Italian venture works for Beeac boy

FROM a childhood that consisted of helping his father round up sheep at the height of summer in country Victoria, David Lang now manages an historic Italian olive grove and vineyard, with his wife Christina - and produces organic olive oil and wine.

But it wasn't exactly a straightforward path from Beeac to Perugia, Italy.

Mr Lang - a fifth-generation farmer - left the family farm to study economics in Melbourne, before working at a stock-broking firm then returning to university to complete a post graduate teaching degree.

After teaching for a few years, he met his future wife Christina. She was the chief financial officer of a computer game company, but was getting sick of the "high life" of finance.

They decided to cash in Christina's shares in the company and travel to South America for seven months - and it was in Mexico they came up with the idea of buying a farm house in Italy, and calling it Casa San Gabriel.

"We started looking at properties on the internet straight away," Mr Lang said.

They lived in England for a while before finding the run-down farmhouse in the Italian region of Umbria.

"It was a ruin. It was a farmhouse and it had three outbuildings," he said, adding one was a piggery, one was a hay loft and one was a cantina to store wine, olive oil and agricultural equipment.

In the 1950s, the Italian Government had offered free accommodation in the cities for struggling producers, so many farmhouses had been abandoned for 60-plus years.

After shelling out €150,000 to purchase the property and considerably more again to restore the buildings, the couple then set out to make it habitable for guests - as well as make a return on their investment.

WITH no electricity, no water and minimal infrastructure, the Langs had a huge task ahead.

After purchasing the dilapidated farmhouse 13 years ago, it's been an uphill path ever since.

"It was the hottest summer in 40 years when we started working on it," Mr Lang said.

Once they installed power, and put doors and windows on the house, the money ran out.

They converted their farm buildings into self-catering accommodation.

"This is quite a common practice in Italy as it provides an alternate means of generating income," he said.

The idea was to get guests in as soon as possible, with the profit put back to improving the property.

About 150 hectares went up for sale not long after in the surrounding valley, which was bought by a neighbour. The Langs helped to restore the land.

"In the valley there was an old olive grove, which we then brought back to its former glory," he said.

They also ripped up an old vineyard to cultivate new vines.

"We had to clear a lot of the farmland too," he said.

"We decided to grow lucerne and set up a contract with the local Sardinian farmers," he said.

The farmers pay an annual fee to cut the lucerne hay from 26ha, bale it and feed out the fodder to their sheep flock.

"They make pecorino cheese from the sheep," Mr Lang explained.

"The upside of setting up the contract meant that we didn't have to invest in the machinery to manage the crop."

OVER the past few years, the Langs have completed an olive harvest.

"We pick the olives, press them and sell the oil," he said.

One of the biggest challenges has been the shift to organic certification.

"Going organic is something that seemed logical. All our water came from wells on the property, so it seemed ridiculous to be putting chemicals in the soil, but it's been an expensive undertaking," he said.

The olive grove is also Designation of Origin (DOP) certified, which is a strict European Union (EU) classification. DOP guarantees that produce is local and produced by traditional methods.

The olives are picked in November and crushed within 24 hours, cold-pressed and unfiltered.

"We first started making oil about five years ago. When trees have been abandoned, it takes time to bring them back to productivity," Mr Lang said.

"And last year was a terrible year for oil production.

"We had two warm winters, and got a pest called splinter fly. The olives go brown inside.

"In Umbria, there was little oil produced, and Italian production was about 60pc down."

In terms of the vineyard, three red varieties are grown including Sangiovese, Sagrantino and Merlot, and a white grape, Trebbiano Spoletino.

"At the moment, we are in the process of our first vintage," he said.

After the grapes are picked, they are transported to small winery, where the Langs rent a small space. A consultant winemaker is also employed.

"We have plans to build a small winery on the property, but that will take a few years," he said. "Then we can make wine on site."

There is also a 3ha truffle wood which the Langs planted three years ago.

"We hope to have truffles in six to eight years and the soil tests indicate this will be the case," he said.

"There are already truffles found within the valley at various times of the year and Umbria produces almost 60pc of Italy's black truffles."

THE Langs have a set a 10-year business plan for their Italian venture, and will reassess their goals after that.

"At the beginning, we were so naïve, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into," he said.

The farm business is not yet profitable, but Mr Lang is hoping when the wine business is up and running that will change.

"Our first release is at the end of this year. We had a Master of Wine visit from the United Kingdom, who said we've got good product," he said.

"And our winemaker, Giovanni Dubini, was recently listed as one of the top 10 winemakers in Italy.

"We are on the right track."

Overall, he said his family had a great quality of life, but he was also aware that many others in the country were going it tough and in the middle of a financial crisis.

WHILE there are vast differences in farming between Italy and Australia countries, Mr Lang said there were many similarities too.

"You are constantly battling the elements," he said.

"In Australia you are fighting fires, heat, and a lack of rainfall, here it is the opposite. We are battling snow at the moment."

He added Rome was notorious for getting more rain than London, but in half as much time.

"One day we got 100 millimetres in a matter of hours ... there was hail damage and erosion problems," he said.

"All your hard work can just be washed away."

They've planted faba beans to help stop the erosion, and use hay bales in the vineyard to divert the water.

A big difference is subsidies, which have played a role in helping the Langs develop their business.

"We get a small grant each year per hectare of the pasture land, whether we farm or not," he said. "You can use it to get 50pc of a tractor purchase back. It's fantastic."

But he also described the process of accessing subsidies as a "bureaucratic nightmare".

"A formal request is made each year by our agronomist using the title of the land for funds to help maintain the property," he said.

"But you really need to have a good agronomist to get the benefits."

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