properly to choose i don't know because i like to drink wine like today with you i really wanted to drink chardonnay because i i thought that you would

[00:54:08] appreciate a good chardonnay i do appreciate the chardonnay okay good but um if you are i don't know drinking like an aperitivo a ribolla or friolano it is very nice or even a good

[00:54:20] pinot grigio i think uh but when you are i don't know cooking or doing some experiment in the kitchen i think you can do so much and you can just open a lot of bottles and

[00:54:30] see what is best with the food and try something new so i would say i don't know maybe ribolla or pinot grigio or chardonnay all of them or or exactly yeah now i think is there is there a

[00:54:47] sort of a meal or a dish that you sort of always whenever you make that dish or whenever you have that wine you look forward to having that dish with it because for you it's

[00:54:58] just such a good pairing or just so emotionally important for you to have those two things together is there something that is personal to you as far as food and wine is concerned

[00:55:09] so you know my grandmother she's from slovenia and she always makes polenta for us in the winter time and i don't know we always even if it comes with meat you know we always like

[00:55:25] to drink it with ribolla so i think because of our origins and so when we uh with my cousin some family we always drink ribolla when we are eating polenta interesting yeah uh it is

[00:55:41] discussable the the pairings but you know well it's what makes you happy yes you know i always try to impress that upon people that don't necessarily need to follow rules about

[00:55:51] pairing yeah just if you want to drink ribolla or with yeah the polenta or if you want to drink merlot with oysters it's just yeah it's up to you go with whatever makes you happy

[00:56:01] you know why because my grandmother starts making polenta when it is about november when she opened the stove because she has um like a slovenian stove with fire in it and you put

[00:56:15] like a special um it's not plate but something similar and you cook polenta inside okay yeah and in november once uh this was because of my grandfather in november they are on they they already start drinking the wines that they produced in october okay so and he his

[00:56:36] favorite was always ribolla so i think that was maybe you know brought with us and this is why we are drinking ribolla with polenta are you still drinking the new ribolla with no

[00:56:47] no we are going back exactly yes yes yes yeah i can imagine sort of the the scene the winter scene with polenta and warming up but still you know pulling out the ribolla maybe it's

[00:57:00] still a little bit cloudy yes exactly yes fresh and then you're you're sort of you know drinking this new wine and you're kind of looking back over the yeah the the last harvest and how

[00:57:12] things went so it's very nice for you what is you we've talked about this a couple of times and i wanted to sort of touch on it even though we're we're going a little bit long

[00:57:20] but that's that's fine we're having a good time yeah the the idea of sort of being slovenian and speaking slovenian yeah over the border in italy is what is that like

[00:57:32] for you is that was that difficult for you do you does that sort of connect you really close to your neighbors because you all speak the same language or tell me a little bit about that

[00:57:41] kind of cultural world that you live in so for me it was always natural i've never saw a problem in that or something that uh it's something negative about uh we were always i don't know slovenian it's such a beautiful language even if it's very different from

[00:58:01] english language or italian language it's a very difficult language it is it is it is a slavic language so it has a different different words different constructions and everything so it is different but it's something that we always spoke in within our family

[00:58:20] and it's something that enriches us also and it's something yes that connects you to another state because you understand another state you understand their traditions and their songs and because slovenian people sing a lot okay well that's something you have in common with

[00:58:37] italians yes yes do like the italians do like their singing yes and so the slovenian more on the church side you know they they sing a lot of um how can i say a faith song

[00:58:50] yeah faith yeah religious religious yes thank you hymns we would call them in english yes so that it's something that connects you with another country and it gives you that you are part also of another country but because we speak also italian we are connected also to italian

[00:59:08] culture and food and wine and everything so this is something very beautiful because you can be connected with both words and i cannot choose which one uh because this is something that all i think people that live in the border they cannot choose

[00:59:25] because you always had both parts okay within you and uh yeah you you cannot choose you just see the beauty in both of the words and you take the good things of both of the words right

[00:59:38] and that was also an area that was very hard hit during yes the wars along with oslavia yes both of those places were very much devastated very much yes this is why my family so we

[00:59:50] always lived in in stevarian but we lived in a different area and then after the war because our house was damaged by the bombs we live now where we are living today so and back in the

[01:00:04] days i remember there was not so good blood you know with slovenian and italian because of the wars war war and uh you know fascism and all of that but nowadays it's i don't see

[01:00:17] that a problem and actually people are looking to learn another language because they you have a more open mind and you understand um in a much easier way other languages and growing up

[01:00:31] bilingual yeah sort of sets up your brain yeah for being open to languages which is why you've learned english so well watching tv yes yes yes now what i think nowadays learning english

[01:00:45] it is very easy because you have so much access on everything i mean if you really want you start watching tvs and you read a lot and all of that as we said before and or maybe you can

[01:00:57] just take the plane and go to america or or england and you have this opportunity to go and see of the places that you've traveled do you have any favorite places where you've been

[01:01:08] i know it hasn't been very long that you've been traveling yes no some place that really you don't have to say new york just because you're with me no i've never been to america

[01:01:17] never been to america no not yet i have to go they are calling me i have to go there you should yeah yeah i will but no one of my favorite city is napoli yes yes why

[01:01:33] interesting girl from san floreano loves naples yes the pizza no it's because of the people i i will tell you now a story because on my second year during university you have to do an

[01:01:48] internship somewhere else you can do it in your region or you can go wherever you want i decided to go on the south of italy into this family that they are called mojo it's their surname and they are the winery called quinto decimo

[01:02:07] and i went there they are in the avilino province okay in mirabella eclano just under the apennine apennines apennines okay and i've been living with them for one month and a half when i was

[01:02:24] doing my internship i was living with them and working with them and it was actually for me very scary to go from north to south you know okay but i really wanted to go somewhere else

[01:02:38] that it wasn't friulio i wanted to learn from other people i wanted to learn and some something else that it wasn't from here and so i decided to go to them and they were very very kind they

[01:02:51] were very uh they become like my second family i call them my second family and the wife of the owner because they are a family of course like like my my family she's from naples so whenever

[01:03:07] we had the chance we went to naples and she showed me the beauty of naples okay and they have a saying that they say that when you go to napoli you cry two times once when you

[01:03:21] go there and once when you leave it of course and that is exactly what happened to me because i was crying a lot when i when i had to leave my home i remember in 2017 i was just like no

[01:03:33] i don't want to go why did i choose to go so far away i didn't know them how old were you i was 21 okay yeah i know i was old but still i was like i don't want to leave my

[01:03:45] you know my land i don't want to leave the people that they're here and go into a completely different culture uh but then when i arrived there i immediately fell in love with them with the grape varieties in their culture and everything and naples just came inside my

[01:04:03] heart and never left yeah and when i went away i had to come home because the university was starting the third year i remember i cried when i when i went back yeah yeah you proved

[01:04:16] the rule yeah about naples yeah yeah i remember when i saw it i was just like okay but it is very nice and when i left it i was just like no i'm leaving a part of my heart here

[01:04:27] so yeah i really miss them and i hope i would see them again i hope you get back down there soon so i always ask this sort of the same question and paolo rodaro taught me to ask

[01:04:38] this question okay so i always ask i say so what is your sonio nel casetto what is your your secret little dream that you keep hidden is there anything that you want to

[01:04:50] share it could be about the winery it could be personal but yeah so my dream is actually to to do what i'm doing now or for the next 50 years okay i would say so i would very much

[01:05:04] like to continue the work that i'm doing in the way that i'm doing now you know with my family with my own family one day so that would be i think something that i really wish for

[01:05:16] i want to continue my my heritage if i can say you know with what was given to me i want to give it on and i want to still work with nature and preserve nature as it is and still

[01:05:31] continue to make very good wine that it is well known not just my wine but also my region my land our culture to the rest of the world because i think not a lot of people know this

[01:05:46] part this tiny part of the world so for me it's very important that they know and they when they come here they see our beauty and for me it's very important that i can do that on

[01:05:57] with my friends and family and loved ones so that that would be my wish so you but you so you're living your dream yeah yeah okay i'm working very hard on it because i

[01:06:08] you know you have bad days and good days and when the bad days they come obviously yeah you have to just remember okay but this is what i want to do i really love my job i love the the

[01:06:21] struggle i love the the beauty of it and you have to just go on and and try to do the best you can is there some kind of wine you would like to make sometime in the future once

[01:06:32] once you start sort of becoming more in control of what's going on i would really love to make a fill in the blank yeah i would um i would like to go on with the style that my father started

[01:06:45] i really like the style of our wines i would like to know that they would be even more that people would say okay when i'm drinking tercic i'm drinking this part of the world you

[01:06:58] know our land and something that it is unique of here so everything in that and i really believe in the local varieties such as ribolle and friolanone okay so i would like to make them even uh better you know more recognizable um but also the varieties like chardonnay

[01:07:18] chardonnay pinot grigio and savinon they would be yeah that they would know that those chardonnay savinon and pinot grigio that they are coming from our land you know from frioli more precisely

[01:07:30] collier okay yeah this is what we are working with my dad and i'm studying and you know learning even better your vimards i think if you learn and you study the land the soil the

[01:07:44] climate how everything is changing because this is what i'm seeing in the last 10 years that i'm working is that every vintage it's the it is different and you have to you know

[01:07:56] have a lot of knowledge to know how to move then and how to do okay like this year there was hail how can i do to make the wine good even if the grapes are not the best okay so

[01:08:09] the more you know the more you study the more you talk also with your neighbors and which you know we have friends together that we always try to help each other so that is the most

[01:08:19] important part i think to talk and to communicate so the wine community is pretty tight knit in yeah in san floriano yes not just in san floriano but also you know we have friends

[01:08:30] in capriva and um cormons and all over all the parts of frioli maybe maybe this is the attitude that i was waiting for when i first came here i always thought like

[01:08:44] oh it's it's going to be the next generation that starts to sort of work together but that didn't quite come about there was still kind of this kind of closed protective attitude towards

[01:08:56] okay i have my little slice of pie and i want to keep that little slice and i don't want to but now i think it's that next generation they're starting to and that would be you

[01:09:05] it was starting to sort of say no no we have to work together yeah but but we are doing that you know just by coming all together and tasting the wines and saying okay but what are we doing what

[01:09:15] is our goal i think we are doing that we are slow of course because it's not something that you can do in one year or two years and they are always like our fathers families they are

[01:09:27] behind us so you cannot do that as quickly as you want but for me it is important that you are talking and that you know if you have problems how did you overcome that problems

[01:09:38] even on the markets you know yeah at example with nicola when we are when we were coming back from from bergamot we were talking a lot about that so how can we improve what we should do how

[01:09:49] can we help each other and not just with nicola but they have other friends also uh girlfriends that we talk and we try to help each other and that is important too

[01:10:01] you know if you if you make a team then it is easier it's not it's not like because i don't want to share that with you then okay i will be i will be stronger i don't know i don't think

[01:10:13] that that it's the case nowadays i don't think no one thinks in that way anymore that's good and you see when we are doing the tasting together that we were sharing everything it's

[01:10:26] not like we are keeping secrets you know it's true yeah cool ana thank you very very much thank you for spending some time here with me thank you yeah and uh thank you for bringing this

[01:10:38] the chardonnay planta thank you to taste together very very good compliments and um i will come and visit you up in san floriano i will be waiting for you if you come in the

[01:10:47] next two weeks we will still have some cherry okay yeah so cherries and if you come afterwards we will have some apricots so i hate oh no well okay cherries i love but i'm not a big

[01:11:03] apricot okay so i will give you wine peaches and apricots no no not you okay but anyway so i'll try and make it up for the cherries okay perfect i will be waiting thanks thank you