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newsletter

Befana 2017

posted on 5 January 2017
Our warmest, warmest best wishes for a great New Year to you all!! At the launch of this new year and with our good Befana witch arriving on the Epiphany, we want our “greeting card” to also bring you news about our projects, expectations, and hopes for the coming year! And also a couple of small news items from the cellar: SORELI If any of you visited us recently, you will have noticed on entering that a good part of the small vineyard growing at the entrance and covering the cellar was grubbed up. Was it because of the wrong rootstock, or maybe too many passes with the tractor compacted the soil, or the wrong grape variety for the soil, poor-quality vines, or…? As a matter of fact, a good part of the vines were in bad condition and even dead, so much so that we had to take them out. So now, what to plant? A lot of discussion over the last few years has focused on disease-resistant grape varieties, but only recently has viticultural research brought really concrete results, and a number of very impressive varieties are available today. What are they and how are they “created”? These new varieties are created by repeated crossing/hybridization of familiar European wine-grape varieties with grapes native to America or with even more ancient varieties from the Caucasus area, with the aim of passing on the traits that make them resistant to the main grapevine diseases. The resultant grapevines are, therefore, naturally created, not GMOs. So we thought it would be worthwhile to plant 650 vines of one of these varieties, so that we would no longer have to apply anti-pest treatments to the vineyard and would be able to practice a natural, sustainable viticulture. Ah, I forgot! The name of the variety we chose is SORELI, a white, lightly aromatic grape that is a close relative of the Tocai friulano. We liked its name, as well as its winemaking potential, and-–who knows?—perhaps in the future what is now just a small experiment may evolve into something impressive in which we can invest. Bottlings underway and new vintages We will shortly begin bottling our Rosanoire 2016 , a crisp, full-flavoured wine, and the first out the gate of the 2016 vintage; about 7,500 bottles will be ready in March. 6,500 bottles of  Zerdì 2014 will probably be ready the coming June. On the shelves right now is perhaps the finest Valtenesi , the 2015, that we have produced to date, plus Nepomuceno 2011 and Riné 2014, the latter just now beginning to show its fine qualities. We think that April-May of this year will see the releases of Nepomuceno 2012—a superb, fabulous wine–, and the crisp, aromatic Riné 2015. And keep in mind that, for all our wines, we keep in the cellar a small supply of magnums of the older vintages, which are ready right now to be enjoyed to their fullest. Prowein To round off our news, this year, as usual, we will be at Prowein in Düsseldorf from 19 to 21 March, in our now-traditional spot, alongside the wine-passionate Merum magazine. Cristina and Diego

Cantrina in real time

posted on 4 March 2011
I am writing from New York… I try in English (no time, unfortunately to have our dear Michael Benson translating for us). The weather is fine, better than in Italy, chilly temperature but no snow. The city is amazing, as always and each time I’m back it seems to me like being back home. Just an update about the mess I’m doing here, working in New York for the second time this year. Today a benefit event will be held by the Brooklyn based Issue project Room, rapidly becoming the point of reference for contemporary art in the New York area. Cantrina is a proud sponsor and our wines will be the only ones in tasting for the night

The Befana’s* Newsletter

posted on 5 January 2011
*[In Italy the feast of Epiphany is “personified” by la Befana, an imaginary, witch-like crone who brings gifts to good children and (sweet) “coal” to those who have misbehaved]. I always like to be a little bit different, so the Befana’s feast is one I identify with… and that is why I am only now taking the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year, assuming you have survived the massive beanfeasts during the recent holiday period! I just have one or two TEENSY-WEENSY bits of news to tell you about: Cantrina has also gained a foothold in MonteCarlo, for now just with our most extreme wine, the ERETICO 2007… I am increasingly convinced that unique products really do make a difference in the marketplace and so one should always be prepared to TAKE A GAMBLE!

Harvest 2010

posted on 6 November 2010
What can we say about the 2010 harvest, which came at the end of a year that was especially strange and difficult? There was a late spring and a rainy summer that was cool and humid, an early autumn and lots of problems with the health of the vines. 2010 will definitely not be one of the vintages of the century and, as things stand right now, it is very hard to pick out any products of real excellence. However, after the first few days of harvesting, which caused us a great deal of apprehension because of all the care and hard work that we had to put into selecting the grapes, we can now say that we are hoping for a few pleasant surprises from the vats where fermentation is just coming to an end. In short, it took us more time to pick less grapes than usual; also, we didn’t set aside any grapes for drying to make the Sole di Dario and we selected fewer grapes for the Nepomuceno. From our initial tastings, though, we can look forward to wines that may be less fleshy and muscular, but which display great freshness, fine aromas and acidity and which should eventually offer elegance and longevity. The French (who know a thing or two about wine) refer to these as “cellar masters’ vintages”: years in which the skill and sensitivity of the winemaker really can compensate for nature’s lack of generosity. We hope we’ve done a good job!
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