▷S3E10 "The Woman Can": Angela and Marianna of Velenosi Wine

English

Jan 23

Angela and Marianna Velenosi discuss the local wine grapes of Marche and Abruzzo, describing the history, flavors and names of white grapes like Verdicchio, Pecorino, and Trebbiano, and red grapes like Montepulciano and Lacrima. Hear some local sayings from Abruzzo, where Angela is from, and Marche, where her daughter Marianna grew up, and learn why Marianna describes the Marche region as “a gem that has not been discovered yet" in terms of tourism.

Angela struck out on her own to build her wine company in the 1980’s, despite her family not understanding her aims at the time. She and her daughter Marianna tell the story about how they have decided to work together, along with Marianna’s brother, in order to continue representing the territories of Marche and Abruzzo with their family’s wines.

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Learn more about the Velenosi family's wines at https://velenosivini.com/

Follow them on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/velenosivini/

It's our time. The woman can, in every sector, and in the wine, there is the big opportunity for the woman in the wine making, in the marketing, in the promotion. The woman in the winery has the good opportunity. Welcome to Motody Berry, the podcast about local drinks and local sayings. On your host, Rose Thomas Bannister. Today, I'm so excited to have on the show Angela Pioti Velanossi and her daughter Mariana Velanossi, two winemakers in one family who have vines in the Italian regions of Le Marche and Abruzzo. Before we start the interview, I want to let you know that Motodiberi is a listener -supported podcast. Please visit patreon .com /motodiberi to become a patron to sustain my work sharing stories a local culture through drinks and dialect. (upbeat music) Angela started her own family company in 1984 with just two wines and nine hectares of vines. Now her award -winning wines are known all around the world. She has served as a wine consortio president in Le Marquet and now also has a line of wines in the region of Abruzzo. Her daughter, Mariana, joined the company in 2019. - Angela, Mariana, welcome. - Thank you. - I'm excited to talk with you today about the local grapes of Le Marche and Abruzzo, but this is also a show about local sayings. Mariana, when we met this week at a wine lunch, your wines are delicious, by the way. You told me a saying about the city of Ascoli Piceno. - Yes, actually Ascoli Piceno is a very old town. So it was built in 1000 before Christ, so it's more ancient, older than the Roman Empire. And in Ascoli we have this saying which is "quando Ascoli era Ascoli a Roma c 'erano i pascoli". The translation is when Ascoli was already a town, in Rome there were only hills, so there was nothing. This is why actually the territory of Pichano is a really old territory with a lot of history, it's beautiful to see, to visit, even if it's not so well known. As I always say, it's a well -kept secret of Italy, because it has history, it has everything, mountains, sea, lakes, beaches, and countryside, but people don't know about it, so it's like a gem which is not discovered yet. Can you tell us a little more about where Le Marche is located on the map. Le Marche is a region which is located in central Italy on the east coast, so we face the Adriatic Sea, Croatia, just to give you an idea. We are on the opposite coast compared to Tuscany or Rome, which are on the west. Le Marche and then above we have Abruzzo, because actually we have two wineries today, so one in Ascoli Piceno, which is in the south part of the region of Le Marche, and proppe, which is the abruzzo winery, which is located in the north part of abruzzo. So actually the two wineries are really close to each other. And this is why we called the second winery the one in abruzzo proppe, because in latin it means close to, close by, so we wanted to take homage to the closeness, not only in terms of distance, but also in terms of a Ruth, because actually my mom, she's from Abruzzo. So for us was a normal to starting producing also the Abruzzo wines. - Do you have a modo di dire from Abruzzo to tell us? - In Abruzzo, c 'è un altro dialetto? - Si. - Okay. La strada, la via, si dice Rua, comei Francesi, la Rua. - Do you wanna translate for your mom? - Yes, actually the dialect is very different from Marche to Abruzzo, even if you are so close, you know, that in Italy, even from one town to the other, you change dialect. In Abruzzo, for example, the street, the road, in Italian, normally the word is strada, but in Abruzzo, they say la rua. La rua. La rua. I love this. This is great. So, Angela, many of the stories I hear in Italy are of a winemaking family that goes back many generations, but you started your own company in the '80s. What was that like for you? - When I started, I was 20 and my house bandercole, 25, very young, but hard work, a big passion. Now we are all the best company in Italy. When we started, we had no money, we had no f***ing money. perché "piceno" è un po' nuova area for wine. Quando abbiamo iniziato, inizio con 9 canti sociali cooperativi e uno, due, tre produttori privati. Ma un grande... in italiano si when you are young and you think that you can do whatever you want. Yes, big inconscienza, but when you are young, you are like a forest camp. You run, run every day. You don't have the time to think the problem. You run one morning, you wake up and say, This is the Velenosi. Velenosi now is 106 acres in the property, 2 .5 million bottles selling the world, 52, 53 countries where we export the wine. You say, "Wow, now Velenosi is this?" Yeah, now - What is this? - You just started with the two wines, that's amazing. Was this a big surprise to your family, this course in your life to become a winemaker? - My family doesn't support me and my husband, but also them after 25 years remains surprise. - Still? - Yeah. (speaking in Loro non avrebbero scommesso su di loro, non avrebbero puntato su di noi. La mia famiglia di mamma non supporta il vino. Non pensavano che sia il mio lavoro. Quindi cosa si dice è che non hanno messo nel vino. Ma oggi si realizza che il mio mamma e il mio padre hanno costruito in 40 anni. E anche per loro è una price. Yeah, Mariana, you told me a story about your grandfather seeing your mom on TV. As I was saying, since they did not support my parents with the winery, they did not understand, especially my mom, because a woman, four years ago, in a countryside in the central part of Italy, which is a really rural part, was not usual to see a woman going around the world leaving the children at home with the father it was something really unusual so my grandfather wasn't okay with that and he stopped talking with my mom for several years but one day there is in Italy a big fair called Vinitali and during the Vinitali my mom did an interview with the Raiuno which is the national news and then she left she she traveled to Australia and when she arrived to Australia, she found a message on the phone of my grandfather because my grandfather saw the interview and he realized what she was doing. And that it was not just for fun, but it was to build something for the territory and for the family itself. So from that moment on, they realized what she was doing. - That's great. I'm glad that you were recognized. And I ask this question because I feel like in many families around the world, but certainly in Italy sometimes it seems like there's this destiny or this idea for which path the children should take. I'm glad that you had the courage and the vision to create something new in Le Marquet. So what was it like for you? You did grow up in a winemaking family. Was this your vision for your future? Did you start learning a lot about wine when you were very young? This is true. I mean, me and my brother, we really grow up in the vineyards. While our friends were playing in the fields, we were playing in the vineyards. We grow up in the cellar as well, because every summer, we spent all the time in the winery seeing, you know, the production, even if we could not help, actually. We did grow up in the winery, but this is a funny story. Both me and my brother, we knew that we wanted to work in the wine business, but at the beginning we were not sure that we wanted to work with the family. So both of us, we did two different careers. After my study, I started working for a French company, and I went there for an internship and stayed for three years. While my brother, he did a different career, so he studied winemaking, and he did a PhD in winemaking techniques specialized on the east. And it was a researcher in wine, so he worked for the public center of Italian public center for researching in winemaker. And he also did a research with the University of Burgundy. At that moment, it was 2018 -2019, I guess my mom thought that we didn't want to go back to the winery, even if we were in the wine business. But one day I was in Geneva because I lived in Geneva and I realized that I missed something in my life So I wanted to go back home and to try you know to work with family and to to see if it was okay So I called my mom one day and she and I said oh mom What do you think if I come back and we try to work together big surprise for me? She was really shocked. She didn't expect that. What is the problem? Are you okay? She lived a boyfriend. Yeah, I had to leave a lot of things. I mean, a work I liked, a really good company that wanted to invest in me. I also left my boyfriend because, you know, when you decide to move. And about all the big money, big salary. And when she called me to come back in Velenosi winery, She thought, "I want the same salary." Oh, Mariana. (laughing) Valenosi is another company. But salary, house, housekeeping, and more and more the car. She's expensive. - Has she been a good return on your investment? Does she help make money for Valenosi? The best investment I had. The best ROI. How do you enjoy working together? It wasn't... Not the first time. No. Not the first time. The first year was really tough because she has a really strong character. I have a different personality and at the beginning it wasn't easy even because we didn't know so much each other because she spent all her life traveling, I spent 10 years abroad for studying and working, so actually we didn't really know each other, so it was like getting to know each other in adult time. It's not the same as you grow up with a person, especially she thought that I might have the same attitudes that I did not have. So the first year was quite tough. But also thanks to the people in the winery that they realized, you know, these differences between us, so they helped us a lot. We found out the way to work together and today, I mean, we have fun. Now is the best time together, best work in the Bellinoci, but in the first time we have different characters. I am strong, I don't cry. Mariana cries every moment. I am a animal, Mariana is sensible, sensitive, completely different and the first years I needed to understand our difference, but after, good, good, good, good choice. And it was the same also with my brother because when I went back to the winery in 2019, after a few months, my brother decided to come back as well. That we didn't expect neither. Today we work all the three of us together and it goes really well. Yeah, that's beautiful. I'm glad you were able to return and find this. And so now you all work together to tell the story of your territory. So maybe we can talk a little bit about the different wine grapes of Le Marquet and a a little bit abruzzo. I really like the white grapes. If we talk about Marque, so let's start with the Marque grapes, probably the most well -known grape is Verdicchio. Verdicchio is the king of the grapes of the region, well -known all around the world, the most awarded, but one of the most awarded actually in Italy, not only in the Marque. People know about Verdicchio, but sometimes they don't know where it comes from because they they have tasted Verdicchio, you can find Verdicchio in almost every restaurant in New York, but they don't know where it comes from and it comes from only from Le Marche. So Verdicchio is a real typical indigenous grape of Le Marche region. Today we also have another grape, which is the pecorino, but pecorino is a more recent grape variety because it was rediscovered 30 years ago. It was already in the territory, it has a wild grape, but it wasn't really used. So it wasn't produced 100%. - You told me this name for like a field blend. What was the name for the old white blend? - Falerio. - Falerio. - Actually Falerio is one of the oldest appellation of Italy. - Falerio takes the name of the street, Roman street. Faleriense, Faleria. - Yeah, so it was the road that goes to Rome because they used to take this wine, these grapes, through this road and so they give to the Appalachian Fallerio. So actually it's a really old Appalachian and the Fallerio normally is produced, it's a blend, produced with Pasterina, Pecorino, Trebbiano, different grapes from the region of Le Marche. So 30 years ago we only had Verdicchio and Fallerio. Pecorino was rediscovered and the producers of Marche, but also of Abruzzo, started to implant this new clone of Pecorino. And today in the only DOCG of Pecorino we have is in Ofida, which is really close to Ascoli Piceno, where we are, and the DOCG is born in 2011. Pecorino is a grape that is growing a lot in notoriety all around the world and has some amazing characteristics, such as Verdicchio, which are the versatility, the longevity, so they're two important grapes today. Can you talk a little bit about how the the wines usually taste? Yeah, so they're really different. The Verdicchio has the name, says, because Verdicchio comes from verde, which means green, the color. Not only because the color of the skin is really greenish, but also because of the notes of the wine so you will find these greenish notes like a green apple, ané, green pepper, green pepper but what is really typical of Verdicchio the Castelli di Esi is the the feeling of like an almond a little bit bitter after taste this is the typical DNA of a Verdicchio there are two appellations Castelli di Esi and Matelica. Matelica is a very small area not too far the sea. While the pecorino actually is completely different, it's a more structured white wine that goes more to the fruity part, peach, apple, but more crunchy. More exotic fruit. Sometimes, especially with the hot vintages, we are realizing that the pecorino, the Indio CG areas, which is different compared to the pecorino you can find in other places, is Going more to the exotic notes. I get some melons, some green melon, like a honeydew melon. Or even like if you go to a Japanese restaurant, a sushi restaurant in New York, they give you these melon candies at the end of the meal. And that always makes me think of pecorino. - Passion fruit, a lot of passion fruit. - Passion fruit is wonderful. I just recently learned this wonderful word, tramsumanza. Why is it called pecorillo? And what is the tramsumanza? - The tramsumanza, actually, it's a really old tradition where the shepherd took the sheep all the way from the up and nine. The up and nine is the big mountain chain that we have in Italy that goes along all Italy. So it starts from the north and it goes until the south of Italy. It's like a spine. So the shepherd took the sheep from the north to the south during summer time. May, June. They started this transumanza. It's like a long trip, but with the sheep. And when they passed by the Marque region, they noticed that the sheep started to eat the pecorino grapes, which was really unusual, because sheep normally eat grass, not grapes. The shepherd and the people of the villages Nearby started to call this white grape "pecorino" because of the "pecorra", the sheep. Today it's easy to remember because of the "pecorino" cheese. Everybody knows the "pecorino" cheese. It's an amazing grape to work with. And I'm asking this question with regard to the name of the grape "pecorino". So that's wonderful. Now there's another, maybe not quite has rediscovered grape but a rare red grape that I love which is lacrima. Oh yes, yeah, can you tell us a little bit about lacrima? Lacrima is a very unique grapes. It's a small area, lacrima di morro d 'alba. Some people say morro d 'alba is in piedmont. No, it's a village in the market region. When we have the best harvest, the best vintage, all producers can produce in totally. the same flower, the same notes of the white wine. Violet, roses. Remain with the close eyes and when you test the wine in the nose, you feel the white wine. When you drink, you remain surprised. Wow, it's a red wine. Acidity, Tannin is a very nice wine. The wine for the young people, for the women, the wine for the fat food, like salumi, like sausage, like eggs, is a very, very nice wine. For aperitif, it's a surprise wine. When I stay in the testing, the people say, "What is this? "Wow! I call the lacrima 'wow' wine." And why is it called lacrima? Lacrima actually in Italian means 'tear' because the skin of the grape is so thin that when it passes, even of one day, the maturation, the skin opens itself and there is a drop of liquid that pops out. So if you go in the vineyard in that moment, you have like the impression that the vineyard is that the vineyard is crying, then this is why it's hard to work with the lacryma because we have really to pay attention to the maturation phase. So it's a really sensitive and sensible. Also the vines doesn't have the long life. The vineyard can have the 25 -30 years, not too much. So it takes a lot of devotion to maintain the biodiversity even when some of the grapes or vines are not as easy to take care of. So thank you for making sure that we still have la crema and we still have pecorino and we are rediscovering these things because I think they're beautiful. So we started with more the rare red grape, but of course, multi -pochiano and with a bit of San Giovese is what I'm most familiar with in Le Marque, but also in in Abruzzo, Montepulciano is kind of the red and the white is Trebbiano d 'Abruzzo, no? So maybe we could talk a little bit about those grapes. When we talk about Abruzzo, definitely we have to talk about Montepulciano. Montepulciano is one of the most produced red wine of Italy. Speaking about numbers, only of Montepulciano, Italy produces three million hectoliters of wine, so it's one of the most well -known wines of Italy. But Montepulciano can be an amazing grape. Where we produce, we produce Montepulciano in the north part of the region, which actually is a really small portion of the total production of Montepulciano. We produce Montepulciano in the north part of the region of Abruzzo, so in Colline d 'Ramane, which is a small portion of the total production of Montepulciano, because 90 % of the Montepulciano grape is produced in the Pescara in Chieti area, which is the center, center south of the region of Abruzzo, while only 10 % is produced in the north part, so in the province of Teramo. In that part we also have an important DOCG of Montepulciano, Colline Teramane, DOCG. You know, the Italian appellation DOCG is the most important, it's most difficult to produce because it requires to follow a lot of rules that goes from the vineyard like the rentment per hectare, the yield per hectare, and to the seller, so for example the alcohol level or the aging process, but the result is that we can have the best expression of the Montepulciano d 'Abruzzo. Regarding terbiano, I guess I mean terbiano, everybody knows Trebbiano. It's one of the most popular grape in Italy because it has been planted all over Italy actually in the old times. Because Trebbiano... If you think Lugana and Suave is the same family. It comes from the same family. So actually you can find Trebbiano all over Italy but with different names as my mom was saying Lugana, Suave, so they're all part of the same family of Trebbiano, but what we have in Abruzzo, it's a specific clone called Trebbiano d 'Abruzzo, but Trebbiano was so used because it's a generous grape variety, so back to 18, 90 years ago they wanted to plant Trebbiano because Trebbiano had an important helper actor, so planting Trebbiano was a sure value, you know, like cash money. But today we interpret Trebbiano with a different point of view because we want to valorize the typical grape of Trebbiano d 'Abruzzo. So as far as Montipolziano, I always like to mention there is another episode about the San Giovese from the town of Montipolziano. That wine is also referred to as Montipolziano, but we're talking here about the grape, which makes a lovely dark fruited delicious and wine that can be very approachable but also very elegant. Your red wines have won a lot of awards and I think they're very delicious. I was really excited to taste them this week. Thank you so much for being with us today. Is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know about Le Marche, about the wines, about life, anything? Le Marche is the unique region with the plural name Le Marche. you can spend the time for the holiday. But Lemarque is the region with the beautiful mountain, Apennino mountain. There is the beautiful sea, Adriatic sea, the beautiful hill. All the region is 70 % is hill, lake, rivers, but is the religion because we have Loreto, Madonna di Loreto, Madonna Black the Loretto is a very beautiful region where the people can spend the time, good time, and can drink wonderful wine. Verdicchio, pecorino, and monte pulciano. Yes, that's great. I visited another city with a black Madonna in Calabria, that's really interesting. Oh, there's one more wine that I've never seen elsewhere in Italy, the wine with the cherries. Ah, le vichole. Yeah, is that Le Marquet's specialty? Yes, actually, it's a really old recipe that comes from the Middle Ages because, you know, in the Middle Ages, wine techniques, wine making was not so like it is today. I mean, so they used to blend wine with the syrups. In this way, they can make the wine last longer. So, it was the syrup since it has a sugar is like an anti -oxidation for the wine. When we wanted to produce a dessert wine, we wanted to take back a really old recipe from Middle Ages, and we decided to blend the lacrima, so this special grape from Marche, with a cherry syrup, wild cherry syrup that comes from the region of Le that are called visciole. - Is it like a marina? - Yeah, they're the same, the same type. - I haven't tasted your version of this. I've had another one and I thought it was so charming and delicious. So if someone tells you, "Do you want to try this drink of wine and cherries "from Le Marche?" Say yes. (upbeat music) Thank And the podcast is called "Modo di Bere Italiano." But I want to ask you, how do you see Angela things being different? There are many more women working in wineries today. How have things changed and what's your opinion? You've changed it, right? - I started working in the wine business in the last 10 years. And I can say that there is no problem for women working in this sector in this business today. So I can just speak about what I see today. And today there are no doors closed for a woman. On the opposite side, there is new opportunities that we can exploit because we are women. There are a lot of associations, organizations of women in wine. I don't see any limit today, but I guess 40 years ago. It's our time for the woman. It's our time. The woman can, in every sector, and in the wine, there is the big opportunity for the woman in the wine making, in the marketing, in the promotion. The woman in the winery has the good opportunity. Bravo, brava, thank you for your work, thank you for your wines, and thank you for being with us today. - Thank you for giving us the voice, our region, our company, and at the woman. - Yes, I hope to visit one day. I hope that you all consider Le Marquet as a place to visit, a place to go on vacation, and to all of our listeners, wherever you go, and whatever you like to drink, always remember to enjoy your life and to never stop learning. Support us on Patreon. Grab the newsletter at Motodiberi .com and subscribe to the YouTube channel at Motodiberi to watch the travel show Motodiberi TV. Music for the show was composed by Arcilia Prosperi for the band Oh, purchase their music at the link in the notes.