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Summer 2017 – Waiting for the harvest

posted on 7 August 2017
Well, we are almost there… After a very challenging season that spared us absolutely nothing, in terms of strange weather, we are just about to harvest the earliest-ripening grapes. Following a dry, but finally cold winter, an early, warm spring exploded on us in March, only to be abruptly interrupted on April 19 by a freeze that cost us about 30% of our crop… The season then continued, but without much rainfall, but with periods on increasing heat, particularly from June on. These were fortunately punctuated by a few rainstorms, which somewhat alleviated the drought that largely characterised this growing season. The Africa-like heat that has marked recent days is surely stressing a certain section of our vineyard, where the soils are lean and drier. All of this definitely portends a harvest that will be a couple of weeks earlier than last year, and a lower crop. So we will definitely need—as, on the other hand, we always do—to carefully calibrate our picking in order to be able to express this season in the most favourable manner possible, and to maintain the style that has always characterised Cantrina’s wines—sound, healthy fruit, cleanness, crispness, and vibrancy. Right after the mid-August holidays, then, the dance will begin, starting as usual with Pinot Noir for Rosanoire, then the white grapes, then step by step, Merlot, Groppello, and Rebo…Finally, to those who have already vacationed and to those who have yet to do so, we wish a fine summer, and to us Good luck for the harvest that is awaiting us just around the corner. Diego and Cristina

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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