In the cold months of January and February, the vines are carefully pruned. Later, the remaining shoots have to be tied to the wires that support the vines; a long and arduous job.
Wine Harvest and Vinification
During the hot month of July, Lorenzo takes off several bunches of unripened grapes from each vine in order that the vines can concentrate on the smaller number of remaining bunches. This is an important part of producing high quality wine. The harvest takes place within the first week or so of October. Two tractors are used and about 15 hardworking friends and relatives of Catrina and Lorenzo participate.
Towards the end of September as the time for the ´vendemia´ approaches, once a week Lorenzo checks the ripeness of the grapes, together with his ´enologist´Marco Chellini.
Pickers are given the orders of where to start!! Lorenzo will select particular rows or even patches of vines, so that the best grapes are not mixed with the lesser quality ones. And in it all goes.!! It will start its fermentation immediately. Down the shute for destalking. The winery, although small, is newly refurbished with steel inox vats and all the necessary modern equipment to process the 300 quintals of grapes (approx 25,000 bottles) we produce.
The skins which rise up to the top, hold the important subtances - colour, tanin.. and in order to extract these, they need mixing with the liquid (wine). This involves a process of pumping the contents of each vat from bottom to top, which needs doing twice a day for the first two weeks. After 10 – 15 days the liquid is pumped out and the remaining skins are squeezed out in a cylindrical press. No longer can we stamp with our bare feet!! The skins are taken to a distillery and used for making grappa.
The second fermentation takes place in the barriques to which the wine is transferred after these first 10-15 days. Here the wine will stay for a year. After a year, the wine is bottled and stored in cages. There is a lack of space so it will only be cased when pallets are to be shipped. The best wine, from the best grapes, will also be kept in the barriques for a year, and then a few months back in the steel vats, and then in to the bottle for a further refinement and after two more years, (three in total) will be sold as Riserva. The 2003 vintage has won the top award in "2000 Vini".
