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newsletter

Cantrina at New York

posted on 6 July 2010
Hello there everyone! As in all family-run companies we’ve been very busy, and so some time has passed since our last newsletter… Here, then, is a little news about our activities over the past few months. Having found an importer in the United States, we went to New York for a brief business trip and we are now looking forward to seeing our wines on the lists of some specialist wine stores and/or exclusive restaurants in Manhattan. In our opinion, New York is a city that offers great opportunities and there even particular products like ours can find the right type of market exposure. At a tasting at the Hudson Hotel our products – especially the Nepomuceno and the Rinè - were highly appreciated, and our American friends suggested that we define our wines as “unconventional” because of the character and original style that set them apart. From this trip to New York we also realized how important the use of QR (or Quick Response) codes is: these, “read” by your mobile phone, enable you to decode information or connect to an Internet site, thus forming a link between physical objects and the web. From the next bottling runs of our new vintages, in fact, we shall apply this code to all our bottles, whether they are destined for Italy or for export markets. We are just about to bottle the  Rinè 2009 and Sole di Dario 2007. As is usual for us, they will only be released when they are ready and therefore not for another one and a half to two years from now. However, we can tell you that they both show really great promise. We are also preparing another experiment: a white wine for which we picked the grapes a few years ago – yet another “open-mindedexercice de style” which we will tell you more about in the near future… A final note about what’s going on in the vineyard. This is a strange and complicated year: the cold winter weather, which dragged on throughout most of the spring as well, did not prevent the vines from undergoing a good, regular bud-break, followed though by a long period of very heavy rains that are now causing us a number of problems as regards vineyard management, both from the point of view of the vines’ health and the work we have to do on the growing plants (trimming the tops of the shoots, eliminating excess leaves and thinning out the bunches). Now we are hoping for a long spell of dry and sunny weather that will help us finish in the best possible way a growing season that started off with a certain amount of difficulty… 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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