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2021 year-end report

posted on 17 December 2021

Here we are at the end of 2021, and it has been even more stressful and challenging from various points of view: the freeze we had in the spring; the uncertainties we are all aware of, that make it so hard to make long-term plans; the work that we had to do, which exceeded all mid-year and later projections; and finally our usual autumn newsletter is off the presses so late.

Cantrina is known for producing, in very limited editions, wines whose hallmarks are decisive personalities and strong characters, in some cases utterly unique, wines that targeted to niche markets of dedicated wine-lovers and represent the quintessence and vital spirit of our winery. Once again, therefore, we want to thank all of you, for you are not simply customers but real friends as well, loyal fans who every year accompany us on our adventure and support us, through your visits to our cellar and your appreciation of what we make. Here is some summary information:

Growing year

“Little but fine”: the spring freeze, right from budbreak on, reduced the crop way down, but with much patience and attention, we were able, at the end, to bring into the cellar high-quality fruit. We’ll certainly not have as many bottles of some of our wines, but there will be some significant surprises as well, especially regarding our more cellarable wines.

New vintages

We just released Nepomuceno 2017 -and some of you have already have it in your cellar!-, whereas the new vintages of the rosés, both Rosanoire and Valtènesi Chiaretto will be ready in late February. Spring will see the debuts of Zerdí 2019 and Groppello 2021. A new development regards the bottle label of Groppello, which will change its name to MYGroppello, to underscore the fact that it is our own very personal interpretation of this native grape.

Riné

Another important piece of news regards Riné our only white. The supply of the 2019 vintage just ran out, and after lengthy, serious consideration we decided to put off at least until autumn 2022 release of Riné 2020. True, it has been in the bottle now since 23 July, but it simply needs more maturation time to fully express its personality, and we felt than now is the right time to return to giving it the time and attention it richly deserves. We spent time considering all aspects of this move, and in some ways the decision was very difficult, but I hope that the outcome will be understood and appreciated at the appropriate moment in its future. In any case, we will shortly give you a more detailed report on this.

Meet up with us

The Mercato dei Vignaioli just took place, and the next edition will be at Vinitaly 2022 in the FIVI area...

We wish all of you and your families a Happy Christmas! And we await you in the cellar in 2022! Cristina and Diego

Ready for the new season!

posted on 20 March 2025
With spring at the doors, we’re happy to send you some brief news items about what’s going on at Cantrina. It’s certainly no longer novel, but we’ve had the umpteenth mild winter, an aspect of climate change that we have been seeing for years now. This year, though, conditions were unusually wet and tedious, with drizzles in autumn that lasted for months. They didn’t harm the health of the vines, but conditions were certainly unpleasant for those in the vineyards doing the winter pruning. In a few days, finally, after two years, we will complete planting our new vineyard, on land we recently bought. We are anxiously expecting the initial crop—in harvest 2025--from the first vines planted in 2023.

Story of a season

posted on 30 October 2024
It’s been quite some time since our last newsletter, since we’ve had so many things to do. Plus the fact that this growing year, just concluded with our 2024 harvest, was certainly not among our easiest, particularly for those like us, who have chosen to farm organically. The months have sped by, and here we are just now finding the time to catch you up on what we’ve been doing.

Harvest 2023

posted on 22 November 2023
It was a year of very hard work. Bad weather dealt us repeated blows, first with heavy rains all the way through the spring and a good part of the summer, then with torrid heat in late July and early August. Nonetheless, we were successful in bringing a satisfactory crop into the cellar, both in quantity and quality.
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