Villa Iulia is what Antonio Florencio-Nieto dreamt about when fighting long grape harvest days around the world. It all began in 2008 when he discovered his passion for enology and his desire to spend the following years in his life travelling and gathering information and experiences in different countries in order to obtain a much more complex view of Enology. This adventure led him to know about different terroirs and philosophy of wine production all around the world. After 12 years making wine and working in 8 different countries (Spain, Italy, Chile, United States, New Zealand, Austria, Australia and Serbia) and 16 grape harvests, it was the moment of bringing his dream to life .
Winery: Viña Calyptra (Termas de Cauquenes, Cachapoal, Chile)
Favourite Wine: Gran Reserva Chardonnay
It is without any doubts one of the travels which has influenced me the most, not only because
it was the first time I travelled abroad on my own and out of Europe, but also because I was
not aware of what the future would hold. I had no idea of Chile or its wines, but I was lucky
enough to arrive at a winery where I would work with one of the people who had a greater
impact on me in the world of enology, François Massoc.
It seems like yesterday when he picked me up in Santiago airport and brought me to the winery.
It was at night and dark but when I woke up, I realized I was in a small valley on the shore of the
Cachapoal river surrounded by the Andes mountains, at about 6km from the nearest town (Coya)
and without a car. I was 11000km away from home and in the middle of nowhere, the first time I panicked!
However, as days went by, I started to enjoy the place, the vineyards and the wines; but, above all, I
started to learn. In fact, I acquired so much knowledge in those months that it took me
years to assimilate it, such as grape and grape juice tasting, grape processing, fermentation stages, the
pinot subtlety, Sauvignon’s protection or the Chardonnay’s complexity. Wines which to this day I
recall as terrific and a production style which I made to my own. Yet, apart from all this specialized
knowledge, I was taught to be humble, which made me a better person and prepared me for the
long journey ahead. I also learnt not to shoot an arrow with your boss’s arch, especially if you
have never done it before...I still owe you the repair, François. François is just grand!
Winery: Cantina Teanum (San Severo, Puglia, Italia)
Favourite Wine: Gran Tiati
As I was taking my first steps into the enology world, I had the opportunity to work for
a couple of harvests in this winery, where I was able to apply all the knowledge I was
acquiring in my studies. An unique experience, as was the road trip from Seville to
San Severo (2700Km) with my mates Manuel Carrizosa and Simbad Romero, with whom
I shared this grape harvesting.
A place where I learnt about the Italian varieties, about the warm character of the South of
Europe wines and where I made the first mistake in my career: thinking that all wineries
were the same. Fortunately, I also had the pleasant surprise of meeting Donato Giuliani,
a sensational winemaker, whom I consider a friend and who encouraged me to overcome
borders and continue to learn about other ways of working and understanding wine.
I still remember Novello’s aromas (young wine with carbonic maceration) or Falanghina
and Chardonnay fermented in barrel; not to mention the cacao aroma of the red wines in
fermentation and my first contact with Primitivo (Zifandel) grape, not to forget the long
waiting hours for the trailers coming from Manduria.
Winery: Arca de Vitis (Valle de Güímar, Tenerife, Spain)
Favourite Wine: Contempo Malvasía Seco
We arrive in the islands! In 2011, full of energy, typical of being under 30, I
committed myself to carry out three harvests in a year. As in the islands the
grape harvesting starts earlier, I took advantage of it and decided to go there
and learn about volcanic land. I arrived in Tenerife in the middle of July; however,
the harvesting dates depend highly on the different places due to the island’s
incredible climatic changes and microclimate.
The winery was in the middle of the Güímar valley, from where you could observe
a weird mountain in the distance by the coast, it was the Socorro Volcano, Teide
was not the only volcano in the isle! The vineyards were upon a tongue of a
petrified black lava and the wines produced there had a minerality and salinity
which I was unable to find in any other wine ever.
Not only did I enjoy its wines, but also its beach, called Widow’s Beach, the
friends I made (Bentorei in the lead), its meat with chilli sauce sandwiches at
Chicho’s Bar or its romeria and festivities in Arafo. A place where the wine is
up to its people and place. A short but intense stay!
Winery: Imagery Estate Winery (Sonoma Valley, California, USA)
Favourite Wine: Imagery Pinot Noir
The USA is a different world, although it seems like any other wine-producing country, it is not. But, let’s go little by little. This journey begins in a very emotional way, bidding farewell to my friends in the festivities of my village, Guillena...Two hours later, without having slept much, I was taking my flight from Seville to Madrid, where I had a stopover of an hour and two more flights ahead. The first one was Madrid-NYC, on the 11th September, exactly 10 years after the 11S terrorist attack, so it was hard to sleep. There, I took the flight connection to San Francisco, however, I had no luggage to check in as I forgot to pick it up in NYC! Luckily, I got it back a couple of days later.
Once in the winery, I started to find out what was awaiting me. The wine tourism model in California should rule in any viticulture region. I was fascinated by how the wineries associated with each other in order to provide wine tours. The tasting rooms in the wineries were just splendid, one could taste the wines or buy golf balls with your favourite winery logo! My winery, in particular, was in the art field, all the bottle’s designs were inspired by paintings which were also sold in any product type.
Enology itself is not much different, modern techniques implemented in traditional concepts. Wines were not over-oaked, except for the Pinot. For me, the best part of this experience was, without a doubt, the wine tourism development of the region.
Winery: Brightwater Vineyards (Brightwater, Nelson, New Zealand)
Favourite Wine: Lord Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc
I departed from Seville on a Monday at 23pm and landed in New Zealand on next Friday at 10pm.
I reached the winery on Sunday at 2pm! As I had such a low budget, this was the itinerary I took
to the antipodes, by bus-train-boat-flight. I will always remember the first thought I had when I
stepped on kiwi land: ‘Everybody I know is facing down right now!’ I had never imagined that wine
would lead me to such a remote place.
So, there I was, in a place where the sun heated even more than in Seville and where vineyards were
covered by nets to avoid birds eating the grapes. New Zealand was a magic country in which colours
came to life in an unimaginable form, a light that made life special. Would wines be the same?
And, so they were. As green is greener and blue is bluer, similarly aromas are more intense, and
nobody knew how to take care of them as Tony Southgate did. Tony was the winemaker of the
winery, young and straight thinking; he enjoyed making wines and making them in the best possible
way. He taught me how to work with a meticulous use of gases; his wines were pure elegance.
One month after my arrival, he was awarded as the Best Winemaker in New Zealand,
being his Sauvignon Blanc the best wine.
Regarding myself, I was in the right place and I was learning from great masters!
Winery: Hajzan Neumann y Wieninger (Vienna, Austria)
Favourite Wine: Gemischter Satz Weissenberg y Chardonnay Gran Select
It was clear to me that it was time to make wine in a continental climate region; and Vienna gave me the chance. To be honest, after having spent two years in rural areas, Vienna meant taking some fresh air. The winery was located in Heilingestadt, in the outskirts of the city. The vineyards started just when the streets ended, in the neighbourhood where Beethoven lived, a wonderful place no more than 10 minutes from the city centre by underground.
The vineyards were guided in a biodynamic way, above a hill from where you could discern all the city as in an astonishing card. The white wines were extraordinary, as expected, since the grapes were out of the ordinary. Adding to this the enjoyment of a city life full of people and entertainment. Vienna is a city one does not forget, especially, if you create a Spanish family pursuing careers abroad. Apart from the experience, I also made friends who are still very important in my life.
It was February 2014 when the winery was absorbed by Wieninger, fairly certain to be the best winery in Vienna. I was again lucky enough to work for Fritz Wieninger, a person who showed me how to produce wine in a different way. I also had the opportunity to work with Luis Teixeira, an experienced Portuguese winemaker with whom I shared my experience in Wieninger and who provided my work with seriousness. It was clearly one of the best periods of my life.
Winery: Bremerton Wines (Langhorne Creek, South Australia, Australia)
Favourite Wine: Old Adam Shiraz
Having learnt from my previous journey to New Zealand, I invested a little money in flight tickets. I had a stop in Dubai (a 14 hours stop that allowed me to visit the city). Once more, I was lucky enough to land in a winery with the most concentrated wines I have ever worked with, the Australian Shiraz is just excellent. Nevertheless, it took me more than a month to see a Kangaroo!
The winery was located by the sea, next to the Alexandrina lake and their wines had nothing to do with the ones from the nearby Adelaide Hills. The treatment received from the Wilson family was incredible. If I ever own a winery, I assure that I would make meals every grape harvesting Sunday, as we did in Bremerton. It made you feel like a member of the family. Rebecca, the winemaker, is a close person with a high sense of humour and highly professional. She had a very clear view of what she wanted and how she wanted it; as a consequence, her wines were at a different level. Regarding Tom, her husband and viticulturist, he had his own wine trademark, The Pawn Company, where he produced wines from the most diverse grape varieties all over the world. Not to mention the time spent making craft beer with Matt, the second winemaker in Bremerton, and the travels.
The most remarkable journey was the one I did with my friend and partner in La Quinta Vendimia, Narciso Ossa. A week-long road trip of 3800km that got us to the deep Australian continent and back to Alice Springs after crossing an immense desert!
Winery: Toplicki Vinogradi (Gojinovac, Toplica Valley, Serbia)
Favourite Wine: Epigenia Prokupac
The winery was about 50km from Nis city, where the Roman Emperor Constantine was born, the first Christian Emperor. Serbia is a country you have to know about its history to understand how it works and what surrounds you. People are so hospitable that they give you even more than they have, offering you an unique viticulture treasure, the Prokupac. When I arrived, I had never heard of this variety before, and up to this day, I still wonder why it is not internationalised. This grape variety provides the wines with intensity, complexity, especies and black fruit.
The main feature these vineyards had was fighting against constant humidity; the nearby Toplica river caused a frequent fog bank that raised up to the vineyards provoking a high level of humidity. The winery was a modern five-floor building dug into the hill, except for front that was full of huge glasses. It had a circular structure and each floor was a step to wine making. The grape entered from the top floor and the bottles exited downstairs. Besides, it had a beautiful restaurant in an old building in the city centre of Belgrade, with an amazing garden terrace. It had a similar one in Marbella, Spain, too, where I spent the summer of 2016 helping with the promotion of the wine in Spain, and, obviously, also enjoying the Costa del Sol!
Winery: Manjavacas Cooperative (Mota del Cuervo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)
Favourite Wine: Selección Parcela Chardonnay
Following so many kilometers travelled, it was time to get closer to my home and fate brought me to Mota del Cuervo. It is a neighboring place in every sense. Geographically speaking, it is a bordering line for the provinces of Cuenca, Ciudad Real and Toledo, almost touching the border with Albacete. From the hill which is dominant over the town, where the Machegan windmills are, it can be distinguished the endless plain that hosts the world’s biggest vineyard. This very same hill is the limit between two types of terroir; it is where the first foothills of Cuenca’s mountain range start and the Manchegan plain finishes, so the vineyards are based on different land types with slopes and in a more elevated area.
Manjavacas has given me so much. It is a winery in which 60 million kilos of grapes are processed every year and I have to face challenges I had never dealt with before. Moreover, it has provided me with a different perspective of the winemaking world I had never seen in my career. Mota del Cuervo has also given me, apart from friends, the opportunity to meet my current partner, Cris, 6 months after my arrival. So, we will have Mota for a while…
This way, I reached the conclusion that it was the perfect place to fulfill my dream. As Betis football team did not win the league, I pursued my other life dream, the one that had come along with me all these years while grape harvesting: making my own wines under Villa Iulia trademark.