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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

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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