Today it’s raining in Maremma and we have stopped gathering the grapes, so here’s a short mid-harvest report. We are indeed halfway through the 2012 harvest and the vine-dressers, our vignaioli, are all at work, following the indications of our agronomist with regards to what vineyards need to be harvested first, according to the maturity of the grapes.
This has been a very peculiar year, as everyone in Italy has noticed, because of the great heat but most of all because of the unusual absence of rain. We’ve started picking the grapes on August 20th, in the usual order: firt the Chardonnay and Viognier grapes, then Merlot – the most precocious of red grapes – and then the white grapes from which we will produce our new sparking wine. Yes, indeed, from this vintage we have a beautiful new entry in our Winery. We then started to harvest the Ciliegiolo grapes which are destined to our Novello wine, and our rosé wine.
The first lab analyses have confirmed that grapes are of very high quality: this summer’s drought has produced small grapes but perfectly healthy. What has changed, when compared to the latest vintages, is that quantities are strongly reduced, due to the lack of rain. Our estimates, which are consistent with those of the insurance companies who are visiting the vineyards of the entire area, state a reduction of 30% for Sangiovese, except in the areas where it now has rained. For white wines, production will be in fact halved. However, the good news is that the quality of the grapes is the usual one, if not higher. Plants, due to the scarcity of rain have undergone water stress but with the rain of these past few days the vines have gone back to their rich, lively colour. This makes us even more enthusiastic about the harvest of the Sangiovese grapes which, rain permitting, we will start by the end of the week and end at the end of September. As they say, it’s not the quantity that matters, but the quality. And the latter will abound indeed.
