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Happy New Year to all!

posted on 24 January 2023

Once again, we find ourselves confronting another challenging year. True enough, Covid is finally largely behind us, but there is still a general climate of uncertainty, underscored by the war at Europe’s borders, whose impact is anything but negligible. The opening weeks of the year bring all of us the opportunity to renew our resolutions and launch new projects. We all must face our problems with optimism and hope, doing our own part with commitment and honesty. And now, on to what is happening at Catrina and what we’re planning…

HARVEST 2022 The 2022 harvest was certainly a great surprise, given the unfavourable weather that preceded it —a dry, hot summer— with far better results than we expected. After a full three years marked by hail and freezes in the spring, we were finally gifted with a fairly good-quantity crop, but what really surprised us was the excellence of the grapes, which promised wines of truly impressive quality, particularly for the reds. In addition, we’ll now be able to build up some reserves in the cellar and be able to bottle a bit more than we expected.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS After years of planning, we’re finally ready to install a small solar panel array, which will give us near-total electrical energy independence. We have wanted this for a long time now, for reasons of environmental sustainability, but the current overall energy situation, with sky-high energy prices, has made its use absolutely indispensable. We have also decided to install an irrigation well, to supply emergency irrigation for some of our vineyards in drought years such as we saw last season, and we will start construction as soon as possible, hopefully before the coming summer. Finally, the latest news is that we just signed a lease agreement for about a hectare of land, quite near our winery, where in the next 2-3 years we will plant a new vineyard to boost our production.

NEW WINES Ever faithful to our business motto of “Personal expression of style,” we decided to bottle two very distinctive and unusual wines, Valtènesi 2020 and an uncommon selection of Nepomuceno 2016.

An elegant version of Valtènesi Chiaretto, dubbed Myroses 2020, in 500 litre used French oak barrel, which imparted significantly more complexity than our standard Chiaretto, as well as a seductive elegance and hints of spice on the nose, an almost golden hue, and a palate that is simply pleasure personified.

Nepomuceno limited edition 2016 is a wine that we have been planning for quite a while, but it had to wait for just the right growing year to see the light of day. We selected lots of the finest red grapes from our estate vineyards for a very special edition of our Nepomuceno. That vintage turned out to be 2016, and it gave us a little less than 1,000 bottles. It matured about 4 years in new oak barrel and spent an additional 18 months in the bottle: a “super nepo”, as you could call it.

We want to let you know that Nepomuceno 2018 has been available for some months now, and that Riné 2020 Organic wineOur supply of Zerdí 2019is almost gone and the 2020 will be released soon. Sole di Dario , one of our most prized wines, is extremely challenging to make at the quality level we demand, so it is simply impossible to produce it every year. Furthermore, the quantities are always limited, since the Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes are carefully dried in a special drying room for a minimum of two months, with a final yield of only 30%. The 2019 vintage is now gone, so we have to patiently wait for the 2021 to be ready, in all likelihood in spring 2024.

On February 14th we will release Valtènesi Chiaretto doc 2022 and Rosanoire 2022. In March, we’ll bottle the superb Groppello 2022, that will be available in April. 2023. UPCOMING EVENTS On February 17th, come meet us at the wine tasting of the European Tour of Gambero Rosso 2023 in Copenaghen. On March 6th, you can enjoy the official La Prima del Valtènesi Chiaretto annata 2023, organised by our Consorzio di Tutela Vini DOC at the gorgeous Museo Mille Miglia in Brescia. From April 2nd to April 5th we will be at from 2 through April, will see us in Padiglione 8 in the VINITALY, in the FIVI area. FIVI. Vinitaly is always a superb opportunity to meet with wine professionals from all over the globe, and to taste all the new releases. Cristina and Diego

The Befana at Cantrina

posted on 6 January 2014
By now it has become a tradition at Cantrina: Cristina and Diego take advantage of this traditional Italian Epiphany celebration to wish everyone a Happy New Year. At a time that is a difficult one for so many people, we have to show ourselves even more optimistic and forward-looking, and the Good Witch, our beloved Befana, will surely bring a measure of healthy irony and wisdom…

Harvest 2013

posted on 11 October 2013
L’andamento climatico della primavera, fredda e particolarmente piovosa, ha fatto ritardare la fioritura delle vigne e di conseguenza anche l’epoca di vendemmia, che si è spostata in avanti di un paio di settimane rispetto alle ultime annate. Ma è quest’anno a essere in ritardo o forse sono stati gli anni scorsi a essere oltremodo precoci rispetto ai tradizionali tempi di raccolta? Noi abbiamo raccolto le prime uve il 3 settembre, iniziando come sempre dal pinot nero per il rosato (ROSANOIRE): la maturità, disomogenea per porzione di vigneto e talvolta notevole anche tra singola pianta, ci ha costretto a un difficile lavoro di selezione dei grappoli e i primi assaggi dalle vasche a fine fermentazione soddisfano le nostre aspettative.

Newsletter in the rain

posted on 12 April 2013
…nothing but rain, rain, and more rain… I swear that we have NEVER seen such a season!!! This has been a growing year that starting way back in autumn has brought rain practically every week, even though the winter was not particularly severe. One must exercise patience, and we know that “it never rains forever,” and that the sun does eventually appear. So, we can only hope. The activities in the vineyard are proceeding slowly (see above paragraph!), but things are going very nicely in the cellar. After bottling in January, we released Rosanoire 2012, and then in March Zerdì 2010 and Groppello 2012 went into bottle.
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