The Authors of The Great Atlas of Italian Wines – Alessandro Avataneo and Vittorio Manganelli join Maria to discuss incredible Italian wines of the season
Clarissa Burt returns to the podcast to discuss her new book – the Self-Esteem Regime as well as plenty of other interesting topics!
Enter, “The Maria Liberati Show,” based on her travels, as well as her Gourmand World Award-winning book series, “The Basic Art of Italian Cooking,” and “The Basic Art of…” Find out more on https://www.marialiberati.com
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[Music] welcome to the Maria Liberati show where food meets art travel and life so what does food mean to you hey this is Maria Liberati and thank you for joining me today and my guests today are two of Italy’s top wine critics and one is also a wine journalist and actually a film producer as well and they are the authors of a book called The Big atlas of Italian wines so they’re going to tell us everything you’d love to know about Italian wines and since we’re devoting the topic to Italian wines I thought I would bring up some important facts about Italian wines so Italy is the world’s largest wine producer they produce more wine than any other country with about 39,380 years the country’s climate is perfect for viticulture and wine had already become a part of the the Italian Everyday Life by the time the Greeks first stepped foot in southern Italy the quality levels of Italian wine are kept exceptionally High because Italians really take pride in their grape cultivation and wine production and as a result 2/3 of the country’s wine is of either D or igp both labels promise a bottle of wine that is auth authentic and filled with quality there’s a great variety to choose from so Italy has an extensive grape variety with a country growing and using over let’s see what did my guess say something like over a thousand types of grapes to produce The Eclectic range of wines that they do today Italy’s top three grapes in terms of production Levels by the regions are sanoi trebbiano and montiano Veno is home to one of Italy’s most popular and romantic tourist destinations and Venice is also the largest wine producing region in the country Italian wine and pasta are a perfect match what could be more Italian then a glass of wine and a great bowl of pasta so the Italian rule of thumb um although it’s kind of changing but the Italian rule of thumb has always been for the food and wine pairings it’s pretty simple red for red white for white so a red wine with a red sauce white wine with a white sauce the Italian wine scene is composed of about 310,000 farms and just over 45,000 wine making companies wow 45,00 th wine making companies so stay with me as we hear from our two wine experts and they are top wine critics in Italy stay with me and my special guest today is alesandro atino did I say that correct aatan aat aatan and hi hi Maria hi and Alexandro is you know we had the other writer on Victorio manganelli of the great atlas of wine in Italy and alesandro is the other Raider he’s but he’s also a filmmaker and he’s uh done some films about wine so we’re gonna talk to alesandro today uh he has some very interesting things to tell us and um alesandro thank you for being here today thank you for having me it’s a it’s a great pleasure to be here with you and the book is the the big atlas of Italian wines or Grande Atlanta deino Italian italio I have it here you know three kilograms three kilos oh my goodness two kilos yes so it’s in English and Italian and um Alexandre tell us about theil you were telling us so is this film is this a new film the film you were talking about no actually that that was my first feature film a tale of the hills I started when I was 22 years old and at that time I had these two great teachers one is Victorio manganelli one of the best wine critics in Italy and it’s the best critic of Baro area and the other was Renato dominici who was one of the greatest gastronomer in Italy uh in the 80s and in the ’90s so he he taught me everything about food and that led me to write the other book kitchen run which is a collection of Stories of the 70 great food uh um food thinkers and gastronomer and cooks and confectioners all over the world and Michelin star restaurants all over the world but about wine uh going back to your question the first feature film was a tale of the hills and it was the story of the wine civilization of Lang particularly from the perspective of a young wine maker who was a rising stars in the 90s his name was Mato Cora and unfortunately he passed away in a terrible accident but it’s also a beautiful Story of Friendship because after his death all his friends his wife together with the producer of the area they helped orella his wife to to get along and to keep making wine and it he made the beautiful barbaras and bolos and so that was my my first feature film and then I kept traveling with the University of uh gastronomic Sciences making documentaries about food and wine and then I developed this friendship with Victorio and we tasted over the years thousands of wine together and we built our friendship and our knowledge of wine and I learned everything from him and so we were uh we wrote the first edition of The Atlas in 2015 and then meeting with mondadori and ritoli which is a wonderful publisher they allowed us to make this big uh book which is the ultimate collection of the wines that we recommend yes yes yes and I should mention not everyone knows that there is a university it’s in pamon right the the gastronomic university exactly it’s the University of gastronomic Sciences of poeno he it was founded by Carlo petrini by the slow food movement oh yes and uh it’s uh 20 years ago exactly in these days so I used to work there and I sometimes I I teach there also today and it’s a beautiful place with people coming from all over the world to study gastronomic Sciences to study Gastronomy as a complex science that brings within anthropology economics sociology all these beautiful subject that inspire people and you can use Gastronomy actually to change the mindset of people and to change the world it’s a it’s a beautiful place to be yeah yes very and and that is how you met vorio manganelli and that’s how you got together into the book right exactly Victorio he used to be the director of older libraries in Torino and then he had this strong passion about wine he was one of the founders of The Gua vinalia the wine guide in Italy with gamber Ros and L food so he used on that guide for 20 years and then he was the first director of the University I met him there uh and then we developed this friendship over the years years and almost two decades so it’s it’s a beautiful friendship and with Victoria we shared so many uh evenings tasting wines you know always blind tastings that’s our favorite game to cover the bottles and to smell and try to guess where the wine comes from and that was a big big training for us to to understand and discover this collection of amazing Italian wines yes so you can tell the reion that the wine comes from by The Taste how you know yes sometimes sometimes we can tell the the area and then we can tell the grape and sometimes when we are lucky or we remember something Victoria is amazing but we have amazing friends that sometimes they say okay this is a 99 Baro from elar and that’s it so it’s like it’s it’s kind of magic it’s huge database of memories together you know because wine it consolidates memories in your in your mind and remember the smell you know the smell is the the most powerful sense like PR used to say you know with the Maden when you smell something you immediately uh go back to that memory and so [Music] you know wine a fados they always fix their memories they put their memories in the database that smell and that scent that scent yes wine so tell us are there any wines that are um I would say wines from grapes that maybe are from the past that they’re bringing back I know pekino right they brought that back a while is from Mar area yes the market Mark is a beautiful region where I work a lot there is a lot of potential in that area because you can imagine tasan but more authentic even more to to explore more wild uh and it’s peculiar is the region from where leopardi our greatest poet from yes yes so Mar wines are really um how can I say authentic we love we love Verio we think that Vero is one of the best white grapes of Italy and that’s from larque larque they’re doing ridiculous from Mar and but I understand that you like pina and also pasina you know they have oh pasina yes pasina oh yes pasina and Pino lovely white grapes so Italy is the the country with the the highest number of a ous Grapes of in the world we have in the atlas I think something like 1,000 grapes something like that wow 1,000 types of grapes yes in France for example they use around 200 grapes Variety in Italy we use more than 1,000 so there is a huge biodiversity of people and grapes as well an amazing diversity of wines from Vala in the north to Sardinia and Sicily in the South yes yes so tell us about I know people are always asking about wines of Tuscany what are the wines in Tuscany yes because because people in the United States the love tus tus of Italy you know it’s from the movies it’s their memories when they travel they go to F wine you know there are some amazing wines out of San grape you have three beautiful wines V mono they are made out of the same grape which is San yes but you have also other region with amazing grapes that have this potential for example Alano in the South Has the strength the power power and the structor of great nebiolo great San and you can find it in Campana you can find it in basilicata and on the other side of the of Italy in Mar region you have Monte Pano which is a very powerful red grape so my advice my advice is let’s go travel to Italy and discover the little and unknown region with their specific grapes yes you’re absolutely right I think that is a better idea than going to where everybody knows you know that’s famous Tuscany or it’s better to go to the little you know I’m from I lived in a Bruto for many years my family was from there so I know thereo yes yes and I just was I asked vorio the difference between what is the difference between Monto Pano duto and the montio in Tuscany because people in America they don’t know that you know it’s very confusing you know system so monteano in tasan is a place and V monano is made of San yes while monteano duto is a great variety and you can find beautiful monteano Wines in abuto and in Mar area as well yes yes yes so my advice is to travel and discover Italy through wine and when you cannot come to Italy drink our wines and you will travel with your mind and memories to it yes yes definitely definitely so he he was telling us and I know when I was in Tuscany they had a wine called am I pronouncing it correctly sasaya of course that’s the most famous wine Italian wine in the US everybody wants to drink Sanaya and it’s a great wine it’s elegant it has this International appeal uh nobody can say sasay is not good sasay is always amazing but that’s that’s a wine that conveys an idea of design it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a w it’s an intellectual wine it makes you feel good but it doesn’t make you think it doesn’t talk to you uh it’s a statement you know symbol sasaya yes yes my advice is okay drink sasaya when you can afford it but then you have other hundreds of amazing wines that you have to try depending on the right situation with two people I would advise a certain type of wine if you with your loved one I would advise other type of wine if for your birthday I would advise other wine so the right wine depends on the situation on how you feel what you feel feel like to drink tonight and and sasaya is produced in is it produced in TAS right produc in bulgary bulgary is this small area on the coast of the Teran sea in tasan yes oh yes dry dry area and it was an amazing achievement of these producers to create from nothing such amazing wines importing the French grapes inas so you can feel the Elegance of the French grapes and you can feel the Tero of tasani together in a perfect B so that’s why it’s so expens it’s very expensive it’s one of really expensive I think it’s $300 and in the restaurant you can find it at 600 700 yes yes and there are so many like you said W really good wines that you can find in small regions that are very good one of my favorite wines from pamon Pont is bretto d That’s my one of my like I like I like bretto well you know why we we have that for celebrate you know for birthdays for New Year’s Eve perfect it’s an alternative to Moscato yes yes ah yes yes it’s a red alternative did you try Gino it’s one of my favorite noino g r i g n o l i n o grolo no used to be the grape of the kings in the Middle Ages it it used to be more important than biolo and now it has been rediscovered and it’s a daily wine it’s very dry Pleasant it’s a a wine for the uh hot afternoon something like that you know yes so it’s refreshing lighter refreshing in the best version then you have some bad versions so you have the atlas to to get the right list of to get the right list of where it’s produced wine of course yes yes that’s wonderful um Alexandro thank you so much we’re almost out of time thank you so much for being here um do you have a website do you have any films coming up that we can look for not at the moment but I have a website because I also I also have uh a company of my ex students who are writers about film art and poetry and the the platform is called hyper critic hyper critic uh yes because we are not just wine critics we are also art critics literature critics F critics and so this platform is called hyper critic and is coming also to the US actually a half of our readers are from the us so we are proud of that and you can you can find a collection of the best movies poems books and art pieces that you can fill your life with beauty and then if you read the atlas you can drink together can drink together with the yes thank you so much and please um come back next time you have any other projects it was very interesting I loved having you on thank you Maria Sizzle in the kitchen with me and my Gourmand world awardwinning book series the basic art of Italian cooking Unleash Your Inner chef and transform your meals into Italian master pieces get your copy today of the basic art of Italian cooking holidays and special occasions the basic art of Italian cooking Da Vinci style and the basic art of Italian cooking and taste the passion of Italy you can get your copies on amazon.com at Maria Liberati dcom at artof Living Prem media.com on Kindle and anywhere books are sold and my special guest today is too magelli yes he is well he’s a somier he’s a wine expert and he’s also one of the writers of this wonderful new really a big book it’s uh it’s the big atlas of Italian wine so there you can find out everything you need to know know about Italian wines and um vorio is going to tell us about a little bit about Italian wines you know maybe he can recommend some good ones tell us about some that people may not be familiar with so vorio oh and voro is in Torin today so we’re going to Torin Italy to Torino vorio child thank you so much for being here thank you thank you so yes how did you get the idea to get the book yeah oh there’s the book of Grande Atlanta deino Italiana the big atlas of Italian wines it’s very big as you can see it is very big very big how did you I know you wrote the book with alesandro also is that correct so you both wrote how did you get the idea to write this book because there are not so many books about the Italian why yeah and we decided to have a very long and uh travel Reon for region appellation for appellation uh venal from venal because in the world we have a lot of famous wine yes every every lover no sasaya for example or some Brun or so on but uh in Italy we have a lot of different ones so we have decided to talk uh maybe about the 200 most important appellations from Baro to Etna on the volcano in the Sicily the most European High volcano where they now for example are going to realize very very interesting ones 20 years ago it wasn’t in this way but now for example Etna or bulgary bulgary is now famous because of sasaya of course but uh 30 years ago bulgary didn’t exist it was a very very little little reality of the wine in Italy now and we have so this travel a trip from uh pedmont Val and the little but really interesting Vala to to the Sicily and to the Isle of Sardinia and this is what way and we decided to made uh the book uh also in English and there is recently published from roli International uh the great atlas of Italian Italian wine um vorio can you I know what sasaya is and you know what it is but my a lot of people in America don’t really know what that is what type of wine or can you tell us about that wine I can tell about uh sasaya SAS ah for example yes yes H we we decided to to to make it easier to publish also the most important labels of Italian wines region for re from region may be Pont a lot of people knows uh Baron fortino maybe it’s really famous or Bruno jaosa barbaresco and Baro are very famous in the United States too for example but we have a lot of other very important uh the idea is to uh make easy to find the good Italian producers in Italy we have 40,000 different produces o wine a lot 40,000 45,000 we here put uh just the name of 1,500 so uh we have a a a choice a very strong choice of the best of quality mhm and to make easier to understand how Italian wines are if you don’t know for example maybe you don’t know barara or orto in PID bond for example or Primitivo in aulia I don’t know we have decided to make a very very simple uh figure where you can find the most important particularity the personality of single one is Barbara very acid or not doletto is uh in in if you think to doletto dalba is famous Al so uh is stronger or or easier is more alcoholic from when when you speak about barbar so we have what is is the different from kti classic and now is very not just now but is always better is going very very uh very well in the world uh from Brunello de monino there are differences of course and so we can try to describe bar from barbaresco are two wines very similar they are made fromo both uh but uh there are little differences between this two kind of one and so we can try to explain and make it easy to understand yes yes very good can you tell people the difference between montiano duto and montiano from Toscano yes I know what the difference is but tell people because many people don’t understand that they are two different wines yes yes but uh mono is made with Monte Pano grape very strong very important tenic uh Rich of alcohol and it’s uh a a Vine that you can find in abuto in AIA to sometimes in in the central Italy being monano is completely different because it’s made with San so the vine of kti and Brunello de monino completely different and it’s not so stronger uh and San lead with a a strong acidity that monteano duto doesn’t have for for make an example so uh the name is uh horrible and every five years there is a problem with courts lawyers and so on why you say mtip V noo is a very very good uh expression of San is really important and strong but made with a a little uh less acidity more more full in your mouth and it’s another kind yes exactly thank you yes many people always are confused I know about the difference wonderful vorio thank you so much for being here so people can find the book The Great atlas of Italian wines on Amazon I know ritoli is the publisher course and alesandro will be talking to me uh soon today so we we will have alisandra on also later yes yes later today yes yes yes great well thank you so much for being here vitorio thank you thank you when you need something about Italian on I know yes I will def we will definitely be talking to you again thank you so much thank you than you shout out thanks for listening to the Maria Liberati show and thanks for being a part of it and hoping that you learn something today from our special guests top wine critics authors of the book The Big atlas of Italian wine and as always special thanks to my producer Britain Roselle and you can find me at Maria Liberati dcom on Facebook at Chef Maria Liberati on Instagram at Maria Liberati on Pinterest at Maria Liberati on Twitter at Maria Liberati on Vimeo you can find videos of many of our podcasts on Maria Liberati and the YouTube channel is the Maria Liberati show and there you can also find many um videos of some of the podcasts that we’ve done and you can also find my Gourmand world awardwinning book series where you you’ll find lots of recipes to pair with Italian wines you can find the book series on Amazon on Kindle and at the Publishers website artof living pram media.com and on my website Maria Liberati and really anywhere books are sold and until next week PE peace love and pasta [Music]