newsletter

Here we are almost at the end of the harvest (we still have to pick just a tiny part of our grapes and press those that we have set aside for drying) and so, strange as it may seem, it’s time to take stock of the overall situation once again. It was a precocious harvest for the early-ripening grapes (Pinot Nero, Chardonnay and Sauvignon), due to early flowering in the spring and very favourable weather during the summer. The picking time for Merlot, Rebo and Marzemino was more in line with the norm, thanks to a fine September with cool nights and rain-free days. The health of the grapes and the first analyses of the new wines allow us to rate 2009 as a good year. Only time will tell us whether it will be an excellent vintage: yes, time, which is much more truthful than all those exaggerated proclamations we tend to be bombarded with each year as the harvest approaches… We are just in the process of releasing our 2005 Nepomuceno, but we won’t be entering it in the National Italian Merlot Competition this year. In the last three years it has always come out as one of the best wines in its category, but the choices we have now made have given us a 2005 Nepomuceno I.G.T. red that is entirely in line with our philosophy of production, i.e. a blend of wines made up partly from Merlot, but also from Marzemino and Rebo. Another new release is the Rinè 2007, in which we have included – as you may remember – a small proportion of the Incrocio Manzoni variety. Libero Esercizio di Stile is our new label: it represents the utmost point of our production in terms of creativity and experimentation. We have made a short video about Cantrina that explains the estate’s production philosophy: if you’d like to go and have a look at it and make some comments, please go to our site. We’d like to know what you think of it. Lastly, for our German-speaking friends and clients, we have introduced information sheets in PDF in their language.