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Ready for the new season!

posted on 20 March 2025
Warm greetings! With spring at the doors, we’re happy to send you some brief news items about what’s going on at Cantrina.

SOME NEWS FIRST ABOUT THE VINEYARDS

It’s certainly no longer novel, but we’ve had the umpteenth mild winter, an aspect of climate change that we have been seeing for years now. This year, though, conditions were unusually wet and tedious, with drizzles in autumn that lasted for months.
They didn’t harm the health of the vines, but conditions were certainly unpleasant for those in the vineyards doing the winter pruning. In a few days, finally, after two years, we will complete planting our new vineyard, on land we recently bought. We are anxiously expecting the initial crop—in harvest 2025--from the first vines planted in 2023.



SOME DEVELOPMENTS IN THE WINE DEPARTMENT

In late January, we bottled the rosés Valtènesi DOC “a rose, is a rose, is a rose” 2024, Rosanoire 2024, and Valtènesi DOC “Myroses” 2022. Among recent vintages, the 2024 is expressing itself as one of the best, in freshness, sapidity, and clean-edged aromatics. We are used to seeing a similar performance from Rosanoire , which is always quite consistent and reliable over time, but this year’s “a rose, is a rose, is a rose” DOC Valtènesi has really surprised us, in that it is the full expression of its terroir, the Valtènesi, an area renowned for rosé production. This year’s is possibly the best we have made so far. "Myroses" 2022 is a chapter in itself: a grand, elegant wine with years ahead of it, pleasurable and with loads of personality.



Many of you have been asking us when the new Cortecciowould be arriving. For those still unfamiliar with it, this is our red Pinot Nero that, in special years, we make a few bottles of and only when the wine completely satisfies our idea of what a Pinot Nero should be. Well, after months, if not years, of doubts, trials, re-thinkings and infinite tastings, we decided to bottle a few hundred bottles, fruit of a blend of two vintages—the union of a small part of the hot, powerful 2022 with the crisper, more elegant and aromatic 2023. A salute to Groppello 2024! The new concrete vat in which it is maturing is working well, and the wine seem truly promising. We are thinking of bottling it before the 2025 harvest. We’ll keep you up-to-date.

TASTING THE WINES

In April, with the opening of the season, we’re starting the tastings at the winery again. We remind you that it’s always best to let us know beforehand or set a time with us via e-mail or telephone.

EVENTS

This year, too, we decided to skip Vinitaly (6-9 April). Although we continue to think that it’s an important trade fair, it’s too large and dispersive for an operation such as ours. Since we are just a few kilometres from the fair, if anyone is interested, we will make ourselves available for business meetings. We can be with you right in the cellar, where we can taste all the new vintages. We are also willing to set up an appointment right at Vinitaly, at the Consorzio di tutela Valtènesi in the Palaexpo Regione Lombardia.

We wish all of you an enjoyable spring!

Cristina and Diego  

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!

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.
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