In this new encounter with producers, we’ll take you on a discovery tour of Siridia winery, in Negrar di Valpolicella. Edoardo and Samuela Speri‘s project, launched in 2019, aims to showcase a different side of Valpolicella and to excite and inspire those who love the wines of this region. Siridia is a fictional name, open to interpretation, but undoubtedly reminiscent of the stars: Siridia is, in fact, a North Star, a dream, a goal to be achieved. The star is therefore one of the elements of their logo, along with a bow with a nocked arrow. I had the opportunity to discuss this evocative image and much more with Edoardo, in a long conversation that, as is now customary, I am pleased to share with you.

Edoardo, to begin talking about Siridia, I’d like to introduce a word whose many facets I’d like to highlight: IMAGINATION. I would start with CREATIVITY, understood as the creative drive that leads you to interpret both the territory and your personalities.

• I think you’ve thought of the word that best represents Siridia right now. And the second word you gave me is the one that best conveys Siridia right now. For me, these two words are closely linked. Imagination is a human ability, which unfortunately we’re losing. What is imagination? It’s creating something you have in your mind, translating it into reality. And we’re losing this ability because of screens and patterns. What breaks the mold is something that’s not ordinary, therefore it’s extraordinary. At times, it could even go beyond the extraordinary, and become madness. There’s always a limit to breaking the mold, even here.
  Over the years, it’s been like a rollercoaster for us, because every year has presented a new challenge: Covid, the war in Ukraine, the crisis of red wine… In every crisis, Siridia has resurfaced thanks to creativity. In the darkest moments, thanks to creativity, so many products have emerged. In fact, sometimes I think that for a man to be able to bring out the best in himself he has to suffer. And that’s why Siridia is so creative, because every downturn has given them an extra push to create something better, be it a new wine, a new way of doing the same thing, or a new vision of what the winery itself can give you. I mean, I bet that if we hadn’t had all these crises, the winery wouldn’t be what it is today. You wouldn’t have used those two words; perhaps you would have proposed “good wine” and “story.” Because if everything had gone smoothly, you would have known Siridia only because it produces a range of wines around which it has created a storytelling. That in itself requires imagination, but it wouldn’t have gone to such extremes.
  Creativity—and I can speak for Siridia but also on a personal level—is also what drove me to open a new business. I come from a place where, fortunately, there was a fair amount of creativity, even if it later waned. Here, however, I’m able to have more freedom and fully express the potential of the region. Creativity needs to be channeled, directed somewhere, and Siridia has directed it into the territory, a new vision of the region. A new vision also of hospitality, which wineries often neglect because we’re in a region where hospitality has always been secondary, and therefore not a habit. Now, in my opinion, according to Siridia, hospitality is one of the cornerstones of a winery, and it directly allows those who have the pleasure of coming here to experience the atmosphere, to sense the principles of what a winery is imbued with. We never compare ourselves to historic wineries, but I imagine that they, by endlessly repeating the same old story, have values ​​that have become rusty. It’s not that they’re no longer valid, but that they’ve stopped being followed; that’s why they’ve rusted. If you don’t use or polish a piece of iron, it rusts; but if you take care of it, even in the rain and bad weather, it will always remain intact. And that’s why I think it’s essential for Siridia to invest in this.
  Imagination is truly beautiful and exciting, and we should not be afraid to imagine. Dreams that are too big? That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s not true. Creativity never runs out, that’s the beauty of it; it’s something that the more you use, the more you get, like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. To maintain this creative drive, returning to the world of wine, our limited editions have these two rules: the vehicle, which is the territory, and the fact that they are not re-released the following year. This drives you to continue exploring new terrain, because there’s always something more, something new to try and discover. It’s like a flywheel, you have to give it a push and then it keeps going by inertia. It’s clear that these crises have meant that we’re now moving forward on our own: whether another crisis hits or everything goes well, Siridia will continue to produce new wines or other products.

Of course, because we’re never just talking about wines here, right?

• The wines here are secondary; we always start by explaining the concept, the thought behind a wine. The wine itself comes afterward, but the why is the key. Why those grapes were harvested, why you made that particular wine, why in that period. In English, it sounds very good: “Why is powerful, how is easy,” so when the why is clear, the how follows. You have to be clear about the why, and where you want to go, then everything is simpler.

You’ve already mentioned another aspect I wanted to explore, that of the DREAM, which then becomes a PROJECT, but in your case I think it should be used in the plural, so DREAMS and PROJECTS.

• Absolutely. Or we could talk about a big dream, divided into many areas.

Yes, because there’s the big dream that is Siridia, which encompasses many things. Speaking of wine, each bottle is a project in itself and has its own path.

• Each bottle is a project in itself, it has its own individuality, but it’s part of the group. We don’t have a soloist, and this is our strength, because each wine leads the other, sparking in those who taste them the curiosity to try the others. There are many dreams here at Siridia: there are dreams that clash, there are dreams that fade, making room for others, perhaps even more beautiful. We hope to make as many of them a reality as possible. Now, thanks to my sister Samuela, we have another dreamer, but also someone more down-to-earth than me.

Something that fascinates me personally, but which I believe is a characteristic of anyone who makes wine, is FORESIGHT, the ability to envision what you want to achieve in advance. In this regard, I’d like to consider a figure dear to you, the archer.

• Well, earlier we were talking about principles. There can be many principles, but the direction must be unambiguous. The only thing that was embedded in our logo was precisely our philosophy, a philosophy that can transcend time, beyond who I am or who my sister is. There’s this underlying fear of finding ourselves in a generational shift that would result in losing the values that led to the beginning of this adventure. It would mean losing not only the principles that founded the company, but also the soul of the company itself, all the people who followed us, because, without the values, they no longer find themselves and recognize themselves in the company. The archer is precisely an image that helps understand the philosophy behind Siridia.
  When I made wine for others, I had the company’s wallet in my hands, because whether I made a good wine or a bad one, the company’s income and expenses depended on it. When you find yourself managing this responsibility alone, mental images help. I had created this mental image of myself as an archer, with my target in mind. In that context, I was preparing to shoot, aiming for the target, ready to release the arrow. Then you reach a point where you no longer have control over the arrow, and for us, this is our relationship with nature. You can’t have complete control over the elements of nature. You can have an imaginative prefiguration of what the wine might achieve in the future, of course, but it’s always rough; you can never be sure. The measuring stick is so broad and dependent on an infinite number of factors that you never have total control. And it’s the same thing with the arrow: once it’s shot, you no longer have control; a gust of wind, a weight, a feather hitting it can move you from the target. This image came to me after reading a life-changing book: “Zen in the art of Archery” by Eugen Herrigel. It’s the story of a German professor who goes to live in Japan and wants to learn the art of traditional archery. The master takes seven years before letting him shoot an arrow, because the actual release of the arrow isn’t about aiming, but about feeling the right moment, and the same is true for me with wine. It’s not your muscles that release the string, but rather an internal impulse that lets you know when the right moment is to shoot the arrow. And it’s fantastic when you think about it, because it makes you ask yourself: “What do I ultimately have under control?” Nothing. They spent seven years there just on the gestures, the shot itself was secondary, because it came from the spiritual side. So much so that you reach a point where you merge with the goal; you are the goal because what you see on the outside is what’s actually inside you. And from there, the image of the archer was born.

Getting back to earth and the various projects we were talking about, I know you have something coming out soon…

• I don’t know if Samuela wants to complete the Edoardo’s Elements series with Terra and Fuoco this year. Edoardo’s Elements is a limited-edition wine series dedicated to the four elements of the Earth. Each wine is linked to an Earth element and its character. Acqua (Water) is a wine aged in the sea; Aria (Air) is a long-aged white wine that needs air to open up. Terra (Earth) is a strong element, so it was created as a fortified wine: a wine made from dried grapes like our Amarone, but fortified with the addition of alcohol, topped up annually with the grape must from the year of pressing. Fuoco (Fire) is a Corvina-based wine made from smoked grapes. The pallets with the crates are arranged radially, a fire is lit in the center (I did it with exhausted barriques), and once it’s out, everything is covered with a grape tarp. It’s left like this for 24/36 hours and then pressed. We recently tasted Terra and Fuoco for the first time after bottling, and the result was very interesting; I was pleasantly surprised.

So, going back to what we were saying before, there’s always room for surprise…

• Absolutely, also because fortunately I suffer from short-term memory, so I forget the little things, and when I rediscover them, it’s always a nice surprise. It’s difficult for me to say something like that because I’m always very harsh in judging my work, but as far as the Elements are concerned, I’m satisfied with all of them, truly enthusiastic.

With this latest exchange sparking a surge of genuine curiosity in me, we invite you to come and meet Edoardo, Samuela, and the ever-evolving Siridia experience by joining one of our group tours in Valpolicella or by contacting us at [email protected] to arrange a customized private tour.

If you already know their “starry wines” or would like to taste them, you can find them in our online shop, and we’ll deliver them directly to your home!