Interview with Cristian Specogna, best Italian winemaker 2023 – Vinoway Selection

Cristian Specogna (Specogna– Azienda Agricola Specogna), born in 1987, originates from a land devoted to white wine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, however possibly he would not be a wine maker in his blood if in 1963 his grandpa Leonardo, returning from Switzerland, had actually not bought the hills of the Rocca Bernarda in Corno di Rosazzo. He discovers to stroll in the vineyard, accompanying his dad Graziano, and discovers the cycle of the seasons. Enthusiasm and operate in the cellar are important problems of his household however finished by the research studies in viticulture and oenology that Cristian undertakes together with experiences and research study journeys to the most essential Italian and French wine-growing areas. Having actually gone back to the business, he brings with him understanding that assists the household viticulture grow: from the research study of soil and environment qualities to the zoning of the vineyards, from natural to the sustainability of the procedures. With his sibling Michele and his better half Violetta he takes the Specogna brand name beyond vintage and ready-to-drink white wines, bring out a restricted edition devoted to Horeca. Today they handle 25 hectares of vines (for 110 thousand bottles), however within a farming business incorporated in between olive growing and beekeeping.

Cristian, let’s start from the connection and exchange with your area.

To make you comprehend how essential the connection with my area and the vineyards of our hills is to me, I can just inform you that the very best memories I have as a kid are the strolls in the vineyards with my grandpa and my dad … who given that I was extremely young they brought them together to experience the countryside and the minutes that marked the seasons in farming! Essentially I began strolling in between the rows.

And today my dream is to be able to add to making the oenological capacity and charm of our sloping location understood more and much better throughout the world … a paradise for vines and for life!

In Addition, I want to highlight just how much the peculiarity that differentiates our area in being a border area with several cultures from Slovenian to Austrian has likewise significant me. A land that in a century has actually altered several citizenships which can be viewed in the way of living, art and food and white wine customs. A melting pot that enables you to open your look to numerous little subtleties that press you to not wish to close yourself in however to get understanding that will assist you acquire a a lot more specific and special identity.

An example above all: at home with my grandpa and my dad we constantly spoke 3 languages: Italian, Friulian and Slovenian.

Let’s carry on to a hot and important subject: what is your method to sustainability?

Today everybody speaks about sustainability, and possibly in some cases without totally comprehending its significance. I do not understand if we will actually have the ability to, however a dream for our household is to be able to really attain genuine business sustainability in the viticultural and likewise financial and social fields! Since I believe that a person can not exist without the other.

In the viticultural sector we have actually begun a task that I am deeply enthusiastic about, which is to be able to recreate a 360-degree farming business that grows by itself balance.

Of the 30 hectares of land we own, cultivated totally according to the determines of natural farming, 5 hectares have actually been left as forest. An extremely essential aspect for the environment policy of the surrounding locations and for a balance of plants and animals. Moreover, we have actually started to plant brand-new increased, olive and cherry trees whose root systems assist to support the stability of the hill slopes of our location, which are extremely delicate and delicate due to their simple disintegration. We have actually likewise set up a number of bee hives for the production of honey and to support this bug which is so essential to the environment. This newest effort was born thanks to the cooperation with the beekeepers who produced the “ENO BEE– Bees in the Vigna” task. We likewise prepare to plant many olive trees to improve a magnificent Italian custom such as olive growing.

In Addition, I am performing tasks with chef Roberto Franzin to recuperate production waste to trigger premium productions: an example are tagliolini with Pinot grigio pomace flour (in which the grape skins end up being part important part of the flours) whose product packaging, to name a few things, is acquired from the recycling of turf clippings and algae from the Grado lagoon.

Sustainability, in my viewpoint, likewise indicates living in an area, an area comprehended as a neighborhood. And this is why for a number of years we have actually been performing efforts in typical with many associations in our locations, particularly to improve a mix that I especially appreciate: “Culture and Culture”! In this context, among the cooperations that I hold most dear is the one produced with the Fondazione ProgettoAutismo FVG onlus (which is based in Feletto Umberto in the province of Udine). An effort in which the kids from this Institute produce unique labels for our bottles from which minimal editions are produced, the profits of which add to the tasks that this remarkable institute is performing.

In Addition, we have actually invested greatly in renewable resource through the setup of a covering of photovoltaic panels on the roofings of our cellar, which has actually enabled us to date to be absolutely independent in our electrical power intake and warm water requirements.

What are the troubles you needed to get rid of to get to this acknowledgment and beyond?

Like anybody who performs a task that wishes to alter the normal patterns of the truth in which they run, I needed to meet perplexities and closed doors, particularly when I started the task of our minimal edition white wines which develop from single parcels and from zoning and research study tasks of the peculiarities of the various vineyards of our hills. White wines that had an entire brand-new story to inform and which in regards to rate and improvement qualities were an entirely various course to what we had actually been producing up till that day.

However I thought in it a lot, particularly after the viticultural and oenological experiences I had in other Italian and French areas which had actually enabled me to comprehend the capacity of my area much more. And when our company believe in it deeply and with interest, the skepticism of those in front of us does not end up being a brake however a stimulus to show that what we dream can end up being truth!

And this is why it is essential and essential to have the strength and durability to not quit and to stand firm on the course we wish to pursue!

For me, producing white wine is not simply a task, however rather it is the dream and the objective of having the ability to confine our history and the custom of our area in my bottles and this offers me a desire and a reward to continuously enhance myself!

Isn’t sfide future?

Advance this course of constant enhancement by attempting to comprehend increasingly more the information that can assist me enhance the quality of our productions; and at the exact same time having the ability to be progressively efficient in interacting and making the world view what we are continuing and the capacity of our area in the food and white wine sector and beyond.

And given that my child Mariasole was born, every action I perform and every financial investment I devote to our business I do so with the dream that all this can be an included worth not just for the instant future however for the future.

In farming you should not hurry and above all you should have the guts and strength to believe and act in the long term. Since a vineyard planted today will just end up being really fantastic in several years and just if we have the ability to cultivate it in an environment not damaged by our actions.