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Happy New Year to all!

posted on 24 January 2023

Once again, we find ourselves confronting another challenging year. True enough, Covid is finally largely behind us, but there is still a general climate of uncertainty, underscored by the war at Europe’s borders, whose impact is anything but negligible. The opening weeks of the year bring all of us the opportunity to renew our resolutions and launch new projects. We all must face our problems with optimism and hope, doing our own part with commitment and honesty. And now, on to what is happening at Catrina and what we’re planning…

HARVEST 2022 The 2022 harvest was certainly a great surprise, given the unfavourable weather that preceded it —a dry, hot summer— with far better results than we expected. After a full three years marked by hail and freezes in the spring, we were finally gifted with a fairly good-quantity crop, but what really surprised us was the excellence of the grapes, which promised wines of truly impressive quality, particularly for the reds. In addition, we’ll now be able to build up some reserves in the cellar and be able to bottle a bit more than we expected.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS After years of planning, we’re finally ready to install a small solar panel array, which will give us near-total electrical energy independence. We have wanted this for a long time now, for reasons of environmental sustainability, but the current overall energy situation, with sky-high energy prices, has made its use absolutely indispensable. We have also decided to install an irrigation well, to supply emergency irrigation for some of our vineyards in drought years such as we saw last season, and we will start construction as soon as possible, hopefully before the coming summer. Finally, the latest news is that we just signed a lease agreement for about a hectare of land, quite near our winery, where in the next 2-3 years we will plant a new vineyard to boost our production.

NEW WINES Ever faithful to our business motto of “Personal expression of style,” we decided to bottle two very distinctive and unusual wines, Valtènesi 2020 and an uncommon selection of Nepomuceno 2016.

An elegant version of Valtènesi Chiaretto, dubbed Myroses 2020, in 500 litre used French oak barrel, which imparted significantly more complexity than our standard Chiaretto, as well as a seductive elegance and hints of spice on the nose, an almost golden hue, and a palate that is simply pleasure personified.

Nepomuceno limited edition 2016 is a wine that we have been planning for quite a while, but it had to wait for just the right growing year to see the light of day. We selected lots of the finest red grapes from our estate vineyards for a very special edition of our Nepomuceno. That vintage turned out to be 2016, and it gave us a little less than 1,000 bottles. It matured about 4 years in new oak barrel and spent an additional 18 months in the bottle: a “super nepo”, as you could call it.

We want to let you know that Nepomuceno 2018 has been available for some months now, and that Riné 2020 Organic wineOur supply of Zerdí 2019is almost gone and the 2020 will be released soon. Sole di Dario , one of our most prized wines, is extremely challenging to make at the quality level we demand, so it is simply impossible to produce it every year. Furthermore, the quantities are always limited, since the Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes are carefully dried in a special drying room for a minimum of two months, with a final yield of only 30%. The 2019 vintage is now gone, so we have to patiently wait for the 2021 to be ready, in all likelihood in spring 2024.

On February 14th we will release Valtènesi Chiaretto doc 2022 and Rosanoire 2022. In March, we’ll bottle the superb Groppello 2022, that will be available in April. 2023. UPCOMING EVENTS On February 17th, come meet us at the wine tasting of the European Tour of Gambero Rosso 2023 in Copenaghen. On March 6th, you can enjoy the official La Prima del Valtènesi Chiaretto annata 2023, organised by our Consorzio di Tutela Vini DOC at the gorgeous Museo Mille Miglia in Brescia. From April 2nd to April 5th we will be at from 2 through April, will see us in Padiglione 8 in the VINITALY, in the FIVI area. FIVI. Vinitaly is always a superb opportunity to meet with wine professionals from all over the globe, and to taste all the new releases. Cristina and Diego

Befana 2018

posted on 8 January 2018
With best wishes for a happy start to the new year to you all, the Epiphany Befana has delivered some lovely gifts to Cantrina… One of them is big news! Vinitaly 2018: After years of participating in Dusseldorf’s Prowein wine fair, in which we gained invaluable contacts, we decided to alter course and return to Vinitaly in 2018, set to run 15-8 April of this year, in Verona as always. You will find us at our own stand inside the FIVI group space.

The wine-grower’s post-harvest wrap-up

posted on 16 November 2017
Considerazioni del produttore
Now that the fermentations are nearly finished, it’s time for our usual overview with respect to the 2017 harvest—or perhaps better, the 2017 vintage year. As expected, the extremely hot weather and lack of rainfall—some 60% less than normal– that marked the entire season brought the harvest forward by two full weeks, which meant that on 18 August the first pinot noir clusters for Rosanoire were already in the cellar, and the white grapes came in just one week later.

Summer 2017 – Waiting for the harvest

posted on 7 August 2017
Well, we are almost there… After a very challenging season that spared us absolutely nothing, in terms of strange weather, we are just about to harvest the earliest-ripening grapes. Following a dry, but finally cold winter, an early, warm spring exploded on us in March, only to be abruptly interrupted on April 19 by a freeze that cost us about 30% of our crop… The season then continued, but without much rainfall, but with periods on increasing heat, particularly from June on. These were fortunately punctuated by a few rainstorms, which somewhat alleviated the drought that largely characterised this growing season.
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