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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. This year, instead, we experienced exceptional weather: a particularly warm summer, dry and well ventilated, with a cooling wind in September, conditions that brought us a harvest that delivered grapes that were perfect from every point of view. Let me repeat: Never do I remember Groppello like this. Below are some photos of typical clusters of Groppello Gentile and … Groppello di Mocasina. Diego

2014 harvest… totally difficult, but not impossible

posted on 15 October 2014
We have finally finished this year’s troubled harvest, and after our series of tastings we feel that we can now give a very preliminary judgment on this year’s wines. The factors that characterised this growing season were huge amounts of rain, low average temperatures, little sun, and a summer that we saw only for brief moments. These conditions created a host of problems, with the grapes struggling to achieve ripeness and various fungal attacks – despite our constant efforts in the vineyards – affecting both clusters and leaves.

New Valtènesi DOC and Groppello

posted on 9 August 2014
1 September marks the official release of our first vintage of Valtènesi DOC, 2013. In point of fact, Cantrina’s Valtènesi is not a new product, since it simply takes the place of Groppello, with the same 100% of that variety and the same label design (in which the term Valtènesi replaces the name of the Groppello grape), but the change gives increased importance to the name of the growing area in which we live and produce our wines. It will just take a bit of time to get used to the new name and to communicate the message about the growing area, before that of the grape variety.

Rischi del mestiere…

posted on 7 July 2014
Dopo anni che non ci colpiva o ci aveva solo sfiorato, la “signora” ci ha fatto visita nella notte del 24 giugno interrompendo bruscamente una stagione che fin qui si presentava più che ottima: d’altra parte è un fatto ciclico e prima o poi doveva capitare anche a noi… C’è voluto qualche giorno per recuperare le energie e la voglia di analizzare serenamente l’entità dei danni, che per ora sembrano limitati ad una perdita di quantità, “solo” un 30/40% della produzione.
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