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Storyteller

Riné

posted on 21 March 2022
Dear Customers and Winelovers, We’d like to talk to you a bit about our Riné. Although it has changed over the years, we conceived Cantrina’s white wine--our distinctive blend of Riesling and Chardonnay, and a bit of other white varieties we grow here in our estate vineyards--as one that would evolve and mature with cellaring, offering its best even many years after bottling. We noticed, though, in the few years, that we were often forced to sell Riné too soon, and thus offering our customers a wine that was still inexpressive and therefore not fully appreciated for what it really was. Thus our decision to fully recognise the unique merits of this unusual wine by postponing the release of Riné 2020 at least until autumn 2022. As you well know, ours is a very limited production, fruit of a meticulous quality-selection of grapes grown in 8 hectares of organically-cultivated vineyards. Further, we have now had three successive growing years of below-average crops, a challenge that has constrained us to reduce the number of bottles or made it difficult to even produce some of our wines at all. We define ourselves as artisanal winegrowers, which means striving to pay close attention to every single detail in order to follow the most natural path possible in achieving our particular idea of the wine that we bottle and offer to our wine-loving customers. One “detail” that is fundamental for us, throughout the winemaking process, is the selection of the right time. There is a right time for harvesting, a right time for fermenting, for racking, for maturing the wine, for bottling, and, finally, for the right time-length for its ageing in the bottle before the right time arrive to fully enjoy the fruit of such lengthy efforts. Believe us, this decision has cost us a great effort, both logistical and, of course, financial, and it pains us to have to leave some customers wine-less for some months, but we are convinced that our choice will come to be appreciated over time as an act of rigorous winemaking and of respect for all the fans of this superb wine. Thank you, Cristina and Diego

In Nuremburg with K&U Hausmesse 2014 – Wein radikal anders

posted on 27 November 2014
Gorgeous, wonderful tasting organised by K&U, by Martin Kossler, Dunja Ulbricht and their team. They’re a modest-sized importer in Nuremburg, very special persons, all of them, and they simply exude that spirit, in their remarkably-warm hospitality and generosity, and in every perfect organizational detail of this event that runs for two days every year.

Cows, horses, and nothing but green. Account of a tasting in a de-consacrated church.

posted on 11 November 2014
And here I am back from Belgium. The only Italian producer among a group of French, I participated for the second time in three days of tastings organised by my small importer, Michel Wijnen in Dilbeek. Just a few tables, with 8 selected producers, all taking part personally. Next to the bottles were the wine-bar prices, as well as promotional prices in case an order was placed right then. The tasters each received a glass and list of the wines, and they had the opportunity of placing an order immediately as they exited–very efficient! Everyone was very interested and tasted every wine by every producer.

2014 harvest… totally difficult, but not impossible

posted on 15 October 2014
We have finally finished this year’s troubled harvest, and after our series of tastings we feel that we can now give a very preliminary judgment on this year’s wines. The factors that characterised this growing season were huge amounts of rain, low average temperatures, little sun, and a summer that we saw only for brief moments. These conditions created a host of problems, with the grapes struggling to achieve ripeness and various fungal attacks – despite our constant efforts in the vineyards – affecting both clusters and leaves.
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