2012 Harvesting

Winter 2011-2012 was a rather peculiar season because of its mild temperatures and dry weather which lasted until mid-February.

February was, at first, snowy and later extremely cold with temperatures well below the average even going down to – 15 degrees. The consequence was an unusual delayed vegetative restart with an uneven and scaled trend.

Then Spring was cool and wet at the beginning. This provided a good water supply which, together with May high temperatures, brought about an acceleration and rebalancing of the vegetative development.

With its substantial rainfalls, June saw a less than normal setting which brought about less compact bunches. The rest of the summer was hot with the highest temperatures in the second half of August. This did not cause any water stress, however, thanks to the previous good water supply.

The harvesting, which for the white grapes started 10 days earlier, developed more regularly for the red ones which were favored by two timely rainy days early in September together with lower night temperatures.

In general, there was a 5% – 15% decrease in production, depending on the vineyards, but with healthy and excellent quality grapes.

The wines

The white wines are balanced and endowed with a good acidity which exalts their freshness and a great fruit character. So even though their structure is not huge, they are pleasant and balanced.

The Dolcetto-based red wines are characterized by a remarkable colour and a lower alcoholic content with comparison to recent previous harvests, which turns them into pleasantly drinkable wines. The fruit is elegant and pleasant, fully consistent with the grapes it comes from.

Barbera-based wines are pleasant and harmonious, which makes us forecast an evolution towards elegance more than towards power, though the balance is very good.

Finally, Nebbiolo-based wines have been definitely favored by the climatic trend of the second half of September with its remarkably variable temperatures ranges. As a consequence, they boast an excellent colour and a good structure and do not have a too high alcoholic content as in the recent past. These wines will already be able to be appreciated since the very early years of ageing.