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Epiphany 2012

posted on 6 January 2012
As usual, the Befana [the old crone who personifies Epiphany] is bringing with her the latest news from Cantrina (or, if you prefer, the first of the new year…) and this is also an excellent opportunity to wish all our friends and clients a splendid 2012!!! So, here we are: The 2011  ROSATO (Rosé) made from Pinot Nero has been bottled in the last few days (its release is planned for mid-February) and we have great faith in the quality of this product, in which we have sought to bring out – even more than in the previous vintages – freshness, finesse and elegance. This wine now becomes an integral part of the estate’s range and acquires its own individual name, ”ROSANOIRE”, which recalls the refined notes that derive from the Pinot Nero grape. Libero Esercizio di Stile: our quest to find and develop new “open-minded exercices de style” continues and soon no less than TWO “unusual novelties” will go on the market. The first is another very particular and characterful Rosé from the 2010 vintage…we are talking about a 100% Petit Verdot wine that has been matured inbarriques for around 10 months. It struck us as being really interesting, so we thought: “why should we deprive ourselves of the pleasure of having 890 bottles of this wine??” The other Libero Esercizio di Stile has been in the cellar for a few years and is now just about ready to be released. It is from the 2007 vintage, and we like to define it as an old-style wine. Made from late-harvested Chardonnay grapes, it was fermented and “forgotten about” in barrique for over a year, and so it is now full-bodied, spicy, heady and full of flavour. In this case too we are talking about a thousand bottles or so… We would like to make it quite clear that these wines we refer to as “exercices de style” are quite simply the result of our desire to have fun experimenting with new ways of vinifying our grapes which, when they turn out well, we wish to share with others: they certainly aren’t attempts to follow any easy and predictable market trends. We close with the news that we are very happy with the 2011 vintage, seeing that the first checks on the wines’ development in the cellar make us think that we should be able to look forward to great results in the future. What we hope most of all, though, is that we can all keep on smiling, even when we are faced with years whose outcome is far less generous, whether we are talking about the vineyard or our everyday lives. Wishing you all once again the very best for the New Year, we invite you – as always – to come and visit us… Cristina and Diego P.S.: Save the date! On the 30th January in New York, at the Metropolitan Pavilion, there will be the presentation of this year’s Slow Wine Guide and a tasting of some of the wines that are reviewed in it. We shall be there too with our Groppello and Rinè.

Last news 2009

posted on 11 December 2009
During the harvest, Ivan, a dear friend of ours and a keen photographer, came to visit us: he is extremely good at capturing original situations and he is often kind enough to give us some of his splendid snapshots. Well, this year he really amazed us with his tiny but extremely efficient camera: using the video recording function, he turned himself into a film director, shooting harvest scenes with rare spontaneity. We still start to smile when we think of Ivan racing up and down between the vines on Gianni (our trusty vineyard worker)‘s bicycle as he filmed each scene, each person and each detail like an enthusiastic child, eager to complete a jigsaw puzzle of the vintage at Cantrina. The video only lasts 8 minutes, so we urge you to take a short break and watch this really unmissable clip.

Harvest in Cantrina

posted on 8 October 2009
Here we are almost at the end of the harvest (we still have to pick just a tiny part of our grapes and press those that we have set aside for drying) and so, strange as it may seem, it’s time to take stock of the overall situation once again. It was a precocious harvest for the early-ripening grapes (Pinot Nero, Chardonnay and Sauvignon), due to early flowering in the spring and very favourable weather during the summer. The picking time for Merlot, Rebo and Marzemino was more in line with the norm, thanks to a fine September with cool nights and rain-free days. The health of the grapes and the first analyses of the new wines allow us to rate 2009 as a good year. Only time will tell us whether it will be an excellent vintage: yes, time, which is much more truthful than all those exaggerated proclamations we tend to be bombarded with each year as the harvest approaches…

Let’s talk about…Vinitaly 2009

posted on 20 March 2009
vendemmia 2019
Here we are getting ready for Vinitaly 2009, even if it seems to us less and less like a fair that is appropriate for small producers like ourselves: amid all the hustle and bustle of this great event it is difficult to explain to people about our “open-minded exercice de style”. This year, therefore, we are concentrating on alternative methods of getting together with our friends (let’s hear from you!). However, if you are at Vinitaly on 2nd and 3rd April you can find us in the Lombardy pavilion in the PalaExpo on stand C7. If you so desire, we will be able to give you more details about our new releases, which we will merely outline below: Groppello, an indigenous grape variety of the Valtènesi, has become a part of Cantina’s range; with the 2008 vintage we have sought to express and interpret the potential of this cultivar in line with our particular philosophy of production. Rinè 2007 will have a new label, which will also reflect a few small changes we have made in the wine itself. Incrocio Manzoni is the new grape variety that gives this wine a stronger identity.
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