MAKING WINE…

At harvest we pick up the grapes with the utmost care.
The grapes are picked in the cool hours of the morning and the grapes are quickly brought to the winery to preserve the integrity of the berries and avoid undesired fermentation or oxidation.

WHITE AND ROSÉ WINES
The grapes for the white and rosé wines are put directly in the press. A soft pressing of the grapes extracts the finest part of the juice, the so-called free-run juice, which is the only part we use to produce this kind of wines. The free-run juice is clarified at a low temperature for one night to let the sediment settle at the bottom of the vats (flotation process). The clear juice is then racked in other vats: here the alcoholic fermentation occurs at a controlled temperature of 20 °C to preserve the freshness and natural aromas of the juice. After one month the juice has become wine: during the winter it ages on its fine lees.

Our semi-sparkling Pinot Noir and Rosato and our sparkling Spumante (Martinotti method) are bottled in early spring, once a second fermentation in stainless-steel autoclaves creates their natural bubbles. The still 347 Bianco is bottled in late spring.

RED WINES
The vinification is more complex for the red wines. A machine destems and crushes the berries: the juice is transferred to stainless-steel vats. Here two processes occur simultaneously: the alcoholic fermentation and the maceration of the juice with the skins . We keep the skins in contact with the juice to extract the polyphenols: these compounds are very useful for producing red wines with a good body and rich in colour. At the end of the maceration the wine is racked in vats where it ages on its fine lees during the winter. The wine is frequently racked and the lees are repeatedly stirred (bâtonnage).

The semi-sparkling Bonarda is bottled in early spring once a second fermentation in stainless-steel autoclaves creates its natural bubbles, while we wait until May to bottle the still 347 Rosso, giving it enough time to reach its best expression. Il Colonnello, our only oaked wine, ages for 6 months in second-fill barriques before being bottled in summer.