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SUMMER 2017: The harvest is just around the corner

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 and 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

Groppello 2015

posted on 22 October 2015
In exercising my profession, I’ve been “treading the vineyards” for a good thirty years now, more or less, and I never expected to find such utterly fantastic Groppello! Totally unexpected, because Groppello, planted over hardly more than 400 hectares, exclusively on the Brescian side of Lago di Garda, is a challenging grape to grow. Its tight-packed cluster of “knotted-up” (groppello) berries; thin skin, with often little pigment; its hard-to-achieve balance of sugar and acidity—all these mean that even in good growing years the grapes struggle to ripen adequately, and suffer attacks of mould well before the harvest arrives.

Una giornata di imbottigliamento a Cantrina

posted on 15 July 2015
Giornata lunga, caldissima e impegnativa: abbiamo, infatti, messo in bottiglia e confezionato più di 17.000 bottiglie – un record per la nostra piccola azienda – tra vini di nostra produzione e quelli in conto lavorazione per altre aziende. L’imbottigliamento è l’ultima fase del processo di produzione di un vino ed è un momento molto delicato, nel quale nulla deve essere lasciato al caso, poiché si rischierebbe di vanificare mesi (e a volte anni) di attesa e lavoro per una semplice mancanza o disattenzione.

May 2015

posted on 13 May 2015
Here we go again: cut the weeds, sucker, select and thin the buds, train the shoots on the wires… The season hasn’t even started yet and we’re already behind with our work in the vineyards, and from here until harvest we’ll be running back and forth to keep the vineyards in good condition.
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