La Vendemmia- 2011

Fiano Vines at Santo Stefano, province of Avellino, Campania (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Harvest is on going throughout Italy. I asked a few producers to give me their thoughts on the 2011 growing season and harvest. Here are their comments.

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Piero Mastroberardino – Director – Mastroberardino, Atripalda, Campania

Winter was long and cold with less rain than normal. The vegetative resumption was delayed due to the cold winter. In the first stages of blooming, we had a lot of rain that enriched the acquiferous layers of the earth. In May, June and the first part of July, we had a good climatic state, with rains of little intensity that were spread out, bringing back the vegetative state to normal again.

The third week of July with the coolest temperatures and a little rain, predisposed the vines to the water stress of August. In August, especially in the second and third week, we enjoyed very good thermal inversion between the days and nights. The rains of the final days contributed notably to a lowering of overall temperatures.

The actual climatic conditions along with the important thermal inversions and the good vegetative/productive conditions of the vines, have led us to a harvest of excellent quality.

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Antonio Capaldo – Owner/Director – Feudi di San Gregorio, Sorbo Serpico, Campania

The harvest is overall very good in quality but with a strong reduction in quantity (30-40%) which is bringing a lot of pressure on us all.

Falanghina started a few days ago and is very beautiful.

Fiano and Greco appear on a similar condition but it is still too soon to say as it is starting raining after an incredible heat. For Aglianico it is definitely too soon but overall indication on lower quantity/higher quality appear to work here as well.

We are about 10 days in advance compared to average.

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Alessandro Locatelli – owner/winemaker – Rocche Costamagna, La Morra, Piedmont

Another great harvest in Piedmont !

This was a very particular season that started 2 weeks early; the harvest also arrived 2 weeks before normal.

Great quality, perfect ripening, but very low production: 20% less.

We are happy and next week we will start the Nebbiolo harvest.

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Andrea Felluga – winemaker – Livio Felluga, Brazzano di Cormons, Friuli

The harvest is going well. We have had sufficient flowering and a very balanced season… extremely hot at the end of August that came together well for a well-timed picking of the grapes. In the hottest days, we picked only in the morning, so as not to scorch the grapes. The whites and Merlot are now finished. We have also to pick the Cabernet, Refosco, Pignolo and Picolit, obviously. We are in a most delicate enological phase for the white wines: at the end of alcoholic fermentation, management of the lees and malolactic, but I am very optimistic for the quality of the wines.

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Maddalena Pasqua di Bisceglie, Musella (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Maddalena Paqua di Bisceglie – proprietor – Musella, San Martino, Veneto

I’m particularly happy this year to give you some notes about the Harvest 2011. A great vintage!

First of all, I have to say I was lucky to be helped and encouraged by the weather in our first year of Biodynamic and this is important…my enthusiasm for what could be considered a dream of a life is now even more intense after the first and incredibly evident results!

The weather in 2011 was not regular, considering a very advanced hot Spring and the cool July and beginning of August. These inverted conditions created a particular course of maturation. We had an advanced development of blooms, leaves and grapes, we arrived in June with at least a couple or even three of weeks of advance. In that period the weather changed and we suffered three long weeks of intense rains.

Around the third week of August it was extraordinarly hot week (40 C°!!) that gave a kick to the maturations and in only a few days we had the unusual condition to have almost all varieties ready to be picked!

Honestly we saved the quality with some water in form of irrigation we could gave during this week. It was more than a month we had not any rain and the vines started to take the water from the grapes and to stop the maturation! So, giving small quantity of water we interrupted this process.

Around the end of August in a weekend we had an amazing quantity of rain (60 mm), the entire Valpolicella area had an important relief and the grapes started to mature again everywhere here.

We never harvested Corvina before the first week of September and this year we did it in August…amazing and new for us, but that’s a part of the beauty of my job: it is never the same and could be very surprising, teaching us something new every year.

The first vinifications were perfect and even if we were worried for the first Biodynamic experience, we are very happy with it and even quite surprised how we already can taste more crunchy fruit in it.

The colors are very rich, the acidity not particularly high, but we will manage it with the malolactics. The general conditions gave us not a big quantity, but for sure a very important quality!

Barolos of La Morra

I have previously written about Barolo and listed several of my favorite producers in this area. Now I would like to briefly discuss a few of those producers, as arranged by commune. This post will deal with five of the finest vintners of La Morra, right in the heart of the Barolo zone.

RENATO RATTI – This historic estate is today managed by Pietro Ratti, the energetic and outgoing son of Renato Ratti. The elder Ratti was one of the most important individuals in this zone during the 1950s and 1960s for his work in mapping and identifying the great crus (single vinyards) for Barolo production. The map he created is still a valuable reference point in any discussion on this topic.

Today, Pietro produces three bottlings of Barolo in most vintages: Marcenasco, a selezione from vineyards near the winery, Rocche (dell’Annunziata) and Conca (these last two from single vineyards). The Ratti style of Barolo is ideal ripeness, but subtle wood, so as to allow the terroir of the sites to emerge. The wines are elegantly styled and are first-rate examples of how Barolo improves and changes with time. Ratti is not the only producer to focus on this, of course, but he is one of the finest, no doubt. His recently released 2006s are beautifully layered (especially the Conca), and his 2004s and 2001s are remarkable.

ROCCHE COSTAMAGNA – Located at the top of the hill, just as you enter La Morra, this estate is one of the most consistent in La Morra and the entire Barolo zone. Alessandro Locatelli is the owner and in my mind, the style of his wines are much like the man himself – straightforward, elegant and charming. His regular bottling of Rocche dell’Annunziata is excellent, but it is the Bricco Francesco, made from grapes from the highest portion of the Rocche vineyard, that is his finest wine. Deeply concentrated with a long, beautifully structured finish, this is classy La Morra Barolo with elegant tannins and lovely perfumes.

MARCARINI – Managed by Manuel Marchetti, this is one of La Morra’s most traditional estates. The two Barolos – La Serra and Brunate – are fermented in cement tanks, as these are inert and impart no additional flavors. The wines are then aged in botti grandi (large casks) to emphasize varietal character as well as a great sense of terroir. The wines are subdued, marvelously balanced and age beautifully. These bottlings are also some of the most fairly priced Barolos in the entire zone – bravo Manuel!

Cru of La Serra, located in La Morra (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

ROBERTO VOERZIO – As traditional as the wines are from Marcarini, the Barolos from Roberto Voerzio are just as modern in their approach. Voerzio makes as many as seven different bottlings of Barolo – almost all from La Morra (Brunate, La Serra, Rocche dell’Annunziata Torriglione), each of which is aged in entirely new French oak barriques. While this may seem excessive, the discipline in the vineyard – extremely low yields – ensure that there is plenty of fruit to balance the wood. While these wines appeal to a different palate than those of Marcarini, one cannot doubt their excellence.

GIANNI VOERZIO – Brother of Roberto, Gianni Voerzio produces only one Barolo from the La Serra vineyard, but it is quite a bottling. Just like his brother, Gianni ages the wine in barriques, so the wine has a ruby red color instead of the garnet one expects with a young Barolo and there is ample oak. Again, yields are low, so the wine is balanced and older vintages show quite well. Gianni Voerzio, like his brother, is also a gentleman as well as an impassioned winemaker.

Gianni Voerzio (Photo ©Tom Hyland)