Ep 182: Marina Marcarino of Punset, Organic Winemaking Pioneer of Barbaresco

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2017

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Continuing the Women's History Month winemaker series, I speak with Marina Marcarino of Punset in Barbaresco, Italy. She is one of Italy's most respected and influential female winemakers. In the late 1980's, she ignored the norm and converted her family’s estate into a 100% certified organic vineyard. She is a kind, smart, savvy woman in wine and I learned so much from her about Barbaresco and organic farming -- you will too!

Photo: Punset

Here are the show notes:

We discuss Marina's childhood in Piemonte, the town of Alba and what it's really known for (hint: NUTELLA!) and why being a "bad baby" led her on a path to making organic wine.
It's Women's History Month so we spend some time discussing her experiences as a woman in the wine industry and what it's like to raise a child and be a winemaker.
We learn all about Barbaresco -- the difference with Barolo, the unique geographic features -- the Tanaro River, the consistent breezes, the differences between the diverse winemaking areas, and why the wines are so consistently good.
We pivot to discuss farming and Marina's passion for organics. We discuss her philosophies, why she must do organic farming (or else no farming at all!) and why, despite being called "The Crazy", she has persevered and now has others following her lead.
We tackle the importance of certification in organics and the difference between certifying a practice (organic) and a philosophy (biodynamic).
Finally we discuss winemaking and Marina's goals to make her beautiful, wonderful wine. Marina gives advice to future female winemakers and we agree to meet in Italy someday soon (I love this lady!)!

Here's where you can find the outstanding Punset wines in the US, Canada, and UK markets (use wine-searcher.com to see if it's available near you, if you live outside these countries):

The US: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/punset/1/usa
Canada: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/punset/1/canada
The UK: http://www.bbr.com/producer-2695-punset-piedmont

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for
0:08.0	downloading Wine for Normal People Radio,
0:10.0	the podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it.
0:14.0	I'm Elizabeth Schneider, a certified Silmaier and certified specialist of wine.
0:20.0	And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person.
0:23.0	Today we welcome Marina, Margarino, a punsen.
0:27.3	And she is one of Italy's most respected and influential female winemakers
0:31.5	to go along with Women's History Month. In the late 1980s she ignored
0:36.3	the norm and converted her family's estate into a hundred percent certified
0:41.0	organic vineyard and her philosophy is to quote her to produce excellent
0:45.6	wines in complete harmony with nature starting for the assumption that with organic
0:50.5	farming there must be something compelling in a corner strictly
0:55.0	delimited a ghetto for producers special the certification must be a
1:00.4	further guarantee of quality for consumers, but I also want to contend with the world
1:05.4	of conventional wines and demonstrate that it's possible to raise high quality and reputation,
1:10.7	working, respect for nature for the environment for ourselves.
1:13.7	What an amazing sentiment.
1:15.6	The name of the winery puncet derives from the Pia Montee's dialect and has the origins
1:21.3	and the count of Nave.
1:23.0	He gave this nickname,
1:25.0	which means beautiful hill or peak,
1:27.0	to describe the lands emerging from the autumn fog
	...

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