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Storyteller

Occupational hazards...

posted on 7 July 2014
It has arrived, this year it was our turn, unfortunately in Cantrina came what all producers fear every season, hail! After years in which we had not been hit or had only touched it, the ’lady“ visited us on the night of 24 June, abruptly interrupting a season that had so far been more than excellent. It took a few days to recover our energies and the desire to calmly analyse the extent of the damage, which for now seems limited to a loss of quantity, ”only“ a 30/40% of production. In fact, we are confident that the precociousness of the hailstorm will not compromise quality, since the grapes are still in a grassy phase and the harvest is still a good two months away: who knows, maybe even this undesired natural ”thinning“ will be an omen for an excellent harvest. In these moments, after the first few days of disappointment and understandable discouragement, all that is left for us is to roll up our sleeves, put our heads down on our work and take even greater care in every phase of production. We have chosen to be winemakers because it is the most beautiful job in the world, we have chosen to work in sun and rain, in good and bad weather, and what has happened is part of the risks of the job

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.

New Valtènesi DOC and Groppello

posted on 9 August 2014
1 September marks the official release of our first vintage of Valtènesi DOC, 2013. In point of fact, Cantrina’s Valtènesi is not a new product, since it simply takes the place of Groppello, with the same 100% of that variety and the same label design (in which the term Valtènesi replaces the name of the Groppello grape), but the change gives increased importance to the name of the growing area in which we live and produce our wines. It will just take a bit of time to get used to the new name and to communicate the message about the growing area, before that of the grape variety.
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