Valentina and her daughter Paola at their Valpolicella estate near Verona
As we head into the final days of Women's History month, I wanted to be sure to close out the month with one of the more remarkable women producer stories I know of. And selfishly, I hope some wonderful importer will decide to bring her wines to the US.
I was lucky enough to visit the Veneto on a trip last May courtesy of a press trip for wine writers and influencers – thank you, EU marketing dollars – and explored the region over the course of 5+ days on a group tour. We had a lovely stay, staying at lodgings in Soave.
During our few free hours in our outing to Verona, I arranged a side trip to see Valentina Cubi, who I had learned about several years ago in an amazing Amarone and Valpolicella masterclass led by my friend and Slow Wine co-editor and colleague Deborah Parker Wong.
What a delight to meet and visit with Valentina and her daughter, Paola, who also works at the estate.
When I arrived in May, it was hot...and lovely to try Valentina's first rosé...
Here's her story.
"Would you like to taste my wine?" said Valentina. That was the prelude to a two hour visit, meeting her at the winery and tasting room, organized around a beautiful courtyard with views of the vines and their charming agrotourismo.
The delightful 80 year old might have one of the more unusual career paths to becoming a winemaker with an organic vineyard, going from housewife and teacher to, at age 60, vineyard manager and wine producer.
Today, her kingdom is a beautiful compound and several vineyards in the picturesque Fumane region of the Valpolicella Classico area in Negrar in the Veneto, where she and her family produce 3,000+ cases of Valpolicella as well as the region’s star attraction–a deep, dry red wine called Amarone.
 |
| Giancarlo and Valentina |
Origins
Her husband’s family was in the wine business, but he was not and he missed it. So when the couple had a chance to buy 7 hectares (17 acres) in Fumane, they bought their first vineyard and became growers. She ran the household, raising two children and then teaching primary school for 20 years.
“At that time, I was a teacher at the primary school with two children. Paola was just born. And my son was less than two years old. So I didn't have time to take care of the winery. And so for many years, we made wine, we sold all the [bulk] wine to the producers.”
And then, after 20 years, she stopped teaching and started taking care of the vineyard.
“So I had to learn something–how to grow the vine. And then, with my son, we grew. We decided to start bottling the wine, we built the cellar, we tried to have a beautiful place to have guests. So, in 2005 we went into the market with our labels.”
“We sold Valpilicella 2004 and Amarone 1997. Because when we decided to bottle the wine, we left a small tank of Amaro 97, 98, 2000, 2001 in a corner. They were very good vintages.”
“We still have some bottles because sometimes when we make some tasting of special vintages, it's important to check in with the way our wine ages. So we started– we're still finding our market–we sell a little bit everywhere. But mostly to small companies because we don't produce a lot of bottles.”
Transition to Organics at Valentina Cubi
“When I started taking care of the vineyard (in 2003) I decided to use less chemical products. We didn't use the most aggressive or the strongest in the beginning but I wasn’t thinking about organic.”
“And then I thought–but why we don't try it? I believe that whatever is used in agriculture goes in the water that you use every day. No one checks if there are some pesticides in the water and maybe you don't drink the water that you have at your house, but rather use it to wash yourself, to wash the vegetables, to cook the pasta. So everyday uses. I decided to start the organic way. Now many people do. It's good.”
“At the time when we started working in the organic way, people believed that it was crazy because in the beginning it was quite hard–nowadays it’s more normal…but then the other people said, why organic, when we produced less grapes and it was very difficult.”
What is the difference between using the chemicals and being organic?
Vigilance, she said.
“You cannot say ‘Okay, I did my treatment and now it's okay. You must pay attention to this. When you decide to become organic, you notice.” The first year was an easy vintage, she said. “It was a perfect year. The rain came at the right time. The sun was good. There was not too much humidity.”
By 2014 she became the first producer in the Valpolicella Classic region to be certified organic.
“Now everywhere where there are young people, they take care of the environment today for the organic production…old people not too much. They want to produce grapes, they don't take care of the pollution.”
Ironically her husband’s occupation is selling winemaking equipment along with agrochemicals–that are not allowed in organic viticulture.
Says Valentina’s daughter Paula: “My father said, 'I cannot bring my customer to our winery, because my wife does not use my products.' And she's fighting, on the other hand, with all the journalists who think that she’s not telling the truth about being organic. They think she will use the chemicals.” But she doesn’t.
Times have changed and today organic is much more accepted.
And the bottles are labeled organic to eliminate any doubt.
A New Frizzante Rosé
Over time, with her daughter and son in law, their brand has grown and this year they introduced a frizzante rosé Antenatus. Made from Cortina, the major grape in the region, it’s a perfect summer wine. And it is only 9.5 percent alcohol. I wish I could have some right now, in fact–it would be a great aperitif for Easter–but currently no one is importing her wines into the U.S.
‘I produce Amarone, but I love light wine. Because I can drink a whole glass without problem,” she said. “And young people in particular like this wine a lot.”
Both in 2023 and 2024, Valentina won a Great Wine Capitals regional accommodations award for the stunningly beautiful rooms the family rents to tourists, served with breakfasts worth writing home about. (More about the wines and the rooms here). Located midway between Bardolino on Lake Garda and the city of Verona, the winery and rooms are just a 25 minute drive to either location.
“I won a prize. They gave me a prize for the accommodation. They said it was because I rebuilt all of the courtyard, building with the respect of the local materials,” Cubi said.
It is a relief after the disruptions in tourism and supply chains that the pandemic brought. But things are not yet normal.
“This summer, we celebrate because tourism is back at Lake Garda which is very close. A lot of tourists from north of Europe come to the winery to buy the wines.”
Yet it’s still variable.
“Last Saturday, we were full of people. We were running, running, running. But yesterday, nobody. Strange but nevermind. I think it is still a quite difficult period.”
One concern is that though Lake Garda and Verona are full of tourists, they don’t tend to stay in the area very long.
“Lake Garda is full of people. Verona is full of tourists–it was very busy today. I was surprised there was this morning a site calling for a competition with more than 1,500 cyclists…every day Verona is full of people. They may also have seen a movie during Covid on Romeo and Juliet. Many people come but just to stay one night and then they just to see the Juliet balcony. So the tourists are not that important. They don’t spend a lot of money. The restaurants are not happy.”
The winery had a good importer for the U.S. until 2007. They are currently looking for another one in the U.S. At the moment, they are just selling one pallet to a restaurant in Chicago.
The Family
Valentina’s husband, Giancarlo, is 81.
Her daughter Paolo and Paolo’s husband work with her these days.
And her own mother is still alive. “She has better memory than me,” said Valentina. Her mother’s secret to a long life? “To drink a bit of grappa every day in the coffee. It is very common for all people actually to put a little bit of grappa in the coffee but only after the lunch or the meal of the day, not every day. If you drink it at four o'clock, not better.”
The Wines
The wines range from IGT to DOC and DOCG. I found all of them absolutely top quality and would love to drink them every week. They make two Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC wines (Iltabarro) and a ripasso Rusnatico and, of course, Amarone.
 |
| Valentina Cubi wines at Bio Wine Fair |
Amarone
What does it take to make a good Amarone? Ten years of aging at a minimum, Valentina says.
As we tasted, she said, ”This is youngest that we are selling now, because we would like to finish 2010 and 2011, but in any case our Amarone is in the market after 10 years and more.”
“We age the wines for 3 to 4 years in wood and then we bottle and leave it in the bottle for another five or six years, while we taste and see how it is aging, but we need the 10 years minimum to release the wine, she said.
Her 2014 Morar DOCG is the only organically grown Amarone since no one else was certified that long ago. My tasting notes: “Such beautiful spice on the finish just going on and on and on...elegance and finesse."
I ask her, “What do you like to eat with this?”
“All the cheeses Parmegiano…but also some game. For example, red meat, but I cook it with some spices, not the normal barbecue. In my opinion, a barbecue is good with ripasso, for example.”
Like beef Bourguignon, the region likes to make red meat soaked in Amarone.
“We leave the meat one night in a pan full of Amarone. We cover the meat with Amarone, some onion, celery, carrots, some herbs, a spicy hebr, and then the day after we cook slowly, slowly the meat into this wine. And then when the meat is cooked, we take away the meat from the pan. We make the wine with the vegetable boil more and more. We mix all the vegetable and we make a sauce, with salt and pepper, and then we cut the meat, and we cover with the sauce. And we serve with polenta. It is a typical dish of this area.”
Said Paola, “You should come in the wintertime.”
Climate Change
There have been changes over five decades.
“When we bought this property, 50 or so years ago, we used to harvest it around the 20th of October. Last year, for the first time, we started in the last week of August,” Valentina said.
The local authorities have permitted required regional winemaking standards to adapt.
“It is the first year that Consortium allowed the grapes to dry a little bit less than 90 days, as we should do, for the Amarone, to avoid the high alcohol in the wine. Because if you dry the grapes more, you have more sugar, more alcohol. And then it's also difficult to sell after.”
Valentina and her Amarone were featured in a Slow Food event in the fall of 2023.
For more, I recommend Deborah Parker Wong's 2020 Somm Journal article here.
No comments:
Post a Comment