Deep in the Weeds - A Food Podcast with Anthony Huckstep · A Deep in the Weeds Production

Over a Glass: Sophie Conte (Tregole Estate) - a great time to be a winemaker

·42 min·2 clips

Sophie Conte says her boss is nature, and she had to learn its rhythm.

Chianti Classico gives this chat its frame. Shantae Whale welcomes Sophie Conte, winemaker of Tregolet Estate, starting with the trip to Australia that brought Conte back after 15 years. The mood is relaxed, with Conte enjoying being in Australia again while Whale keeps pulling the conversation back to travel, wine, and where the work really began. Then it gets practical. A friend of her father, a winemaker and oenologist, told Conte to take the business seriously before regret had a chance to settle in. That advice stuck. He also offered to help with the technical side she had not picked up through formal oenology study, which made the leap feel less frightening. January 2015 became the start. Conte opened the business and began figuring out how to make good wine from that place. The learning curve was not gentle. Asked about planting and Sangiovese, she goes straight to the lesson that nature sets the pace, not ambition. At 24, she wanted speed. Over the first four years, she had to slow herself down, read the plots properly, and learn what Sangiovese meant at Tregolet. The site has a strong personality: a tongue of earth coming out from a mountain, triangular, with rivers on the sides and valleys meeting ahead. Land becomes the teacher here. By the end, the episode feels less like a tasting room chat and more like a young winemaker learning when to stop pushing. Whale closes warmly, thanking Conte for sharing a special place in the world, and Conte sends the invitation back: next time, Italy and Tuscany.

As heard by us

A grounded vineyard conversation about place, patience, and the work behind one estate.

Sophie Conte discusses Tregolet Estate in Chianti Classico as a place where understanding comes slowly, through close attention to what the land will allow.

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Why you'd press play

You want a calm Tuscany story about learning a vineyard the hard way.

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