Ep. 724 Natalia Simeti | Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon

Episode 724 Marc Millon interviews Natalia Simeti of Bosco Falconeria, in this episode of Italian Food & Wine with Marc Millon on the Italian Wine Podcast. About today’s guest: The farm at Bosco Falconeria, located some 40 miles west of Palermo in the hills overlooking the Gulf of Castellammare has belonged to the Simeti family since 1933, when it was a 25-acre farm dedicated mainly to vineyards, with a cellar in which there were seven platforms for treading the grapes, and where as many as 30 people worked during the grape harvest. Family problems, the agricultural crisis and the 1968 earthquake resulted in a period of abandonment, until in the early ‘seventies the farmhouse was restored as a vacation home. From then on summers and weekends became busier and busier. The passionate involvement of Antonio Simeti, agronomist, married the curiosity of his wife, Mary Taylor Simeti, who in the early ‘80’s - while exporting Sicily to the States through books and articles - began to bring back information about organic agriculture. Thus the vacation house returned to productivity, the property grew from the original 25 acres to over 35, the crops became diversified. In 1989, with Bosco Falconeria as its trademark, the farm obtained official organic certification. The following year the Simetis made the farm their permanent residence. For the last ten years Bosco Falconeria has bottled its own organic extra virgin olive oil, has furnished fresh organic fruit and vegetables to speciality stores in Palermo, and has often bottled its own organic wine. The family has grown as well: Natalia Simeti and her Finnish husband Rami Salo, a Tai Chi Chuan instructor, have decided to make Bosco their home and to take over the management of the farm. If you want to learn more about today’s guest & winery, you can by visiting: www.boscofalconeria.it/en/index.html More about the host Marc Millon: Marc Millon, VIA Italian Wine Ambassador 2021, has been travelling, eating, drinking, learning and writing about wine, food and travel for nearly 40 years. Born in Mexico, with a mother from Hawaii via Korea and an anthropologist father from New York via Paris, he was weaned on exotic and delicious foods. Marc and his photographer wife Kim are the authors of 14 books including a pioneering series of illustrated wine-food-travel books: The Wine Roads of Europe, The Wine Roads of France, The Wine Roads of Italy (Premio Barbi Colombini), and The Wine Roads of Spain. Other titles include The Wine and Food of Europe, The Food Lovers’ Companion Italy, The Food Lovers’ Companion France, Wine, a global history. Marc regularly lectures and hosts gastronomic cultural tours to Italy and France with Martin Randall Travel, the UK’s leading cultural travel specialist. He is soon to begin a regular series on Italian Wine Podcast, ‘Wine, food and travel with Marc Millon’. When not on the road Marc lives on the River Exe in Devon, England If you want to learn more about today’s guest, you can by visiting: quaypress.uk/ marcmillon.co.uk vino.co.uk quaypress.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marc-millon-50868624 Twitter: @Marc_Millon Let's keep in touch! Follow us on our social media channels: Instagram @italianwinepodcast Facebook @ItalianWinePodcast Twitter @itawinepodast Tiktok @MammaJumboShrimp LinkedIn @ItalianWinePodcast If you feel like helping us, donate here www.italianwinepodcast.com/donate-to-show/ We also want to give a shout out to our sponsor Ferrowine. The largest alcoholic beverage shop in Italy since 1920! They have generously provided us with our brand new Italian Wine Podcast T-shirts, and we love them! Check out Ferrowine’s site, they have great wines, food pairings and so much more! www.ferrowine.it/ Until next time, Cin Cin!