September 6, 2023 • 53 mins
South Tyrol (Süditrol) Alto Adige in northeast Italy is unique for its German and Austrian influences in the food, architecture and dialect and its stunning Dolomite Mountains. The best vineyards are located on the mountain slopes. Cantina Tramin's Willi Stürz and Wolfgang Klotz discuss the history and wines of this historic cooperative. Architect-turned-vintner Elena Walch renovated her husband's Castel Ringberg and oversees the esteemed Elena Walch Winery with daughters Karoline and Julia.
The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET.
The Connected Table Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-connected-table-live--1277037/support.
The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET.
The Connected Table Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-connected-table-live--1277037/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in thefollowing show are solely those of the hosts
and their guests and not those ofW FORCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates.
We make no recommendations or endorsements radioshow, program services, or products
mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall
be extended to W FORCY Radio orit's employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those showhosts. Thank you for choosing W FORCY
(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to the Connected Table. We're your hosts, Melana Young and
(00:42):
David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinarycouple. We enjoy traveling the world and
bringing you the stories and places ofthe people and wineries and destinations that we
enjoy visiting. And we do thisregularly around the world. And today we're
taking you to a study place inItaly where one will find German and Austrian
(01:03):
influences amidst the Italian culture. You'llsee it in the food, the architecture,
in the local dialect. This isa region for sports lovers who loved
a hike and mountain bike and snowskiand it's a landscape photographer's dream setting with
the beautiful backdrop of the Dolomites.We're talking about the South Tyrol and Alto
(01:23):
Adigy Suda Troll, the northernmost partof Italy. It was my first visit
your second or third, right,it is so beautiful. Only there for
one night. We stated a wonderfulhotel, the Tramonoff in Termino, which
we learned is also Tremine, andit was an incredible experience. We were
there to visit with Knina Tremine.It is an historic wine cooperative founded in
(01:45):
eighteen ninety eight by Christian Schrutt,who was a local parish priest and the
local termine of Termino, and hewas also a deputy in the Austrian Parliament.
Was part of Austria until after WorldWar One. That's of course true,
so I'm very historic. And atthe time the local growers were struggling.
(02:07):
The price of grapes was low,and so he had this brain child
to create a union, a cooperativeto help them. And today Kntina Tremine
is one hundred and sixty eight winefamilies and it's considered one of the most
successful wine cooperatives in the world andwe had the chance to visit and it
(02:27):
is a beautiful place. Just theheadquarters alone are incredible. The architect is
very famous, and we'll talk aboutthis in the discussion. So let's introduce
our guests joining us at Wolfgang Clotswho is the director of sales and marketing
and lead winemaker Willie Shoots. We'reso honored to have you both with us
(02:51):
on the connected table. Welcome right, Well, we're happy to have you
all here, and you know it'sinteresting, Melanie. Let me just start
this by saying, at a timewhere there's been a lot of privatization in
the winemaking world and co ops havebeen struggling, Cantina Tremine is a success
story and it continues to be sinceit's founding. And I think that's a
really interesting point because Altotogy has alot of small producers of grapes that really
(03:14):
make enough grapes to make their ownwine. Right, So cooperatives are kind
of a way of life in Altobotogyand continue to be that way. I
like to tell people in the UnitedStates the cooperatives are kind of like what
we call here incubators and collaborative workarrangements, so it really helps provide the
resources that many small and independent companiesand families don't have. So it's a
(03:35):
very smart, cost effective way todo business. And in this case the
quality is very very high, aswe learn through our tasting. Yes,
absolutely so, Wolfgang again, thankyou for joining us. We briefly share
the history of Cantina Tremine, talkabout it a little bit more and also
where are we exactly for our listenerswho don't know where we are. Yes,
(03:55):
so as explained, we are themost noted botify the league. So
we are covered by the Italian Alps, so the south side of the Alps.
And if you think about Italy andhaving the cities Mila and Venice right
in between, there is Verona andVerona where we also have to be in
(04:16):
Italy. Wind Ratio is at theborder of the Italian Alps and from Verona
we drive like an hour and ahalf into the Alps where we have this
tide valley going into the Alps andthen opening up and creating a unique climate
between alpine climate and Mediterranean warm daytemperatures. And that's where we grow these
(04:44):
alpine wines on an altitude between sixhundred two six thousand feet. So do
the Alps create like a rain shadowhere that helps moderate the temperature, Yes,
exactly, so it keeps the waythe cool and wet weather coming from
the north, and the valley isopen to the south, so we have
(05:06):
influence of the warmer temperatures from thesouth, but we are still in the
mountains. Right behind we have thevineyards on a foothill of a mountain that
grows up to two thousand meters,and behind of that even the glaciers.
So that's it's a very unique combinationbetween the south and the alpine climlets.
(05:30):
Yeah, first of all, let'stalk about the size of the vineyard holdings
that continued Tremine has, because it'squite large. And what we learn is
a lot of the vineyards are onslopes, many south facing down on the
valley floor, and the valley flooris dedicated to apples exactly, No no
vineyard at all in the valley floor. As soon as the slope starts where
(05:53):
we have a much more mineral ribbonsoil, that's where we change to viticulture
and it grows up lately to alsothe warmer temperatures. The viticulture also has
been grown a little bit in altitude, so it's quite beautiful. And you're
right, it's also apple country forpeople who want to. No one else
(06:15):
has grown in the area, andlike I said, a lot of bikers.
Much more agrarian than we expected.One of the big cities not too
far away as Bolzano. Just forcontext, we spend a day in Bolzano
and it's quite beautiful. We mentionedWolfgang that Contina Tremine was established in eighteen
ninety eight, so let's talk aboutsome of the historical milestones for Cantina Tremine
(06:41):
since it was established, so it'sdevils more than one hundred years ago,
and the first eighty to ninety years, the business model was the classical coupative
business model, simple easy wines.Most of the wines have been sold as
bock wins and then worth the time, that model didn't work anymore so and
with the young generation of the newwinemakers growing in the area, we understood
(07:09):
the potential of the real potential ofthis alpine climate and started to focus on
quality. So starting to try tounderstand better the single microclimates to plan to
write varieties on the single area andaltitudes and to focus on quality. So
(07:30):
this was a very difficult process alsoto make understand all our growers to change
from volume to quality. And sowhat we are today and for what we
are known today and the wines forwhich we are luckily known, we can
say we have a history of thirtyto thirty five years. And that's luckily
(07:51):
also happened not only in Contina Tramine, but it happened in almost every wine
village India. Just to give anidea, pretty much every village has his
own coporative because everywhere we have thislittle growers. And the only solution for
this difficult and cost intensive mountain viticultureby the end was the coperative And thanks
(08:16):
to this model, this mountain viticulturehad still a future and and and the
whole area Autoadgia today performs with highquality wines from copa defineries. And also
from a social part of view oreconomical social part of view, we see
that the young generations they continue inviticulture, they see a future in what
(08:37):
they do and we were able tobut also the other copadis we were able
to maintain this mountain viticulture and makepeople invest in a good future on quality
wines. You know, I findit interesting. I do have a question.
Obviously, space is limited to plantvineyards in autoology. Are their new
(08:58):
plantings being created as the wine makingnew generations come along? Are they buying
more land and then planting new vineyardsa little bit, but mostly to the
climate change that we have warmer temperatures. So also some higher elevated vineyards are
now areas where we can grow wine, and most of them we need also
to say, like in the MiddleAge, also have been used for a
(09:22):
witty culture. It's a very smallpop so there's not so much space left
also, so it's maybe in thelast ten years five percent, you know,
David, we've seen then a coupleof places that came up when we
were in a brutzo. Also aboutwith climate change, we're planning at the
higher elevation. It's interesting, butthere's only so much plan durable, terrible
(09:45):
land you can do with that.So we're curious. As we said.
Contina Tremine is a cooperative made upof independent family producers from growers. What
is the process of becoming and remaininga member In theory, the process is
quite simple to enter. If someonehas a vineyard in our area. It
(10:07):
can apply in the cooperative. It'salso quite simple to stay in the coporative.
But there's a huge world how muchthe grower can earn out of this
vineyard and that's where the whole storystarts. And to make it very simple,
then it's the better the quality ofthe grapes they come in or the
higher the share will be what thatgrower will be paid. So at the
(10:31):
end of the year, basically thewinery closes the balance sheet and all the
earnings get divided by the growers andit gets divided on size of the land
and quality of the grapes. Backin the times it was basically the higher
the volume, the more they werepaid. Today it's very very complex.
It starts where it's the vineyard located. How do the grower, how they
(10:52):
work during the year. So wehave the echronomists following them during the year.
We give a lot of support.We try to keep them baked to
the winery, makes them feel asone of the owners, makes them feel
responsible for the quality of the wines, having them also proud to be part
of this project. And then thebiggest advantage once this whole thing works,
(11:13):
as when we come to harvests becauseit's it's Billy the winemaker together with the
agronomy is deciding went to harvest thesingle vineyards. And as you have said,
the vineyards are very small. Thegrowers have only small sizes and vineyards
they basically can vineyard every plot ina day on a specific data are so
small. In a half a dayor day they are harvested. So we
(11:35):
have a harvest spirit for a monthand a half and then you can really
decide for every single plot the singleday went to pick and call the single
grower and then they will stop maybeby the apple picking for half a day,
going to the vineyard and pick thegrapes. And then Billy the winemaker,
he will do a last check visualcheck of the quality and if the
(12:00):
grapes are healthy, they look good, they did a good job during the
year. The area the microwa isone of the best, the prize or
the share will be the highest possible. And that's a big, big range
between normal quality and great quality.That's quite the system. It's really quite
the system. Very complex. Actually, let's bring in Willie to speak a
little bit. Willie, you joinedthe Canteena in nineteen ninety two. Tell
(12:24):
us about your background. When didyou decide you wanted to be a wine
maker, did you grow up inthe area, and tell us about your
wine making journey. My style wasin the ninety two and in the ninety
five. From nineteen ninety five tilltoday, I'm the lead mine Matra and
(12:48):
the changing in the in the lastthirty years was very very important, and
the first step was in the winyards and the kind of uh wine growing
for a for a very good quality. I think today we in the in
(13:11):
the center and our agronomists and thewine grower are a good team. So
you know, with all the differentfamilies and personalities, how do you keep
you just reference it a little bit, but are there specific things checks and
(13:33):
balances for example, that you've putinto place to keep everything running smoothly from
vineyard to seller. The big choicefor us is to have a good controlling
in the vineyard and then to takein the center the best parcels and winified
(13:58):
the single plots to understand what kindof specific expression have the single micro area.
You know, we visited vineyards andI thought that the vineyard system was
very specific and unique to artoology asI understand it. Correct me if I'm
wrong. You also changed how thevineyard system was laid out. Correct.
(14:22):
The historical system was the Babbela,but then with the new plantings we changed
to the classic or nowadays classic foryour own system, that we can achieve
better quality with more ventilation. Andalso the shadow issue what the Babbela,
for sure on his nature brings moreshadow, but the advantage having the growers
(14:46):
doing the hand work in the vineyards, we can manage the shadow also way
well with the go your system bydoing a bay accurate green management during the
summer. The whole thing of thecopa dif. Now, if you start
from the idea how this stereotype ofa copa dif is how copa dis works
(15:07):
in Alto Adiga, maybe there's sucha huge gap that it makes the whole
thing almost unbelievable. But also weneed to say that we started more than
twenty years ago, and we weretirty years ago. We were far away
from what we are now, andit was a steep way, little by
little, step by step where wegot where we are now. That we
(15:28):
are so detailed and precise in thiscooperation with the wine growers, and it
was a lot of detail and investmentwent into this basically because you know from
the vineyard management and changing just howthe trellising system worked, that was a
big change. To focus on whatyou want to achieve in the vineyard all
the way up through the systems thatyou put in place. It's pretty impressive
(15:50):
and it is important. As yousaid, we're going to help listeners understand
that cooperative is not a dirty work. In the United States, cooperative it
is very important thing because it isperceived as helping small businesses get the resources
they need to flourish and be successful. So it's helping small growers and producers
(16:11):
and families, and I think thatneeds to be underscored. And the word
cooperative itself, to cooperate means itis working together for a greater good,
right exactly, And having all theselittle bustles as Alto adigas an area has
five thousand wine growers and with fivethousand wine growers, five thousand hectors as
(16:33):
immedia, so it was basically itwas a good solution. And if we
look what the grape pricings are inAlto Adiga, at least as far as
I know, there's no other areawhere the difference between grape price and shelf
price of the wine is that small, and that shows that the cost of
the bottle of wine goes back tothe people maintaining the landscape and the vignetts
(16:57):
and not necessarily to I'm only sellingwines, and that's for sure thanks to
the copad Is because our final goalis trying to pay the highest possible price
for the grapes. So let's talkabout the beautiful headquarters because it was designed
by renowned architect and it's quite stunningbefore we get into the tasting that we
(17:18):
took place for us. Yes,the tasting room, So we have this
beautiful new building and we are veryhappy that we are bordering the vineyards and
so we are really the possibility orwho comes to visit Continua Trumming to taste
our wines and having in front ofthe tasting the vineyards and the Mandel Mountain
(17:41):
range, especially in a great summerday with a blue sky, it's really
worth to visit. Can regular peoplelike travelers come and taste? You need
an appointment or is it mainly forthe trade. No, the tasting room
is open to everyone and you don'tneed an appointment. As fast. You'd
just like to taste the wines andthen it's possible to do an appointment for
(18:03):
the winery visit. We're looking ata photo on the website. It's just
the most beautiful point. It's reallyquite beautiful. I need to go back.
So let's dive into the wine.Absolutely, there's a big focus on
white wines, obviously reds maid topinot noir being one of the specialties of
the area, but a larger focuson white wines in this area converts Remaner,
Chardonnay, Savinion blanc, peinot,grigio. I'd like to focus on
(18:26):
some of the converts reminers you make, because really I think there's some of
the best in the world. Solet's talk about a couple of your convert
remaners. Yes, So the winomyis the area's most historical great demeanor and
when Willie started thirty five years ago, eighty percent of the area was landed
by a red wine called scava,and so it was a big, big
(18:48):
goal that really had to bring backthis historical great variety from the place.
As we also know that back inthe Middle Age, seventy five percent of
the wine made in the area waswhite, so he was turning back to
all the all the time, soto debate historical grapes from the area and
Gebutztamina in the name has also thename of the village, so he has
(19:14):
a important marriage between the village andthe variety. And as Billy can explain,
the specialty of this Gabutsamina is tounderstand the teroa with this dry style
of gebut stamina. Or we wereable over the years to really create his
own statistic of the Adaija gebutsamina.So Willy, how would you describe the
(19:37):
style and your thoughts and also howit ages, because we tasted a range
of gevertsaminers and they were all verydifferent and all the way to the epacol,
which is one of the one hundredpoint wines of Italy. As we
understand, which is the spat least, but talk to us about the style
(19:57):
in the different ranges. In theelectic style they give your stamino is dry
and have more spicy aromas, alittle bit of rose battles and bisy lichen
fruit. And then we have theother style. The middle sugar style is
(20:18):
the ipocala ipocal in combination with along maturation in the bottle in a special
gallery on two thousand meters of elevation, and this style is very very long
life, Give your stamina, anda small part of our production we have
(20:40):
on the very very concentrated Give yourStamino late harvest in the end of November
December, and this is a veryfull bodied and both rightis style. Give
your Stamino. You know what Ifind interesting about the Cantina treminverseminus melanias that
they really run all the different gamutsof sweetness levels and intensity levels. The
(21:03):
epochal is was eight years old theone we tried. So just to think
that an eight year old versure meteris the one that they're pouring for us
at the winery to taste is veryinteresting. It's got a great story too
behind it. You said it wasaged in a special aging room at two
thousand meters high. It's actually agedin a silver mine up at two thousand
meters. So tell us about thestory about why you all decided to create
(21:26):
this special aging process for this particularwine. So the idea when we started
the project of the idea the Epocatawine was also to show the performance of
how the potential of this variety toage because not necessarily we believe the guts
amina ages because it's no in acidity, and maybe with his huge aroma,
(21:47):
we believe it's just a wine thatstays on his primary fruit and then it's
gone. But we have the experiencethat the age is way way well.
It's our wine at age is thebest from all the wines we do.
Starting the Apocatic project, it wasa key idea to show this potential,
and then we thought about how todo that, and the best idea and
(22:08):
the most honest way was the bottleaging. So we were looking for a
room or space where two ages.We didn't have a very good aging area
in the winery or a seller withvery good conditions, and then we found
the Silver mine that's six seven thousandfeet where we enter for like three miles
in the mountain, and we needto imagine that we've have the perfect conditions
(22:32):
without a cost of energy. Wedon't have any energy or C two pollution
for the aging, for chilling andet cetera. So we just bring the
wine once into the mine and itstays there for six to seven years,
eleven degrees constant. The whole yearlong, very high humidity, lower oxygen
content, and then we take itafter six to seven years, we bring
(22:56):
it back to the winery and thenthe wine get it's released. Yeah,
it's a very interesting one, itreally was. And the other one that
we tasted the nos Bomber, whichis I think at least highest rated white
wine correct most family is our historicalGibut samina where we built up this history
of the last thirty years and forfor what the winery and and Billy became
(23:18):
famous for. And it's the flagshipor the icon Gabut samina for a dry
guts samina in difference to epocada,it is dry. So it's this classical
autoada style of Kabutz stamina. Whatmakes Gabot stamina a very interesting and very
good food wine that's nothing to dowith this old fashioned baroque style Gibut samina.
(23:44):
But it's a bay Lean gebut samina, and it goes very well with
like a good part of the Asiancuisine like Vietna, knees a dye,
everything that's spicy or on a featherstyle as a beautiful bearing with Kabut stamina.
I love that wine. Yeah,it was. It was beautiful.
But I'm a huge fan of conversere meaner, I have to say,
yeah, really, I'd like tosee people in the United States drinking conversation.
(24:07):
Yeah. So, one of thewines that we were very impressed with
when we visited you and I've hadmany times over the years, and I'm
just a big fan of it overallwas the Stone Stoa n which is a
blend of seventy five percent chardon,a twenty percent Servinn blanc, and then
five percent conversion. Meer, Whydon't you tell us about that one because
it's also very popular here in theUnited States. Yeah, done. It
(24:30):
is based off chardon, and Chardonnayis our second most important variety. And
it's not that we like to doeverything. It's just because with the different
altitudes of the vineyards, it's evennot possible to grow more the Bootsteina we
have at an especially higher elevation vineyards, boots stamin and doesn't rote it well
(24:51):
because it needs a good amount ofsun and heat, and that's where chardon
ae performs very very well and bringsa very alpine style of Shaldon and really
started Stone in two thousand and two. But right. The idea was to
have a white line. What canexplain our microzone? A white wine?
(25:15):
What have freshness, fruity style,and on this elevation we have this microzone.
What we give this particularly aroma andI think it is a wine what
present in a very good style ourzone. It was beautiful. Yeah,
I love this one. It's gotthat kind of classic Shardoney character to it,
(25:37):
but a leaner, more austere,kind of Shardeny character to it,
and then that touch of a virginarynnerand gives it the florals you don't get
with Shardney. I just love thecomplexity of this one. It's a beautiful
one. And that one is availablein the United States. That's important to
underscore because some of the ones wetaste it, we're not true. I
like the Troy Shardney Reserve, whichis beautiful, but it's not here you.
It was a stunning, stunning wine. The news to two thousand and
(26:00):
twenty, what we will release thiswill be again available in the US.
Well wait, yeah, wait,yeah, that's it's a nice wine that's
there. It's kind of a reservestyle shard name right, it's a the
Troy. It spends a year anda half an oak. So it's it's
very complex, very rich and justlovely one, very very special. So
Willie, I have a question foryou. Obviously, climate change is a
(26:22):
big issue these days pretty much everywherein the winemaking world and the world in
general. How is autootogy being affectedby it? Because your alpine area,
so one would think that it's usuallya little bit cooler and you might not
be as affected by it. ButI know when we've visited with you,
you said that there are issues ongoingwith climate change that you're addressing. Why
(26:44):
don't you talk to us about acouple of those? And either of you
can answer, I'm a change isreal, and today I think we harvest
earlier, and I think with ourmountains behind, we have a little bit
less on this influence of the climber. But for me personally is a very
big problem. And for the viticulturein our zone today was not bad for
(27:11):
a few varieties, especially for redwines. And the other possibility what we
have is to go in the higherelevation with our vineyards. It's not a
possibility for all of our vineyards,but for pin is a good possibility to
(27:33):
go in the higher elevation chardonnay toEurope in generals, and the United States
is experiencing record high temperatures. There'salso been in some areas of Europe,
including Italy, some hail storms verybad. Do you have a lot of
risk for any hail storms? Yes, yeah, we've seen a huge growth
on hail storms, weather extremes andall. That part is very very negative
(27:59):
and it's obvious that we see thatand we try to do our best to
work with it. We are ina lucky situation that we have options to
change the varieties based on the altitude. We can go a little bit higher
on the quality of the wine.If we just look the quality of the
wine, we probably need to saythat today the wines are found a better
(28:19):
situation than fifteen or twenty years ago. But the issues around the whole thing
they dangerous. And even the heatand the dryness and the glaciers were responsible
for the weather during summer in maybein ten years, five fifteen years,
they might don't exist anymore. Sowe will see a lot to come.
(28:41):
Yeah, well it's a global issueand we always ask. But keeping this
on an upbeat, ending talk tous. You know, you both live
in the area. I know willyou were born in Bosano. If you
were wanting to encourage our listeners tocome and visit, what would you tell
them to do. What are somethings that you recommend besides coming and visiting
(29:04):
your beautiful winery. Yeah, cometo visit to see this unique nature's mountain
area, but also come to experiencethe mix of culture. What you find
you will find in the cuisine orto Adiga as one or if not the
highest density of mission style restaurants.And it's not only about mission style restaurants,
(29:29):
it's the general level of food isvery high. And this infruence between
Austrian and Hungarian cuisine and the MediterraneanItalian brought out something unique. Visited all
of might's come for skiing, absolutelywho skis, but also a great summer
hiking and outdoor food and wine couldbe three words. Well, we want
to make sure we give a shoutout to one of the restaurants where we
(29:52):
had dinner with both of you andat the dinner tasted through your continuare means
wonderful red wines and sheets. TabernoRomano, which is a very good restaurant
in Tremine. Yes, and alsoday. It's a beautiful restaurant where they
took an old farmer house, soyou're sitting in this historical place and lay
a link to the food from thearea and mountain we see in and yeah
(30:17):
worth to visit, so a lotof others. It's wonderful. We actually
walked there from the Hotel Tremanoff,which is a terrific hotel where we stayed,
with the beautiful indoor pool, alot of bikers and views of the
mountains. It's an easy place toget around with without a bike or a
cab or a car, although it'salways handy. We found it incredible.
We were only there for one nightin two days and we can't wait to
(30:41):
go back. We would like toencourage all of our listeners to consider visiting
Auto Autogy. It's unlike anywhere elsein Italy and extraordinary, as are the
wines. So thank you both forjoining us on the connected table, Wolf
Gained Clots and Billy Stirts. Wereally appreciate your time and we appreciate your
hospitality our visit to Contina Tremy.Thank you, thank you very much and
(31:03):
hope to see you soon again.In you and all the listeners, we
hope so too, Hope so too. This is another edition of the Connected
Table. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope you will try the wines
if Contina Tremy. They're widely availablein the United States, but more importantly,
plan a visit to this beautiful areaof Italy and you will be somewhat
off the beaten track, but it'squite beautiful and we hope you'll consider a
(31:26):
visit. And always our messages stayin stageably curious, and we are going
to be taking you to a storybooksetting. It's kind of interesting to a
storybook castle. We are heading northto northern Italy, to Italy's altto Adige
(31:51):
region where Elena Walk runs Elena WalkWinery with her daughters Caroline and Julia.
Why is this a storybook setting,Well, there's a castle involved. Elena
is an architect by training, anarchitect from Milan, and she actually met
her future husband, Werner Walk,while doing restorations on the Walks families Castle
(32:13):
Ringberg and the village of Tremine inthe nineteen eighties. This is a castle
built by the Habsburgs and the sixteenhundreds. They married and they started life
together and Elena decided to with virtuallyno professional training and wine set about restoring
the castle's expanse of vineyards that,as I mentioned, are located in the
(32:34):
beautiful hilly with Dolomite's backdrop of altoodogy. Since then and Elena Walk Winery is
considered one of the top wineries inthis area of Italy. Carolyn and Elena
are with us today from Italy andwe are honored. I'm Carolyn has kind
of now managing the US and Italianmarkets for Lena Walk and she's jumping in
to share the spotlight with her mother. She and older sister Julia have put
(32:57):
their own touches on this winery whichwe're going to sky. So we want
to welcome to the show Elena Walkand Carol and Walk. Hello, Hello,
Hello, I'm Elena, and thisis Carolina. Well, now we
can recognize your voice and David iscalling in shortly. We want to welcome
you, and we want to startwith us. Tell us a little bit,
Elena about the history of the castlein the Walk family and autootogy,
(33:21):
and then we want to talk aboutwhere it's actually located. But let's talk
about the history first. So youknow, it is a wonderful introduction you
did because you said that this isa wonderful castle. And I married the
owner. Let's say I received thispossibility to change a little bit the castle
(33:46):
as I was an architect, andthen I felt enough first with the castle
and then with the owner, theparty and the owner, and I had
a possibility really to try to translate. That's what I've felt for both,
(34:06):
and that was the possibility to givea new faith and the new a new
work and the new result to thewonderful estate, which which is the overlooking
a wonderful sea, a lake,a wonderful lake, and it is surrounded
(34:31):
by really very very nice vineacs.So it was I was. I have
to say, I was very luckyto find all this. It sounds like
a Cinderella story. But for thoseof us listening, I've actually been to
the Automology and David has written aboutthe Autology region for his magazine tasting panel.
(34:52):
But tell us, tell our listeners, describe it for us. What's
like, what does it look like, what is the temperature like? What
is it smells like? Now?For example, at this moment, the
temperature is cold, and but wewe are very lucky to be in a
situation that in the summer time wehave and in springtime we have really very
(35:15):
very nice weather, and during theperiod of all the growing of the wines
we have a very very let's say, warm days and cool nights, especially
going to the harvest time, andthat means that the grapes can write during
(35:38):
the day, but in the nightbecause the coolness from the mountains come towards
them, the ascidity stays stays highand so not high but crisp. So
at the end you have very crispwines, very fresh wines. And there's
(35:59):
a tipple of the northeast region ofItaly. We are a very small wine
producing country and we have less thanone percent producing wine of all Italy,
but we are very very well nowbecause we are in the in the north
and we have mountain wine. Sothis is a character which is very recall
(36:23):
you you recognize the wines coming fromalpine areas like aig like our area as
well. Most assets that I've seenthe autology called Trentino sudral autology explain the
differences I've seen. I've seen autologySuditral autogy, Trentino authology. And here's
(36:46):
David explained the differences or the semisfor a right, there is a difference.
The region is called Trentino Alto Adig, but infect it is a little
bit divine. I did because thereis also Adige, which is also means
high, so it is the higherregion, while Trentino is developed more in
(37:10):
the flat area. So the differencebetween Trentino and also Adiga is the Alto
Rdiger first of all has a littlebit as a loss for the wine making.
And we are higher our vineyards toour own slopes and not in flat
areas. In the flat area inAlto Adiga are growing out be we have
(37:32):
apploss. But as soon as theas the as the vineyards are planted,
it's going a little bit up him. So the water goes down very quicky,
and the grapes and the rules ofthe of the vines are always in
a very dry area. Another thingwhich is very important is we are speaking.
(37:59):
We speak can have a tradition whichis a Germanic tradition, while Tino
is an Italian tradition, and thatmeans that they have as well a little
bit different in wine making in lookingfor the wine characteristics, and we are
(38:20):
a little bit you content very interestinglyas well as I am an architecture as
you from the architectural body of you. The houses are very different. We
are much more oriented to the Germanicway of building. And if you go
to Trao and you go to Altoadijects, you see the houses which they
(38:42):
are very different. Yes, soAlto adiect is really the part which is
which is bordering Austria and Switzerland andthe end. Well, when I went
there, that was my oppression aswell. I thought very it was like
a kind of hybrids with German andItalian feeling and the language. The dialect
(39:02):
is a bit different as well,and incredibly beautiful, I must say.
So. David has just joined us. Welcome David, Well, thank you
Altobotogy. I've written about Altotogy.The wines are lovely, both red and
white and very different, very differentin style from a lot of the other
wines in Italy. And I thinkpart of that elevation, part of that's
(39:23):
the north because it's at the northend of Italy and it doesn't get the
heat and whatnot to drive super fullbody styles of wine. But Elena,
you actually didn't start out in thewine business. You went into wine production
with no formal training, and whatwas your mission to and and how would
you describe your style, because becauseit's very particular and very unique. Yeah,
(39:49):
you know, sometimes I think it'seasier to come from outside because you
are not so full of traditional andyou are not so how do you say
influence? But from that what yourfather said and your grandfather said and so
on. So I started, andI said, what do I want to
have? And I thought this wonderfulbut really wonderful estates and therefore I said,
(40:15):
we need to do the best whatcan be done in a position like
this with wonderful terroir, with wonderfulbalance between sun, sunshine, and and
temperature and the site as well.So our vineyags are all have all extraordinary,
(40:44):
very well exposure. And that isimportant because we are very much in
the north, so our grapes needto have sun right, so to have
the sun for a long period duringthe day, it's important, like it
is important to have at night avery cool climate. And this is a
big different which makes the wine recognizablefor this area because they are mountain wines,
(41:12):
crisp wines, extraordinary good food wine. Let's talk about some of that
because this is such a great coolclimate area for the grapes. Let's talk
about some of the standout varietals thatare indigenous to the area. From the
area we have. The Azadita hasmany varieties growing here, but I think
that that's what we planted in oursingle vineyards, which are Kastel, Ringberg
(41:37):
and Castellas in particular. Are thevarieties. Let's say, let's speak about
the most important variety. First ofall. As you mentioned in the beginning,
we are in Tremine. Tramine isthe hometown of the variety of gobots
Tramina, so this is a veryimportant wine for us, and it is
(41:59):
a very specific wine. It isspicy, you recognize it very well.
It has the smell a little bitof roses and of leitches, so it's
something it's it's a wine which hashis really strong character. We have not
to forget Pinogrigo from Captain Ringberg,for example, which is really a very
(42:24):
important wine which is loved as wellof by many many wine lovers because it
is a full and full bodied andvery very balan pinot grigio. Minerality and
freshness and deepness, so you haveall this. Caroline you and your sister
(42:50):
Julia now work side by side withyour mother. Tell us about your role
and how do you want to continueyour mother's vision into the future. First
of all, let's back time alittle bit and and let me just briefly
tell you how I decided to,you know, be part of the estate.
And so you have to imagine discustance. We really grew up on the
(43:13):
estate in between the vineyards and likereally on the estate. And so for
me it was I started it adoptedmy mother was doing every day, and
for me, it was amazing tosee how she was working with nature and
with a natural product in the end, and to be dependent on nature and
end the full year cycles of whatnature really gives you. So and I
(43:34):
this that fascinated me, and that'swhy I very early stage on, decided
to to go that past as well. And that's why I decided to do
all of my studies in that direction. So I first started business, and
then I went all the way toAustralia to do a double degree in whine
(43:57):
making end wine business and just finallycome back with many ideas to my mother
and my sister and Julia. Sheactually start studied in Burgundy. We really
have the old world and the newworld combined on our estate now, which
gives a lot of headaches to mymother. It's true because if you have
(44:20):
an employee, you can't say himyou have to do what I say.
If you have daughters, you cannotsay you'll have to do what I say.
They say, we know and wewant to do what we want to
do. Can't I say? It'simportant that the result is good. And
I think it is good that thenew generation is seeing the things from a
(44:42):
different way and that they continue andI can't. I think that they can
continue well when they are free todecide, so I try. This is
also what my father did to you. I guess this is what you're seeing
what happened to you when you startedif you had, you know, your
freedom to do and try. Ithink. But good personsibility so and I
(45:07):
mean, at least that's what weJudy and I were feeling from you now.
So and and which is great forus because we're young and and have
many ideas, many different ideas,and it's great to get together and and
and try to realize it on ourestate as well. And and what my
mother mentioned previously is how she putthe emphasis on the vineers, on the
(45:30):
stingless state, which was something backin the eighties, but not so many
people were doing, I guess fromby changing the viney as you mentioned this
as well at the beginning, becauseI changed from the traditional twelising system to
a modern twelising system from the belasso the Google system, which is a
(45:52):
tulising system which gives much more importantto the quality of the grapes. So
first of all, it was necessaryto change to do better, to do
better plantings, to do better grapes, and you can do it by having
(46:15):
a tweliging system, which is knownas the quality tweligging system. You said
about making changes and doing it,and now your daughters are following in the
footsteps, which we find is Daveand I've in a few many generational families
in the wine business, and thattends to be happening definitely throughout Europe right
now. I think that many newgenerations are changing a little bit as well
(46:40):
as the wine making and the plantingand the decision what they have to plant.
You have to understand I started nearlytwenty seven years ago, and at
that time, first of all,it was very unusual that a lady or
that the woman was decided that whatwas going to be done in a vineyard.
(47:04):
Normally there were always men deciding andbringing some differences. But at that
time all the area was sleeping alittle bit. So when I started and
I said, we have to change, we have to give more quality to
that what is growing. So wehave the possibility, and the men are
(47:27):
a little bit we're a little bitshocked and said, what is this lady
going to do? Nowadays everybody's doingthat, and everybody knows that the twelting
system like Guyot is much better forquality results than the traditional pergola system,
But it was not like that twentyeight years ago. And then I said
another thing as well, that's whatCarolina mentioned it. For me, it
(47:51):
was very important to give the importanceto the states and to explain as well
to the people that these are greatcoming from a special area, from a
specially state, from a special Singervineyards, and so the wine carry the
name of the Single vineyards. Andthis is also something that my sister and
myself really want to continue doing.Is it is really vinifying the different parts
(48:15):
that we have separately and really puttingthis single state on the wine. And
so only with with the last vintagevintage twenty fifteen, for the first time,
we're law actually permitted this new mentioningof Vinyac, meaning that if you
have the official denomination of Vinya onyour label, you have to guarantee that
one hundred percent of this wine andthose grades only come from one designated vineyard.
(48:42):
So if has only a certain size, you can approduce one million bottles
out of it, right, Soit's very strict regulation on the Vineya denomination.
This is a new dennomination. Andso since the fifteen we have put
this denomination on our labels and toreally highlight it even more, to to
say and put the emphasis on thefact that this region, for example,
(49:04):
comes from the Vinea Castle ringbag andit only comes from there. And the
same thing with the giver's terminet thatonly comes from the Vinea castillas. Right,
and this is very important and andand so my sister and myself we
certainly want to continue this way andeven more and even more than even more
strict and because it is important thatpeople know and have they have the right
(49:27):
to know where the wines come from, the grades come from and then this
is what the next step was thatwe wanted to translate the passion that we
have for the vineyards also in thecellar. And it's you know, every
variety and every vineyard in a wayit needs a different way of working there
at the grades once they were atat the winery, and we wanted to
translate is also in the wine makingitself. And this is when we actually
(49:52):
started building a whole new fermentation sellerand we finished it in twenty fifteen where
we could fermentation seller that gives usthe flexibility to work differently the different parts
and vineyards that we have, andto add to adapt to those different requirements
(50:12):
of the different varieties, and hencehave very you know, renify every part
and every small parts will separately andand differently because you can do especially for
the rest the whole bunch whole veryslightly crushed and there's new imformentation seller gives
the flexibility to do all of thatworks differently the sides and the grapt varieties,
and in the end everything is donemy gravity, so that we really
(50:36):
deliver the great very softly and delicatelyinto the fermentation tanks. And all this
I would like to say all thisyou feel when you drink the wine.
When you think the wine, you'llhave the feeling that it is not just
the wine, but it is awine with the stasion, and it's a
wine with a heart, and it'sa wine done with a lot of attention
(51:01):
to it. You feel it andwhen all the details. Yeah, yeah,
but it is important I think becausewhen you feel that something is done
with a special attention, you tasteit as well. You tasted this difference
as well, and it gives youa pleasure to drink it well. I
(51:22):
think, I think you really nailedsomething very significant, both of you,
Elene and Caroline, to sum upour conversation today that the best wine is
made with passion and an eye fordetail, which you both have shared today
with us on our show. Andyou know, for anyone who has not
visited the Ultooutogy region, it reallyis quite gorgeous and there's a lot to
(51:43):
see and a lot of helpful informationon the website and for those who want
to learn more, where can ourlisteners find you on the website, on
social media, on Facebook and onTwitter. Elena Walk Winery, Absolutely the
best would be mail an get peoplecome. I know it's it's a very
long way from the States to here. But when they go to see when
(52:07):
they go to see Piedmont or theygo to see Tuscany, they have to
draw two and a half hours bycar more and they come up to Autodija
and they will see a really nicewine, nice but small wine growing area
and nice people. I think wethink so too, and we will at
(52:29):
starting with both of you. Sowe want to thank you Elena Walk and
Carolyn Walk of Elena Walk Winery forjoining us today on the Connected Table.
We think your wines are terrific andwe're so glad you shared your story with
us. Thank you so much,and I hope that all the people who
listen to this are happy to havelearned a little bit more of and about
(52:50):
Elena Like Winery. We're sure theywill be, and we really appreciate you
taking the time to call in fromAutoology and spend some time with us today
they Connected Table Live. Elena andCarolyn Walk, Thank you very much.
Folks you're listening to the Connected TableLive with Melanie Young and David Ransom.
And with that, we hope everybodyhas an insatiably delicious week and we will
(53:12):
be back with more connecting
The topics and opinions expressed in thefollowing show are solely those of the hosts
and their guests and not those ofW FORCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates.
We make no recommendations or endorsements radioshow, program services, or products
mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall
be extended to W FORCY Radio orit's employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those showhosts. Thank you for choosing W FORCY
(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to the Connected Table. We're your hosts, Melana Young and
(00:42):
David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinarycouple. We enjoy traveling the world and
bringing you the stories and places ofthe people and wineries and destinations that we
enjoy visiting. And we do thisregularly around the world. And today we're
taking you to a study place inItaly where one will find German and Austrian
(01:03):
influences amidst the Italian culture. You'llsee it in the food, the architecture,
in the local dialect. This isa region for sports lovers who loved
a hike and mountain bike and snowskiand it's a landscape photographer's dream setting with
the beautiful backdrop of the Dolomites.We're talking about the South Tyrol and Alto
(01:23):
Adigy Suda Troll, the northernmost partof Italy. It was my first visit
your second or third, right,it is so beautiful. Only there for
one night. We stated a wonderfulhotel, the Tramonoff in Termino, which
we learned is also Tremine, andit was an incredible experience. We were
there to visit with Knina Tremine.It is an historic wine cooperative founded in
(01:45):
eighteen ninety eight by Christian Schrutt,who was a local parish priest and the
local termine of Termino, and hewas also a deputy in the Austrian Parliament.
Was part of Austria until after WorldWar One. That's of course true,
so I'm very historic. And atthe time the local growers were struggling.
(02:07):
The price of grapes was low,and so he had this brain child
to create a union, a cooperativeto help them. And today Kntina Tremine
is one hundred and sixty eight winefamilies and it's considered one of the most
successful wine cooperatives in the world andwe had the chance to visit and it
(02:27):
is a beautiful place. Just theheadquarters alone are incredible. The architect is
very famous, and we'll talk aboutthis in the discussion. So let's introduce
our guests joining us at Wolfgang Clotswho is the director of sales and marketing
and lead winemaker Willie Shoots. We'reso honored to have you both with us
(02:51):
on the connected table. Welcome right, Well, we're happy to have you
all here, and you know it'sinteresting, Melanie. Let me just start
this by saying, at a timewhere there's been a lot of privatization in
the winemaking world and co ops havebeen struggling, Cantina Tremine is a success
story and it continues to be sinceit's founding. And I think that's a
really interesting point because Altotogy has alot of small producers of grapes that really
(03:14):
make enough grapes to make their ownwine. Right, So cooperatives are kind
of a way of life in Altobotogyand continue to be that way. I
like to tell people in the UnitedStates the cooperatives are kind of like what
we call here incubators and collaborative workarrangements, so it really helps provide the
resources that many small and independent companiesand families don't have. So it's a
(03:35):
very smart, cost effective way todo business. And in this case the
quality is very very high, aswe learn through our tasting. Yes,
absolutely so, Wolfgang again, thankyou for joining us. We briefly share
the history of Cantina Tremine, talkabout it a little bit more and also
where are we exactly for our listenerswho don't know where we are. Yes,
(03:55):
so as explained, we are themost noted botify the league. So
we are covered by the Italian Alps, so the south side of the Alps.
And if you think about Italy andhaving the cities Mila and Venice right
in between, there is Verona andVerona where we also have to be in
(04:16):
Italy. Wind Ratio is at theborder of the Italian Alps and from Verona
we drive like an hour and ahalf into the Alps where we have this
tide valley going into the Alps andthen opening up and creating a unique climate
between alpine climate and Mediterranean warm daytemperatures. And that's where we grow these
(04:44):
alpine wines on an altitude between sixhundred two six thousand feet. So do
the Alps create like a rain shadowhere that helps moderate the temperature, Yes,
exactly, so it keeps the waythe cool and wet weather coming from
the north, and the valley isopen to the south, so we have
(05:06):
influence of the warmer temperatures from thesouth, but we are still in the
mountains. Right behind we have thevineyards on a foothill of a mountain that
grows up to two thousand meters,and behind of that even the glaciers.
So that's it's a very unique combinationbetween the south and the alpine climlets.
(05:30):
Yeah, first of all, let'stalk about the size of the vineyard holdings
that continued Tremine has, because it'squite large. And what we learn is
a lot of the vineyards are onslopes, many south facing down on the
valley floor, and the valley flooris dedicated to apples exactly, No no
vineyard at all in the valley floor. As soon as the slope starts where
(05:53):
we have a much more mineral ribbonsoil, that's where we change to viticulture
and it grows up lately to alsothe warmer temperatures. The viticulture also has
been grown a little bit in altitude, so it's quite beautiful. And you're
right, it's also apple country forpeople who want to. No one else
(06:15):
has grown in the area, andlike I said, a lot of bikers.
Much more agrarian than we expected.One of the big cities not too
far away as Bolzano. Just forcontext, we spend a day in Bolzano
and it's quite beautiful. We mentionedWolfgang that Contina Tremine was established in eighteen
ninety eight, so let's talk aboutsome of the historical milestones for Cantina Tremine
(06:41):
since it was established, so it'sdevils more than one hundred years ago,
and the first eighty to ninety years, the business model was the classical coupative
business model, simple easy wines.Most of the wines have been sold as
bock wins and then worth the time, that model didn't work anymore so and
with the young generation of the newwinemakers growing in the area, we understood
(07:09):
the potential of the real potential ofthis alpine climate and started to focus on
quality. So starting to try tounderstand better the single microclimates to plan to
write varieties on the single area andaltitudes and to focus on quality. So
(07:30):
this was a very difficult process alsoto make understand all our growers to change
from volume to quality. And sowhat we are today and for what we
are known today and the wines forwhich we are luckily known, we can
say we have a history of thirtyto thirty five years. And that's luckily
(07:51):
also happened not only in Contina Tramine, but it happened in almost every wine
village India. Just to give anidea, pretty much every village has his
own coporative because everywhere we have thislittle growers. And the only solution for
this difficult and cost intensive mountain viticultureby the end was the coperative And thanks
(08:16):
to this model, this mountain viticulturehad still a future and and and the
whole area Autoadgia today performs with highquality wines from copa defineries. And also
from a social part of view oreconomical social part of view, we see
that the young generations they continue inviticulture, they see a future in what
(08:37):
they do and we were able tobut also the other copadis we were able
to maintain this mountain viticulture and makepeople invest in a good future on quality
wines. You know, I findit interesting. I do have a question.
Obviously, space is limited to plantvineyards in autoology. Are their new
(08:58):
plantings being created as the wine makingnew generations come along? Are they buying
more land and then planting new vineyardsa little bit, but mostly to the
climate change that we have warmer temperatures. So also some higher elevated vineyards are
now areas where we can grow wine, and most of them we need also
to say, like in the MiddleAge, also have been used for a
(09:22):
witty culture. It's a very smallpop so there's not so much space left
also, so it's maybe in thelast ten years five percent, you know,
David, we've seen then a coupleof places that came up when we
were in a brutzo. Also aboutwith climate change, we're planning at the
higher elevation. It's interesting, butthere's only so much plan durable, terrible
(09:45):
land you can do with that.So we're curious. As we said.
Contina Tremine is a cooperative made upof independent family producers from growers. What
is the process of becoming and remaininga member In theory, the process is
quite simple to enter. If someonehas a vineyard in our area. It
(10:07):
can apply in the cooperative. It'salso quite simple to stay in the coporative.
But there's a huge world how muchthe grower can earn out of this
vineyard and that's where the whole storystarts. And to make it very simple,
then it's the better the quality ofthe grapes they come in or the
higher the share will be what thatgrower will be paid. So at the
(10:31):
end of the year, basically thewinery closes the balance sheet and all the
earnings get divided by the growers andit gets divided on size of the land
and quality of the grapes. Backin the times it was basically the higher
the volume, the more they werepaid. Today it's very very complex.
It starts where it's the vineyard located. How do the grower, how they
(10:52):
work during the year. So wehave the echronomists following them during the year.
We give a lot of support.We try to keep them baked to
the winery, makes them feel asone of the owners, makes them feel
responsible for the quality of the wines, having them also proud to be part
of this project. And then thebiggest advantage once this whole thing works,
(11:13):
as when we come to harvests becauseit's it's Billy the winemaker together with the
agronomy is deciding went to harvest thesingle vineyards. And as you have said,
the vineyards are very small. Thegrowers have only small sizes and vineyards
they basically can vineyard every plot ina day on a specific data are so
small. In a half a dayor day they are harvested. So we
(11:35):
have a harvest spirit for a monthand a half and then you can really
decide for every single plot the singleday went to pick and call the single
grower and then they will stop maybeby the apple picking for half a day,
going to the vineyard and pick thegrapes. And then Billy the winemaker,
he will do a last check visualcheck of the quality and if the
(12:00):
grapes are healthy, they look good, they did a good job during the
year. The area the microwa isone of the best, the prize or
the share will be the highest possible. And that's a big, big range
between normal quality and great quality.That's quite the system. It's really quite
the system. Very complex. Actually, let's bring in Willie to speak a
little bit. Willie, you joinedthe Canteena in nineteen ninety two. Tell
(12:24):
us about your background. When didyou decide you wanted to be a wine
maker, did you grow up inthe area, and tell us about your
wine making journey. My style wasin the ninety two and in the ninety
five. From nineteen ninety five tilltoday, I'm the lead mine Matra and
(12:48):
the changing in the in the lastthirty years was very very important, and
the first step was in the winyards and the kind of uh wine growing
for a for a very good quality. I think today we in the in
(13:11):
the center and our agronomists and thewine grower are a good team. So
you know, with all the differentfamilies and personalities, how do you keep
you just reference it a little bit, but are there specific things checks and
(13:33):
balances for example, that you've putinto place to keep everything running smoothly from
vineyard to seller. The big choicefor us is to have a good controlling
in the vineyard and then to takein the center the best parcels and winified
(13:58):
the single plots to understand what kindof specific expression have the single micro area.
You know, we visited vineyards andI thought that the vineyard system was
very specific and unique to artoology asI understand it. Correct me if I'm
wrong. You also changed how thevineyard system was laid out. Correct.
(14:22):
The historical system was the Babbela,but then with the new plantings we changed
to the classic or nowadays classic foryour own system, that we can achieve
better quality with more ventilation. Andalso the shadow issue what the Babbela,
for sure on his nature brings moreshadow, but the advantage having the growers
(14:46):
doing the hand work in the vineyards, we can manage the shadow also way
well with the go your system bydoing a bay accurate green management during the
summer. The whole thing of thecopa dif. Now, if you start
from the idea how this stereotype ofa copa dif is how copa dis works
(15:07):
in Alto Adiga, maybe there's sucha huge gap that it makes the whole
thing almost unbelievable. But also weneed to say that we started more than
twenty years ago, and we weretirty years ago. We were far away
from what we are now, andit was a steep way, little by
little, step by step where wegot where we are now. That we
(15:28):
are so detailed and precise in thiscooperation with the wine growers, and it
was a lot of detail and investmentwent into this basically because you know from
the vineyard management and changing just howthe trellising system worked, that was a
big change. To focus on whatyou want to achieve in the vineyard all
the way up through the systems thatyou put in place. It's pretty impressive
(15:50):
and it is important. As yousaid, we're going to help listeners understand
that cooperative is not a dirty work. In the United States, cooperative it
is very important thing because it isperceived as helping small businesses get the resources
they need to flourish and be successful. So it's helping small growers and producers
(16:11):
and families, and I think thatneeds to be underscored. And the word
cooperative itself, to cooperate means itis working together for a greater good,
right exactly, And having all theselittle bustles as Alto adigas an area has
five thousand wine growers and with fivethousand wine growers, five thousand hectors as
(16:33):
immedia, so it was basically itwas a good solution. And if we
look what the grape pricings are inAlto Adiga, at least as far as
I know, there's no other areawhere the difference between grape price and shelf
price of the wine is that small, and that shows that the cost of
the bottle of wine goes back tothe people maintaining the landscape and the vignetts
(16:57):
and not necessarily to I'm only sellingwines, and that's for sure thanks to
the copad Is because our final goalis trying to pay the highest possible price
for the grapes. So let's talkabout the beautiful headquarters because it was designed
by renowned architect and it's quite stunningbefore we get into the tasting that we
(17:18):
took place for us. Yes,the tasting room, So we have this
beautiful new building and we are veryhappy that we are bordering the vineyards and
so we are really the possibility orwho comes to visit Continua Trumming to taste
our wines and having in front ofthe tasting the vineyards and the Mandel Mountain
(17:41):
range, especially in a great summerday with a blue sky, it's really
worth to visit. Can regular peoplelike travelers come and taste? You need
an appointment or is it mainly forthe trade. No, the tasting room
is open to everyone and you don'tneed an appointment. As fast. You'd
just like to taste the wines andthen it's possible to do an appointment for
(18:03):
the winery visit. We're looking ata photo on the website. It's just
the most beautiful point. It's reallyquite beautiful. I need to go back.
So let's dive into the wine.Absolutely, there's a big focus on
white wines, obviously reds maid topinot noir being one of the specialties of
the area, but a larger focuson white wines in this area converts Remaner,
Chardonnay, Savinion blanc, peinot,grigio. I'd like to focus on
(18:26):
some of the converts reminers you make, because really I think there's some of
the best in the world. Solet's talk about a couple of your convert
remaners. Yes, So the winomyis the area's most historical great demeanor and
when Willie started thirty five years ago, eighty percent of the area was landed
by a red wine called scava,and so it was a big, big
(18:48):
goal that really had to bring backthis historical great variety from the place.
As we also know that back inthe Middle Age, seventy five percent of
the wine made in the area waswhite, so he was turning back to
all the all the time, soto debate historical grapes from the area and
Gebutztamina in the name has also thename of the village, so he has
(19:14):
a important marriage between the village andthe variety. And as Billy can explain,
the specialty of this Gabutsamina is tounderstand the teroa with this dry style
of gebut stamina. Or we wereable over the years to really create his
own statistic of the Adaija gebutsamina.So Willy, how would you describe the
(19:37):
style and your thoughts and also howit ages, because we tasted a range
of gevertsaminers and they were all verydifferent and all the way to the epacol,
which is one of the one hundredpoint wines of Italy. As we
understand, which is the spat least, but talk to us about the style
(19:57):
in the different ranges. In theelectic style they give your stamino is dry
and have more spicy aromas, alittle bit of rose battles and bisy lichen
fruit. And then we have theother style. The middle sugar style is
(20:18):
the ipocala ipocal in combination with along maturation in the bottle in a special
gallery on two thousand meters of elevation, and this style is very very long
life, Give your stamina, anda small part of our production we have
(20:40):
on the very very concentrated Give yourStamino late harvest in the end of November
December, and this is a veryfull bodied and both rightis style. Give
your Stamino. You know what Ifind interesting about the Cantina treminverseminus melanias that
they really run all the different gamutsof sweetness levels and intensity levels. The
(21:03):
epochal is was eight years old theone we tried. So just to think
that an eight year old versure meteris the one that they're pouring for us
at the winery to taste is veryinteresting. It's got a great story too
behind it. You said it wasaged in a special aging room at two
thousand meters high. It's actually agedin a silver mine up at two thousand
meters. So tell us about thestory about why you all decided to create
(21:26):
this special aging process for this particularwine. So the idea when we started
the project of the idea the Epocatawine was also to show the performance of
how the potential of this variety toage because not necessarily we believe the guts
amina ages because it's no in acidity, and maybe with his huge aroma,
(21:47):
we believe it's just a wine thatstays on his primary fruit and then it's
gone. But we have the experiencethat the age is way way well.
It's our wine at age is thebest from all the wines we do.
Starting the Apocatic project, it wasa key idea to show this potential,
and then we thought about how todo that, and the best idea and
(22:08):
the most honest way was the bottleaging. So we were looking for a
room or space where two ages.We didn't have a very good aging area
in the winery or a seller withvery good conditions, and then we found
the Silver mine that's six seven thousandfeet where we enter for like three miles
in the mountain, and we needto imagine that we've have the perfect conditions
(22:32):
without a cost of energy. Wedon't have any energy or C two pollution
for the aging, for chilling andet cetera. So we just bring the
wine once into the mine and itstays there for six to seven years,
eleven degrees constant. The whole yearlong, very high humidity, lower oxygen
content, and then we take itafter six to seven years, we bring
(22:56):
it back to the winery and thenthe wine get it's released. Yeah,
it's a very interesting one, itreally was. And the other one that
we tasted the nos Bomber, whichis I think at least highest rated white
wine correct most family is our historicalGibut samina where we built up this history
of the last thirty years and forfor what the winery and and Billy became
(23:18):
famous for. And it's the flagshipor the icon Gabut samina for a dry
guts samina in difference to epocada,it is dry. So it's this classical
autoada style of Kabutz stamina. Whatmakes Gabot stamina a very interesting and very
good food wine that's nothing to dowith this old fashioned baroque style Gibut samina.
(23:44):
But it's a bay Lean gebut samina, and it goes very well with
like a good part of the Asiancuisine like Vietna, knees a dye,
everything that's spicy or on a featherstyle as a beautiful bearing with Kabut stamina.
I love that wine. Yeah,it was. It was beautiful.
But I'm a huge fan of conversere meaner, I have to say,
yeah, really, I'd like tosee people in the United States drinking conversation.
(24:07):
Yeah. So, one of thewines that we were very impressed with
when we visited you and I've hadmany times over the years, and I'm
just a big fan of it overallwas the Stone Stoa n which is a
blend of seventy five percent chardon,a twenty percent Servinn blanc, and then
five percent conversion. Meer, Whydon't you tell us about that one because
it's also very popular here in theUnited States. Yeah, done. It
(24:30):
is based off chardon, and Chardonnayis our second most important variety. And
it's not that we like to doeverything. It's just because with the different
altitudes of the vineyards, it's evennot possible to grow more the Bootsteina we
have at an especially higher elevation vineyards, boots stamin and doesn't rote it well
(24:51):
because it needs a good amount ofsun and heat, and that's where chardon
ae performs very very well and bringsa very alpine style of Shaldon and really
started Stone in two thousand and two. But right. The idea was to
have a white line. What canexplain our microzone? A white wine?
(25:15):
What have freshness, fruity style,and on this elevation we have this microzone.
What we give this particularly aroma andI think it is a wine what
present in a very good style ourzone. It was beautiful. Yeah,
I love this one. It's gotthat kind of classic Shardoney character to it,
(25:37):
but a leaner, more austere,kind of Shardeny character to it,
and then that touch of a virginarynnerand gives it the florals you don't get
with Shardney. I just love thecomplexity of this one. It's a beautiful
one. And that one is availablein the United States. That's important to
underscore because some of the ones wetaste it, we're not true. I
like the Troy Shardney Reserve, whichis beautiful, but it's not here you.
It was a stunning, stunning wine. The news to two thousand and
(26:00):
twenty, what we will release thiswill be again available in the US.
Well wait, yeah, wait,yeah, that's it's a nice wine that's
there. It's kind of a reservestyle shard name right, it's a the
Troy. It spends a year anda half an oak. So it's it's
very complex, very rich and justlovely one, very very special. So
Willie, I have a question foryou. Obviously, climate change is a
(26:22):
big issue these days pretty much everywherein the winemaking world and the world in
general. How is autootogy being affectedby it? Because your alpine area,
so one would think that it's usuallya little bit cooler and you might not
be as affected by it. ButI know when we've visited with you,
you said that there are issues ongoingwith climate change that you're addressing. Why
(26:44):
don't you talk to us about acouple of those? And either of you
can answer, I'm a change isreal, and today I think we harvest
earlier, and I think with ourmountains behind, we have a little bit
less on this influence of the climber. But for me personally is a very
big problem. And for the viticulturein our zone today was not bad for
(27:11):
a few varieties, especially for redwines. And the other possibility what we
have is to go in the higherelevation with our vineyards. It's not a
possibility for all of our vineyards,but for pin is a good possibility to
(27:33):
go in the higher elevation chardonnay toEurope in generals, and the United States
is experiencing record high temperatures. There'salso been in some areas of Europe,
including Italy, some hail storms verybad. Do you have a lot of
risk for any hail storms? Yes, yeah, we've seen a huge growth
on hail storms, weather extremes andall. That part is very very negative
(27:59):
and it's obvious that we see thatand we try to do our best to
work with it. We are ina lucky situation that we have options to
change the varieties based on the altitude. We can go a little bit higher
on the quality of the wine.If we just look the quality of the
wine, we probably need to saythat today the wines are found a better
(28:19):
situation than fifteen or twenty years ago. But the issues around the whole thing
they dangerous. And even the heatand the dryness and the glaciers were responsible
for the weather during summer in maybein ten years, five fifteen years,
they might don't exist anymore. Sowe will see a lot to come.
(28:41):
Yeah, well it's a global issueand we always ask. But keeping this
on an upbeat, ending talk tous. You know, you both live
in the area. I know willyou were born in Bosano. If you
were wanting to encourage our listeners tocome and visit, what would you tell
them to do. What are somethings that you recommend besides coming and visiting
(29:04):
your beautiful winery. Yeah, cometo visit to see this unique nature's mountain
area, but also come to experiencethe mix of culture. What you find
you will find in the cuisine orto Adiga as one or if not the
highest density of mission style restaurants.And it's not only about mission style restaurants,
(29:29):
it's the general level of food isvery high. And this infruence between
Austrian and Hungarian cuisine and the MediterraneanItalian brought out something unique. Visited all
of might's come for skiing, absolutelywho skis, but also a great summer
hiking and outdoor food and wine couldbe three words. Well, we want
to make sure we give a shoutout to one of the restaurants where we
(29:52):
had dinner with both of you andat the dinner tasted through your continuare means
wonderful red wines and sheets. TabernoRomano, which is a very good restaurant
in Tremine. Yes, and alsoday. It's a beautiful restaurant where they
took an old farmer house, soyou're sitting in this historical place and lay
a link to the food from thearea and mountain we see in and yeah
(30:17):
worth to visit, so a lotof others. It's wonderful. We actually
walked there from the Hotel Tremanoff,which is a terrific hotel where we stayed,
with the beautiful indoor pool, alot of bikers and views of the
mountains. It's an easy place toget around with without a bike or a
cab or a car, although it'salways handy. We found it incredible.
We were only there for one nightin two days and we can't wait to
(30:41):
go back. We would like toencourage all of our listeners to consider visiting
Auto Autogy. It's unlike anywhere elsein Italy and extraordinary, as are the
wines. So thank you both forjoining us on the connected table, Wolf
Gained Clots and Billy Stirts. Wereally appreciate your time and we appreciate your
hospitality our visit to Contina Tremy.Thank you, thank you very much and
(31:03):
hope to see you soon again.In you and all the listeners, we
hope so too, Hope so too. This is another edition of the Connected
Table. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope you will try the wines
if Contina Tremy. They're widely availablein the United States, but more importantly,
plan a visit to this beautiful areaof Italy and you will be somewhat
off the beaten track, but it'squite beautiful and we hope you'll consider a
(31:26):
visit. And always our messages stayin stageably curious, and we are going
to be taking you to a storybooksetting. It's kind of interesting to a
storybook castle. We are heading northto northern Italy, to Italy's altto Adige
(31:51):
region where Elena Walk runs Elena WalkWinery with her daughters Caroline and Julia.
Why is this a storybook setting,Well, there's a castle involved. Elena
is an architect by training, anarchitect from Milan, and she actually met
her future husband, Werner Walk,while doing restorations on the Walks families Castle
(32:13):
Ringberg and the village of Tremine inthe nineteen eighties. This is a castle
built by the Habsburgs and the sixteenhundreds. They married and they started life
together and Elena decided to with virtuallyno professional training and wine set about restoring
the castle's expanse of vineyards that,as I mentioned, are located in the
(32:34):
beautiful hilly with Dolomite's backdrop of altoodogy. Since then and Elena Walk Winery is
considered one of the top wineries inthis area of Italy. Carolyn and Elena
are with us today from Italy andwe are honored. I'm Carolyn has kind
of now managing the US and Italianmarkets for Lena Walk and she's jumping in
to share the spotlight with her mother. She and older sister Julia have put
(32:57):
their own touches on this winery whichwe're going to sky. So we want
to welcome to the show Elena Walkand Carol and Walk. Hello, Hello,
Hello, I'm Elena, and thisis Carolina. Well, now we
can recognize your voice and David iscalling in shortly. We want to welcome
you, and we want to startwith us. Tell us a little bit,
Elena about the history of the castlein the Walk family and autootogy,
(33:21):
and then we want to talk aboutwhere it's actually located. But let's talk
about the history first. So youknow, it is a wonderful introduction you
did because you said that this isa wonderful castle. And I married the
owner. Let's say I received thispossibility to change a little bit the castle
(33:46):
as I was an architect, andthen I felt enough first with the castle
and then with the owner, theparty and the owner, and I had
a possibility really to try to translate. That's what I've felt for both,
(34:06):
and that was the possibility to givea new faith and the new a new
work and the new result to thewonderful estate, which which is the overlooking
a wonderful sea, a lake,a wonderful lake, and it is surrounded
(34:31):
by really very very nice vineacs.So it was I was. I have
to say, I was very luckyto find all this. It sounds like
a Cinderella story. But for thoseof us listening, I've actually been to
the Automology and David has written aboutthe Autology region for his magazine tasting panel.
(34:52):
But tell us, tell our listeners, describe it for us. What's
like, what does it look like, what is the temperature like? What
is it smells like? Now?For example, at this moment, the
temperature is cold, and but wewe are very lucky to be in a
situation that in the summer time wehave and in springtime we have really very
(35:15):
very nice weather, and during theperiod of all the growing of the wines
we have a very very let's say, warm days and cool nights, especially
going to the harvest time, andthat means that the grapes can write during
(35:38):
the day, but in the nightbecause the coolness from the mountains come towards
them, the ascidity stays stays highand so not high but crisp. So
at the end you have very crispwines, very fresh wines. And there's
(35:59):
a tipple of the northeast region ofItaly. We are a very small wine
producing country and we have less thanone percent producing wine of all Italy,
but we are very very well nowbecause we are in the in the north
and we have mountain wine. Sothis is a character which is very recall
(36:23):
you you recognize the wines coming fromalpine areas like aig like our area as
well. Most assets that I've seenthe autology called Trentino sudral autology explain the
differences I've seen. I've seen autologySuditral autogy, Trentino authology. And here's
(36:46):
David explained the differences or the semisfor a right, there is a difference.
The region is called Trentino Alto Adig, but infect it is a little
bit divine. I did because thereis also Adige, which is also means
high, so it is the higherregion, while Trentino is developed more in
(37:10):
the flat area. So the differencebetween Trentino and also Adiga is the Alto
Rdiger first of all has a littlebit as a loss for the wine making.
And we are higher our vineyards toour own slopes and not in flat
areas. In the flat area inAlto Adiga are growing out be we have
(37:32):
apploss. But as soon as theas the as the vineyards are planted,
it's going a little bit up him. So the water goes down very quicky,
and the grapes and the rules ofthe of the vines are always in
a very dry area. Another thingwhich is very important is we are speaking.
(37:59):
We speak can have a tradition whichis a Germanic tradition, while Tino
is an Italian tradition, and thatmeans that they have as well a little
bit different in wine making in lookingfor the wine characteristics, and we are
(38:20):
a little bit you content very interestinglyas well as I am an architecture as
you from the architectural body of you. The houses are very different. We
are much more oriented to the Germanicway of building. And if you go
to Trao and you go to Altoadijects, you see the houses which they
(38:42):
are very different. Yes, soAlto adiect is really the part which is
which is bordering Austria and Switzerland andthe end. Well, when I went
there, that was my oppression aswell. I thought very it was like
a kind of hybrids with German andItalian feeling and the language. The dialect
(39:02):
is a bit different as well,and incredibly beautiful, I must say.
So. David has just joined us. Welcome David, Well, thank you
Altobotogy. I've written about Altotogy.The wines are lovely, both red and
white and very different, very differentin style from a lot of the other
wines in Italy. And I thinkpart of that elevation, part of that's
(39:23):
the north because it's at the northend of Italy and it doesn't get the
heat and whatnot to drive super fullbody styles of wine. But Elena,
you actually didn't start out in thewine business. You went into wine production
with no formal training, and whatwas your mission to and and how would
you describe your style, because becauseit's very particular and very unique. Yeah,
(39:49):
you know, sometimes I think it'seasier to come from outside because you
are not so full of traditional andyou are not so how do you say
influence? But from that what yourfather said and your grandfather said and so
on. So I started, andI said, what do I want to
have? And I thought this wonderfulbut really wonderful estates and therefore I said,
(40:15):
we need to do the best whatcan be done in a position like
this with wonderful terroir, with wonderfulbalance between sun, sunshine, and and
temperature and the site as well.So our vineyags are all have all extraordinary,
(40:44):
very well exposure. And that isimportant because we are very much in
the north, so our grapes needto have sun right, so to have
the sun for a long period duringthe day, it's important, like it
is important to have at night avery cool climate. And this is a
big different which makes the wine recognizablefor this area because they are mountain wines,
(41:12):
crisp wines, extraordinary good food wine. Let's talk about some of that
because this is such a great coolclimate area for the grapes. Let's talk
about some of the standout varietals thatare indigenous to the area. From the
area we have. The Azadita hasmany varieties growing here, but I think
that that's what we planted in oursingle vineyards, which are Kastel, Ringberg
(41:37):
and Castellas in particular. Are thevarieties. Let's say, let's speak about
the most important variety. First ofall. As you mentioned in the beginning,
we are in Tremine. Tramine isthe hometown of the variety of gobots
Tramina, so this is a veryimportant wine for us, and it is
(41:59):
a very specific wine. It isspicy, you recognize it very well.
It has the smell a little bitof roses and of leitches, so it's
something it's it's a wine which hashis really strong character. We have not
to forget Pinogrigo from Captain Ringberg,for example, which is really a very
(42:24):
important wine which is loved as wellof by many many wine lovers because it
is a full and full bodied andvery very balan pinot grigio. Minerality and
freshness and deepness, so you haveall this. Caroline you and your sister
(42:50):
Julia now work side by side withyour mother. Tell us about your role
and how do you want to continueyour mother's vision into the future. First
of all, let's back time alittle bit and and let me just briefly
tell you how I decided to,you know, be part of the estate.
And so you have to imagine discustance. We really grew up on the
(43:13):
estate in between the vineyards and likereally on the estate. And so for
me it was I started it adoptedmy mother was doing every day, and
for me, it was amazing tosee how she was working with nature and
with a natural product in the end, and to be dependent on nature and
end the full year cycles of whatnature really gives you. So and I
(43:34):
this that fascinated me, and that'swhy I very early stage on, decided
to to go that past as well. And that's why I decided to do
all of my studies in that direction. So I first started business, and
then I went all the way toAustralia to do a double degree in whine
(43:57):
making end wine business and just finallycome back with many ideas to my mother
and my sister and Julia. Sheactually start studied in Burgundy. We really
have the old world and the newworld combined on our estate now, which
gives a lot of headaches to mymother. It's true because if you have
(44:20):
an employee, you can't say himyou have to do what I say.
If you have daughters, you cannotsay you'll have to do what I say.
They say, we know and wewant to do what we want to
do. Can't I say? It'simportant that the result is good. And
I think it is good that thenew generation is seeing the things from a
(44:42):
different way and that they continue andI can't. I think that they can
continue well when they are free todecide, so I try. This is
also what my father did to you. I guess this is what you're seeing
what happened to you when you startedif you had, you know, your
freedom to do and try. Ithink. But good personsibility so and I
(45:07):
mean, at least that's what weJudy and I were feeling from you now.
So and and which is great forus because we're young and and have
many ideas, many different ideas,and it's great to get together and and
and try to realize it on ourestate as well. And and what my
mother mentioned previously is how she putthe emphasis on the vineers, on the
(45:30):
stingless state, which was something backin the eighties, but not so many
people were doing, I guess fromby changing the viney as you mentioned this
as well at the beginning, becauseI changed from the traditional twelising system to
a modern twelising system from the belasso the Google system, which is a
(45:52):
tulising system which gives much more importantto the quality of the grapes. So
first of all, it was necessaryto change to do better, to do
better plantings, to do better grapes, and you can do it by having
(46:15):
a tweliging system, which is knownas the quality tweligging system. You said
about making changes and doing it,and now your daughters are following in the
footsteps, which we find is Daveand I've in a few many generational families
in the wine business, and thattends to be happening definitely throughout Europe right
now. I think that many newgenerations are changing a little bit as well
(46:40):
as the wine making and the plantingand the decision what they have to plant.
You have to understand I started nearlytwenty seven years ago, and at
that time, first of all,it was very unusual that a lady or
that the woman was decided that whatwas going to be done in a vineyard.
(47:04):
Normally there were always men deciding andbringing some differences. But at that
time all the area was sleeping alittle bit. So when I started and
I said, we have to change, we have to give more quality to
that what is growing. So wehave the possibility, and the men are
(47:27):
a little bit we're a little bitshocked and said, what is this lady
going to do? Nowadays everybody's doingthat, and everybody knows that the twelting
system like Guyot is much better forquality results than the traditional pergola system,
But it was not like that twentyeight years ago. And then I said
another thing as well, that's whatCarolina mentioned it. For me, it
(47:51):
was very important to give the importanceto the states and to explain as well
to the people that these are greatcoming from a special area, from a
specially state, from a special Singervineyards, and so the wine carry the
name of the Single vineyards. Andthis is also something that my sister and
myself really want to continue doing.Is it is really vinifying the different parts
(48:15):
that we have separately and really puttingthis single state on the wine. And
so only with with the last vintagevintage twenty fifteen, for the first time,
we're law actually permitted this new mentioningof Vinyac, meaning that if you
have the official denomination of Vinya onyour label, you have to guarantee that
one hundred percent of this wine andthose grades only come from one designated vineyard.
(48:42):
So if has only a certain size, you can approduce one million bottles
out of it, right, Soit's very strict regulation on the Vineya denomination.
This is a new dennomination. Andso since the fifteen we have put
this denomination on our labels and toreally highlight it even more, to to
say and put the emphasis on thefact that this region, for example,
(49:04):
comes from the Vinea Castle ringbag andit only comes from there. And the
same thing with the giver's terminet thatonly comes from the Vinea castillas. Right,
and this is very important and andand so my sister and myself we
certainly want to continue this way andeven more and even more than even more
strict and because it is important thatpeople know and have they have the right
(49:27):
to know where the wines come from, the grades come from and then this
is what the next step was thatwe wanted to translate the passion that we
have for the vineyards also in thecellar. And it's you know, every
variety and every vineyard in a wayit needs a different way of working there
at the grades once they were atat the winery, and we wanted to
translate is also in the wine makingitself. And this is when we actually
(49:52):
started building a whole new fermentation sellerand we finished it in twenty fifteen where
we could fermentation seller that gives usthe flexibility to work differently the different parts
and vineyards that we have, andto add to adapt to those different requirements
(50:12):
of the different varieties, and hencehave very you know, renify every part
and every small parts will separately andand differently because you can do especially for
the rest the whole bunch whole veryslightly crushed and there's new imformentation seller gives
the flexibility to do all of thatworks differently the sides and the grapt varieties,
and in the end everything is donemy gravity, so that we really
(50:36):
deliver the great very softly and delicatelyinto the fermentation tanks. And all this
I would like to say all thisyou feel when you drink the wine.
When you think the wine, you'llhave the feeling that it is not just
the wine, but it is awine with the stasion, and it's a
wine with a heart, and it'sa wine done with a lot of attention
(51:01):
to it. You feel it andwhen all the details. Yeah, yeah,
but it is important I think becausewhen you feel that something is done
with a special attention, you tasteit as well. You tasted this difference
as well, and it gives youa pleasure to drink it well. I
(51:22):
think, I think you really nailedsomething very significant, both of you,
Elene and Caroline, to sum upour conversation today that the best wine is
made with passion and an eye fordetail, which you both have shared today
with us on our show. Andyou know, for anyone who has not
visited the Ultooutogy region, it reallyis quite gorgeous and there's a lot to
(51:43):
see and a lot of helpful informationon the website and for those who want
to learn more, where can ourlisteners find you on the website, on
social media, on Facebook and onTwitter. Elena Walk Winery, Absolutely the
best would be mail an get peoplecome. I know it's it's a very
long way from the States to here. But when they go to see when
(52:07):
they go to see Piedmont or theygo to see Tuscany, they have to
draw two and a half hours bycar more and they come up to Autodija
and they will see a really nicewine, nice but small wine growing area
and nice people. I think wethink so too, and we will at
(52:29):
starting with both of you. Sowe want to thank you Elena Walk and
Carolyn Walk of Elena Walk Winery forjoining us today on the Connected Table.
We think your wines are terrific andwe're so glad you shared your story with
us. Thank you so much,and I hope that all the people who
listen to this are happy to havelearned a little bit more of and about
(52:50):
Elena Like Winery. We're sure theywill be, and we really appreciate you
taking the time to call in fromAutoology and spend some time with us today
they Connected Table Live. Elena andCarolyn Walk, Thank you very much.
Folks you're listening to the Connected TableLive with Melanie Young and David Ransom.
And with that, we hope everybodyhas an insatiably delicious week and we will
(53:12):
be back with more connecting
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!