newsletter

The cold and particularly rainy spring weather has delayed the flowering of the vines and consequently also the harvest time, which has moved forward by a couple of weeks compared to recent vintages. But is it this year that is late, or was it perhaps the past few years that were too early compared to traditional harvest times? We harvested the first grapes on 3 September, starting as always with pinot noir for the rosé (ROSANOIRE): the ripeness, uneven per portion of the vineyard and at times even considerable between individual plants, forced us to do a difficult job of selecting the bunches, and the first tastings from the vats at the end of fermentation met our expectations. The whites, riesling, chardonnay and manzoni crossbreed that will provide the basis for the RINE’ 2013, are finishing fermenting these days, confirm that we will be faced with wines that will stand out more for their acidity and finesse than for their power and volume, wines that, even more than other vintages, will be able to evolve and last over time. The same could be said for the GROPPELLO which is still in the fermentation phase, in the countryside we still have the later reds such as Merlot and Rebo, which we plan to harvest after mid-October, in search of the best possible maturity.Overall, we could define it as a “Nordic” rather than a “Mediterranean” style harvest, and difficult to interpret: therein lies the beauty of our work, in accepting the challenges that nature proposes to us with each new harvest, respecting the character of the vintage. We were able to replant a portion of the vineyard with vines of GROPPELLO. We look forward to the first harvest for the 2015 vintage, although we expect to taste the first grapes as early as next year! We take this opportunity to inform you that the RINE’ 2011 is sold out and that we will have to wait until next February to put RINE’ 2012 on sale; the ROSANOIRE 2012. We will be present at the next Independent Winegrowers' Market (Piacenza Expo, 30 November and 1 December 2013): come and visit us, it really is a very nice and alternative event for wine enthusiasts. On 13 September, the Lombardy Delegation celebrated the 25th anniversary of the’National Association The Women of Wine. Being at the head of the Delegation, I can assure you that the organisation was very long and demanding, but it was worth it: we managed to raise around EUR 10,000.00 in favour of the Francesca Rava Foundation onlus NPH Italyfor the poor children of Haiti. Happy autumn Cristina and Diego