Our “Natural” Grape Harvest

The grape harvest is done by hand

At the beginning of September the magic of the grape harvest begins. We start with the merlot, then sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, leaving the petit verdot for last.

We choose when to harvest by tasting the grapes and testing random samples. This shows the levels of sugar, ph and acidity and helps us to decide which variety or vineyard to pick. The grape harvest is done by hand using aerated boxes weighing up to 20 kilos. Once the grapes reach the winery, they are transferred on to a sorting table where we check if they are healthy and meet the necessary standards. The grapes are carefully selected and then poured into the destemmer and from there, without using the pump, moved into small (2 quintal) steel containers where they are crushed by treading them barefoot.

We have chosen not to use selected yeasts for either the alcoholic or malolactic fermentation. We put the must into vats without using pumps. Fermentation can take anything between 7 to 20 days depending on the variety and above all the vintage. We taste the must every morning and then decide how to proceed. Depending on the quality and type of the grapes we use steel and cement vats or 30 hectolitre wooden vats. We manage the cap by pressing by hand, and sometimes use delestage if we have reduction problems. We try to avoid pumping over (only for a short time, if it is necessary) so that the grape must does not come into contact with the pumps. The vats have a cooling system but we only use it when temperatures go above 30°C.

All our wines undergo spontaneous malolactic fermentation, and this occurs in wood for Veneroso and Nambrot .