linea

Storyteller

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. The vineyards this year have been pushed by very good weather conditions, and as always, they seem to playing a game with us growers, growing so quickly and messily, almost as if every spring they were showing their impatience with behaving well and staying in their place in the vine-rows. In addition, this year we have to manage an important new groppello vineyard of about 2 hectares, and convert it to organic viticulture to boot, so this demands even more careful attention in every operation in the vineyard, which ends up being a real mountain of work, much more than in past seasons. Luckily, we can rely on a group of fellow workers that is modest in size but very capable and very dedicated, so I think that we will cope pretty well–apart from some “crises” that will surely appear! And now… to work, running, too!

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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