linea

newsletter

Befana 2015

posted on 6 January 2015
Warm wishes to all from the Befana!!! As always, we like to wait until the beginning of the new year to send everyone our best wishes for the holidays just past and our hopes that the new year will start off in the best way possible. Looking a bit down the road, and at our own life here, we are hopeful that 2015 will be a terrific growing year–and, who knows, perhaps even a great vintage! OK, maybe I’m going a little too fast here, or even just dreaming… so it’s best that I let you know what’s been happening with Cantrina. PROWEIN 2015: After last year’s very satisfactory experience, we will be returning this year to Prowein in Düsseldorf. We will welcome you in our usual spot, Merum’s stand #16E71 in Hall-Pavilion 16, on 15-16-17 March. PROPOSTA VINI TASTING: Restaurateurs will want to note that on January 26, at the  Hotel Montresor Tower di Bussolengo (VR) in Bussolengo, Proposta Viniwill officially introduce its 2015 Catalogue, and the wines will be available for tasting. We ourselves will be there of course, along with many other fascinating small producers from all over Italy. Look at the homepage on our website for the notice with all the details. NEW VINTAGE IN THE MARKET: The end of the year marked the release of RINE’ 2013 and of NEPOMUCENO 2009, these are truly two very fine wines. Yes, at the moment they may show an imperfection or two due to their youth, but even as early as this coming spring they will be impressing you! We want to let you know as well that we still have a few–a very few!–bottles of the previous vintages, and in particular magnums of the 2006-2007-2008  Nepomuceno. 2015 BOTTLING SCHEDULE: We are just about to bottle ROSANOIRE 2014. This wine boasts a zesty acidity, thanks to a truly one-of-a-kind growing season, and that means that this will be a wine with great cellarability: you’ll be enjoying it for many, many years to come. Bottled along with the rosé will be ZERDI’ 2012. It has never turned so well, with rich fruit and clean contours, and we expect a great future for it. VALTENESI and RINE’ 2014 will go to bottle in late spring. They exhibit the same hallmarks of Rosanoire crisp acidity and impressive ageing potential, perfect exemplars of the 2014 growing year; we believe these wines will continue revealing their qualities over a very long time. NEPOMUCENO merits separate comment. We decided not to bottle a 2010 vintage of this wine, since the 2010 vintage was, in our opinion, not high enough in quality to produce a wine such as NEPOMUCENO. So, we will be bottling NEPOMUCENO 2011 in the summer, and what fun that wine promises to be… Cristina and Diego

Cantrina in real time

posted on 4 March 2011
I am writing from New York… I try in English (no time, unfortunately to have our dear Michael Benson translating for us). The weather is fine, better than in Italy, chilly temperature but no snow. The city is amazing, as always and each time I’m back it seems to me like being back home. Just an update about the mess I’m doing here, working in New York for the second time this year. Today a benefit event will be held by the Brooklyn based Issue project Room, rapidly becoming the point of reference for contemporary art in the New York area. Cantrina is a proud sponsor and our wines will be the only ones in tasting for the night

The Befana’s* Newsletter

posted on 5 January 2011
*[In Italy the feast of Epiphany is “personified” by la Befana, an imaginary, witch-like crone who brings gifts to good children and (sweet) “coal” to those who have misbehaved]. I always like to be a little bit different, so the Befana’s feast is one I identify with… and that is why I am only now taking the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year, assuming you have survived the massive beanfeasts during the recent holiday period! I just have one or two TEENSY-WEENSY bits of news to tell you about: Cantrina has also gained a foothold in MonteCarlo, for now just with our most extreme wine, the ERETICO 2007… I am increasingly convinced that unique products really do make a difference in the marketplace and so one should always be prepared to TAKE A GAMBLE!

Harvest 2010

posted on 6 November 2010
What can we say about the 2010 harvest, which came at the end of a year that was especially strange and difficult? There was a late spring and a rainy summer that was cool and humid, an early autumn and lots of problems with the health of the vines. 2010 will definitely not be one of the vintages of the century and, as things stand right now, it is very hard to pick out any products of real excellence. However, after the first few days of harvesting, which caused us a great deal of apprehension because of all the care and hard work that we had to put into selecting the grapes, we can now say that we are hoping for a few pleasant surprises from the vats where fermentation is just coming to an end. In short, it took us more time to pick less grapes than usual; also, we didn’t set aside any grapes for drying to make the Sole di Dario and we selected fewer grapes for the Nepomuceno. From our initial tastings, though, we can look forward to wines that may be less fleshy and muscular, but which display great freshness, fine aromas and acidity and which should eventually offer elegance and longevity. The French (who know a thing or two about wine) refer to these as “cellar masters’ vintages”: years in which the skill and sensitivity of the winemaker really can compensate for nature’s lack of generosity. We hope we’ve done a good job!
1 Unfortunately, 11 12 13 14 15