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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

Harvest in Cantrina

posted on 8 October 2009
Here we are almost at the end of the harvest (we still have to pick just a tiny part of our grapes and press those that we have set aside for drying) and so, strange as it may seem, it’s time to take stock of the overall situation once again. It was a precocious harvest for the early-ripening grapes (Pinot Nero, Chardonnay and Sauvignon), due to early flowering in the spring and very favourable weather during the summer. The picking time for Merlot, Rebo and Marzemino was more in line with the norm, thanks to a fine September with cool nights and rain-free days. The health of the grapes and the first analyses of the new wines allow us to rate 2009 as a good year. Only time will tell us whether it will be an excellent vintage: yes, time, which is much more truthful than all those exaggerated proclamations we tend to be bombarded with each year as the harvest approaches…

Let’s talk about…Vinitaly 2009

posted on 20 March 2009
vendemmia 2019
Here we are getting ready for Vinitaly 2009, even if it seems to us less and less like a fair that is appropriate for small producers like ourselves: amid all the hustle and bustle of this great event it is difficult to explain to people about our “open-minded exercice de style”. This year, therefore, we are concentrating on alternative methods of getting together with our friends (let’s hear from you!). However, if you are at Vinitaly on 2nd and 3rd April you can find us in the Lombardy pavilion in the PalaExpo on stand C7. If you so desire, we will be able to give you more details about our new releases, which we will merely outline below: Groppello, an indigenous grape variety of the Valtènesi, has become a part of Cantina’s range; with the 2008 vintage we have sought to express and interpret the potential of this cultivar in line with our particular philosophy of production. Rinè 2007 will have a new label, which will also reflect a few small changes we have made in the wine itself. Incrocio Manzoni is the new grape variety that gives this wine a stronger identity.

Cantrina from the old to the new year

posted on 20 January 2009
2008 is now just a memory: it gave us cause for concern with its rains in the spring and then cause for satisfaction with a late summer and early autumn that were ideal for ripening the grapes. The harvest then took place in cool, dry weather conditions: this, together with our efforts to keep down yields, allowed us to pick healthy grapes with a good sugar/acid balance. The resulting wines combine concentration with very fresh aromas and flavours, suggesting that they will have excellent ageing potential. 2008 was also a year for reflection. We thought long and hard about the type of wines we produce, constantly asking ourselves the same questions: “Can we express our terroir even without using indigenous grapes?” and “Can we demonstrate that quality and personality are independent of autochthony?”
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