INTERVIEW WITH A WINEMAKER - Mauro Mauri - Borgo San Daniele

Q. Tell us about yourself, why and when did you decide to become an oenologist?

A. The decision to undertake oenology studies dates back to childhood. Due to the death of our parents, my sister Alessandra and I were raised by grandparents who had some land and some vineyards. From there, I have cultivated a passion for the land and the vine.

Q. If you had to use three words, which one will you use to describe your work?

A. Passion, commitment, and dignity.

Q. What is your greatest fear during the entire cycle of the vine?

A. It may seem strange, but it is being able to save production. For several years we have chosen to cultivate the vine with organic and biodynamic methods; with the alternation of the seasons in recent years, it is honestly not easy to preserve production using natural protection methods.

Q. What makes you happy with your job?

A. The possibility of meeting people of all types and levels from any part of the world and being considered for the mental and philosophical path that I have, and we have undertaken to produce our wines.

Q. What was the most crucial moment in your career as a winemaker?

A. The moment in which culturally and professionally I abandoned the production of grapes and wines following academic and technological methods, and I embarked on a personal and natural way of producing wines, without the aid of preparations and remedies related to the simple obtaining of wines from the pleasantness.

Q. What is your vision on organic, biodynamic and sustainable?

A. Having fully embraced the organic and biodynamic, I can only support them to the limit.

Q. What are you doing to preserve the planet?

A. Renewable energies, low consumption of packaging, low consumption means, low intervention and compaction, total grassing to prevent the oxidation of the organic substance. We say no to synthetic products and the introduction of herbal infusions produced in the company, no to use mineral chemical fertilization. We use compost produced on the farm, cover crop, and green manure for self-nutrition of the soil.

Q. If you had to use three words, which one would you use to describe your wines?

A. Personal, sincere, territorial.

Q. Why are your wines different from your direct competitors?

A. It is not intellectually correct to compare one's wines with those of our colleagues (non-competitors) on the contrary, in the future, only dialogue and positive comparison will allow our territory to grow, a unity that perhaps in Friuli Venezia Giulia in the past was really lacking.

Q. Among your wine, which is the one you are most fond of? What makes you proud? And why?

A. For company size we do not produce wines of different lines with different attentions, it will be taken for granted, but I must say that they are all my children. Obviously, the Arbis, the white for the Solera method, and the Rôs for the Pignolo are personal choices.

Q. What was the highlight of your career as a winemaker?

A. Obviously on the occasion of some wine awards received, but fortunately the highest moment I hope to be in the future!