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Cantrina Ventennale

Cantrina, a 20-year-old taste

posted on 13 June 2019
After numerous seasons marked by a warm spring that was so early that it brought budbreak significantly forward, we are finally seeing a textbook spring. In fact, after a particularly dry, not very cold winter, April ushered in a long, cool, rainy period that considerably slowed down vine growth, so much so that flowering occurred some two weeks later than the previous season. Overall, the outlook is positive, though, and predictions at this point, if there are no surprises!, are for a harvest kickoff no earlier than the first days of September, even for the early-ripening varieties.Of course, the high humidity of the past months and the frequent rains have presented an additional challenge for growers like ourselves, since we farm organically, but the expertise that we have built up over the five years that we have followed this philosophy have enabled us to manage the vineyards in the best possible fashion. We will shortly be finishing our green pruning (selecting the most promising buds, thinning and tying up the shoots, leaf-pulling), and next month we will, if necessary, reduce the number of clusters for optimal development of the remaining ones.With regard to the wines, we are just about to bottle Riné 2018, Zerdì 2017, and Groppello 2018, all of them certified organic.
20th milestone:
On 13 May, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our winery with a vertical tasting showcasing the three wines that, from our founding to the present, have become iconic. We selected the vintages of each that are most representative of the evolution of the blends, production methods, and ageing.
The years tasted are:

- Riné (1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2017)
- Nepomuceno (1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2015)
- Sole di Dario (1999, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2012)

It was truly exciting to re-taste the 1999 wines. We knew, of course, that we were producing age-worthy wines, but we didn’t know that that could be so surprising—so crisp, complex, and intriguing, as only a well-matured wine can be….
Have a look to our gallery 20th milestone.

Epiphany 2013

posted on 6 January 2013
Yes, here I am again, now that the Befana, the traditional Good Witch of the Epiphany, has landed. She is bearing you, along with Diego, a full load of our warmest wishes for the New Year, and I personally wish that I too could bring you presents, but can you just picture a Befana scattering bottles of wine while trying to fly her broom at the same time?! So it’s better for the moment that the bottles continue to rest in the cellar, and that way they will be here for you when you come–invitation!–to visit us over the course of 2013 to taste them with us. Now, as far as what’s coming up in the near future …

Harvest 2012

posted on 8 October 2012
It’s incredible: it seems as though we barely finished the 2011 harvest and here we are already at the end of this odd, totally crazy 2012!!! Yes, odd, since what else would be the right word to describe a growing year that started off with such a mild, dry winter that there was no snow, not even on the mountains, followed by a rainy, wet spring that created no lack of problems in the vineyards, which were trying to flower, then all of a sudden it was summer, and one of the hottest of recent years to boot? Hot and dry that is, until heavy rains came during the last stage of the growth cycle. So, changing environment, creeping tropicalisation of our climate? Who knows, but our job as winegrowers, and it isn’t an easy one, is to interpret as best we can what nature sends us, and so…

Crazy weather!

posted on 6 June 2012
Greetings to all of you, just a few months after our last newsletter, here we are again, right in the middle of a new growing season. “We just don’t have real seasons anymore,” has become a set-phrase overused by almost everyone, but it certainly is right on the mark for this crazy start to 2012! December and January were cold and dry, then February was freezing, followed by a March that was almost summer-like. Heavy rains and snow arrived only in late spring, with temperature swings of as much as 10-15oC between one day and the next. All of this crazy weather nevertheless brought the vineyards into very fine growing conditions, with growth that is quite vigorous, maybe even too much, since the vines are keeping us running to keep everything balanced and to monitor the crop.
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