An Evening of Tedeschi Wines with Sabrina Tedeschi

DrinkManila was invited by AWC Philippines to attend a wine tasting hosted by Sabrina Tedeschi, who runs the Tedeschi Winery with her sister Antonietta and her brother Riccardo. She’s in charge of international sales and marketing; Antonietta manages finance and domestic sales; and Riccardo is the winemaker and producer. The tasting was in La Sala de Cata (The Tasting Room) at Txanton, the best place in the metro to drink wine accompanied with thinly sliced jamon. Though Txanton GM Besay Gonzalez was quick to note that it was not a formal wine pairing, the Spanish tapas and assorted small plates made the powerful and elegant Tedeschi wines even more enjoyable.

The family-run Tedeschi Winery has produced wine in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy for over four centuries. In 1964, Sabrina Tedeschi’s father Lorenzo (the owner of the winery) foresaw the high potential of grapes in the area and began to vinify and bottle separately. He put the name of the vineyard on the labels, created a cru for the region, and eventually became one of the first cru producers in the country. Today, the winery uses innovative production methods to enhance the quality of its vineyards while staying true to the traditions, territory, and local grape varieties of the Valpolicella Classica region.

The evening started with a glass of Tedeschi Capitel Tenda Soave DOC Clasico 2014, a fresh and fruity dry white wine produced from 100% garganega grapes from the hills of the DOC Soave area, the city from which the wine derives its name. Sabrina explained that the grapes grow in volcanic clay, which adds to the minerality of the wine. Since the Soave pairs well with seafood it was served with gambas rebozadas.

After the crisp and lively Soave, we moved on to the red wines. First up were the 2013 and 2010 Tedeschi Corasco, named after its blend of grapes: 75 percent Corvina from Valpolicella, 5 percent Raboso from Oderzo, and 20 percent Refosco from Aquileia. (Because some of the grapes are from other regions this wine is not a Valpolicella but an IGT Delle Venezie.) The grapes are raisin-dried for one month and lose up to 10 percent of their weight before crushing (a similar but shorter version of the process of making Amarone, in which the grapes are typically dried for three to four months). The first glass of Corasco we tried was the 2013 vintage. Sabrina explained that this was a colder vintage compared to 2010, which she said was “more alcoholic in the mouth.” The Corasco 2010 palate was intense with hints of dark berries and pepper, while the Corasco 2013 was lighter-bodied.

Maternigo 2011 is the first vintage from Tedeschi’s recently acquired Maternigo (Motherland) Estate. The soil and the hills are similar to the grapes in the Valpolicella Classica area, but because of the mix of limestone with a different kind of clay, the vines produce a lower volume of grapes with a higher quality. Rich, fresh, with well-balanced structure, the Maternigo was both fruity and spicy. “2011 is more dry than 2012,” explained Sabrina. “2012 is a little more smooth.” This Valpolicella Superiore has been said to drink more like an Amarone, even if the grapes are not dried at all.

The next wine was one that the group was the most excited to try: the Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella DOC 2011. According to Sabrina, the grapes from this wine (equal parts Corvina, Cordinone, and Rondinella, plus Rosignola, Oseleta, Negrara, and Dindarella) came from different vineyards in the hills of Valpolicella in Mezzaine and Tregnago. The different origins of the grapes from the hillside areas of Valpolicella allows Tedeschi to produce a well-balanced wine with good structure.

Because the soils on the hillside vineyards are nutrient-poor, the vine roots of the grapes have to dig deep for water and sustenance, resulting in lower yields of high-quality, small but concentrated berries that are full of flavor. Not all grapes are ideal for Amarone, so the small bunches must be carefully hand-selected. The grapes are dried in September for four months in plastic crates, a process called appassimento. As the grapes shrivel and lose 40 to 50 percent of their weight, the sugar and flavors intensify. After four months of drying, the grapes are slowly fermented and crushed, and are then aged in Slavonian oak barrels for three years before spending another year bottled.

Though Amarone is the most well known wine from the Veneto region, that hasn’t always been the case. “When my father decided to change the style of the company, Amarone wasn’t so famous,” said Sabrina. “Valpolicella became more popular in the 1990s. In the past you talked about Recioto and then Valpolicella wines. Amarone is a mistake.” She told us the story of the winemaker who was producing Recioto (a sweet wine made of the same grapes) but forgot a barrel of it in the winery. The yeast fermented all of the sugar of the dessert wine into alcohol. When he tasted the wine, he said, “It’s not sweet, it’s bitter.” (Amarone means “the big bitter.”) The rich, dry wine tasted good, and more winemakers started to produce Amarone. Amarone replaced Recioto and today Recioto production is very niche.

Because Amarone is such a bold, rich wine, it can be a challenge to find food that works with its intense flavors of dried dark fruit and its jammy texture. “More complex in price, more complex in matching, more complex for the occasion,” was Sabrina’s description, noting that many of her Asian customers pair it with medium-spicy food. We had a hearty medium-rare US striploin, which had the heft to match the Amarone’s weight on the palate.

The tasting ended with a Grappa di Amarone that cut the richness of a lush cream cheese dessert with raisins and PX wine. In the Valpolicella region, Grappa is a by-product of the wine marc of Amarone della Valpolicella raisin-dried from some of the same grapes. At this point in the evening there was much more tasting and talking than teaching going on, and Sabrina joked, “After drinking so much wine, do you now speak Italian?” Though it’s hard to say if anyone’s language skills had improved by the end of the evening, we all agreed that the wine had taken our senses on a trip through the hillside of the Veneto region—a place that we planned to revisit time and time again.

Tedeschi Winery’s Sabrina Tedeschi on the Tedeschi Style, Valpolicella in Asia, and Growing Up in a Wine Family

Sabrina Tedeschi is in charge of marketing and international sales for the family-run Tedeschi winery, which means she’s always on the road talking to people about wine. She hosted a series of wine dinners and tastings during a recent trip to Thailand and the Philippines. Drink Manila asked her about what it was like to grow up in the family wine business and her thoughts on the future of Valpolicella in the Asian market.

How did growing up in the wine industry influence you?

My family has been in the wine business for many, many centuries, so my brother, my sister, and I, we have inherited the passion from our parents. When we were younger we used to welcome to our house many customers, and my mother prepared meals for people. So during lunch or dinner they would discuss marketing or business. I don’t know how we received this passion, but it happened for all three of us.

Did you always know that you would work in the wine business?

In school I decided to study first chemistry and then food technologies. My brother studied winemaking and my sister studied administration. So probably each of us decided we had a different competency regarding the business. We loved different parts of the business. Then, of course, we are still a family business so even though I was a chemistry student, today I don’t take care of the production, it is my brother who does. But we can discuss projects together because we know it is exactly what we like to do, even if my brother is much more involved in the production than me. 

Your skills complement each other.

Yes, for sure. I don’t like financial matters so I am helping my sister. She is in charge of this and she likes doing it very well. It’s not my skill.

Are your daughters interested in the business also?

We hope. There are seven children in the next generation. I have two daughters. All of the next generation are still students so we hope they decide [to enter the business]. We hope they are patient because it is necessary to have patience for doing a job well, not only in the wine business but in other businesses. In every sort of business. They love to come with us to fairs or to visit the market, and when it is quite close to our city they partake in some tastings, but I don’t know if in the future they will decide to take part in the business. We hope, but we don’t force, for sure. What we like is that they have experience outside the family business because they have to learn exactly the job, the rules. They have to try.

How would you describe the Tedeschi style?

I think the Tedeschi style is a typical style of a Valpolicella. Every vintage we look for complex wine, but at the same time, elegant wine. My father says wine is like an orchestra where there are many players and all they go together in their right time, for great music and the greatest sound. Same for the wines. We look for complex wines so it means when people try the wines they can taste the different characteristics of the wines. They all have different fruit character and other flavors but all are well balanced—not too acidic, not too tannic. This is fundamental. We work for that. Of course, it is important that wines are an expression of the territory, so that when people drink our wines they recognize the land where we produce it. They have the opportunity if they don’t know our land to know more about our land.

You were in Thailand before your trip to the Philippines and you have hosted wine tastings all over the world. What are your impressions of wine appreciation in the Asia Pacific region?

People love our wine. But during my trip of course we presented a range of our wines we produce and so they have the opportunity to recognize other wines because Valpolicella is not only Amarone. Valpolicella is made of many other wines that people like a lot. Amarone as a wine is well appreciated in Asia because it is a fruity wine. It is a very rich wine, a powerful wine. People like full-bodied wines with a quite high content of alcohol. And I think also the wines mesh well with medium spicy food. They are used to it in Asia, especially. So, of course, in some countries Amarone is less popular than in others. But it is getting more and more popular.