newsletter

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. So 2012 is shaping up to be a “strange” year, but every vintage has its own fascination and distinctiveness, and here at Cantrina we’re certainly not ones to let the unusual get us worried! Last February we released Rosanoire 2011 and in May Groppello 2011, and our customers are telling us how well these wines have turned out. In fact, 2011 is yielding just what we were confident it would: wines with full, well-ripened fruit yet at the same time elegant, clean, and crisp. In a few months, we will release Nepomuceno 2007; we think that a little more time in the bottle will give a tad more maturity to a wine that is so famously “muscular” and forceful as is Nepomuceno. Something to keep in mind, please, is that we hope you will confirm what we believe, that this is perhaps the finest vintage yet produced, even more elegant than usual, and exceptionally drinkable for such a firmly-structured wine. Wine guides: We usually supply samples of our wines to the annual wine guides (too many?), but this year we will be sending them only Nepomuceno 2007, Groppello 2011, and Rosato 2011; the other wines are either not bottled yet or are not yet ready. May and June at Cantrina are simply magnificent for the explosion of roses all in flower–and there are truly a lot and of so many varieties!–, not to speak of the cherries already ripe on the trees, and the vineyard in full flowering, with the vines’ delicate but intense fragrance so heady and inebriating, just filling the air all around, yet you can’t really get enough of it! Palazzetto di Cantrina. For some time now we have been thinking about how to improve and better utilise the Palazzetto that is part of our farming estate, which is rather run-down. In November, we got together some friends for a brain-storming session, and a lot of good ideas emerged (thanks!), which we are now working on. The only thing we are missing is the one key idea on how to finance the work! Cristina and Diego