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We’ve wrapped up this year’s harvest, too…
It was a year of very hard work. Bad weather dealt us repeated blows, first with heavy rains all the way through the spring and a good part of the summer, then with torrid heat in late July and early August. Nonetheless, we were successful in bringing a satisfactory crop into the cellar, both in quantity and quality.
It probably won’t be the vintage of the century, but, on the other hand, we were fortunate that there were no destructive storms and successful in combatting fungal attacks brought on by excessive rains.
And, yes, it was a slow, challenging harvest. What definitely helped us—much more than in previous years—was severe quality selection in the vineyard during the harvest, leaving on the vines all clusters in any way unsuited for our winemaking.
Our team, composed largely of young pickers, started off in early September with the Pinot Noir for Rosanoire as usual, and we finished about a month later with Rebo for Zerdί and our Groppello red wine. In between, it was slow, hard work in repeated passes for the white grapes for Rinéit was Valtènesi, and Merlot for Nepomuceno.
Unfortunately, this year we were unable to harvest grapes for Sole di Dario, since excessive moisture and very thin grape berry skins militated against a high-quality wine.
This year’s wines, which initially seemed rough and difficult to understand, are improving now, after a few weeks, in terms of cleanness and finesse, the whites and rose’s as well as the reds. These performances lead us to think that this vintage will be characterised more by elegance and crispness rather than by power and full body. This underscores the fascinating work of the true winegrower, who is an artisan of wine and expects variability between vintages, over against the industrial type of producer, who want the wines to be identical year after year.
Particularly true for those of us who farm organically is the crucial importance of intensive attention paid to work in the vineyards. That now continues in the cellar, as we pamper our new wines and anxiously monitor every single detail, to a greater degree than in vintages perhaps considered greater and easier to interpret.
This year, too, we were able to take some snapshots of the harvest, that you’ll find at this link , along with reportage by Claudia Filisina.
Meet-ups:
We will not be at the Mercato dei Vignaioli Indipendenti FIVI this year, but we will participate for the first time at the Slow Wine trade fair on 25-26-27 February 2024 in Bologna.
Upcoming wine releases:
At this point in our winemaking year, we would like to warmly wish you a splendid autumn and winter season! We, too, will back off a bit and slow down, as we temporarily suspend our tastings and get out in the vineyards to begin pruning! See you in 2024!
Cristina and Diego |
