Wine production has always frightened me because wine is a mobile, living element; the contrast with oil production, which is instead “commanded” by an iron discipline, respect for times and rules, was quite ] paralyzing for me. In 2017, taken by the hand by Dr. Maurizio Chiappi, an agronomist with a long experience ] in the technical direction of wineries with a viticultural orientation, I made my first harvest..and a world opened up to me.
From our hectare of Sangiovese, always selecting only healthy grapes, we currently produce different types of wine.
- The “Falso modesto…”
- The “Modestia a parte…”
- The “Timo-rosa”
The “Falso modesto.” is our first born.
The grapes are harvested in the first half of September, and a selection is made of the bunches to be brought to the winery. The first operation is destemming. Juice and skins are transferred to a vat where fermentation will take place. This phase lasts about twelve days during which pumping over is done two to three times a day, that is, the liquid part is moved by taking it from the bottom and letting it fall back on the cap, the mass of the skins that, due to the effect of the frementation, is pushed up. This operation, in addition to allowing the extraction of tannins and substances that are essential to give the wine aromas and body, makes it possible to ward off mold or frementation phenomena that would compromise the flavor and quality of the wine.
At the end of fermentation, the skins and grape seeds are racked off the wine, and the skins are pressed in order to extract more liquid.
This is followed by months of aging in stainless steel, racking so as to separate the lees from the wine, and checking to ensure that everything is going well. Once bottled, the “Falso modesto.” will need to spend at least 6 months in bottle, crucial time to round out the characteristic edginess of Sangiovese.
“Modestia a parte…” this is the natural evolution of the “Falso modesto.” experience.
Sangiovese is a grape variety that is characterized by a certain “prickliness”, a marked tannicity that makes it rough when its young, but also extremely long-lived.
The wine, processed in steel until the end of fermentation is passed in barriques (not new barriques that would change too much the characteristics of the wine) for a few months. This micro-oxygenation gives to our wine that elegance and gentleness that make it more welcoming to any consumer.
During the months in the barrique the good lees are stirred in order to enrich the typical aromas of the grape variety.
After the bottling it continues its maturation in the bottle for several months.
For “Timo-rosa”, conceived during the lockdown and produced for the first time, experimentally, in 2020, we pick the grapes a little early, about 10 days before the harvest for the red, to leave the grapes some of the acidity needed to give freshness to a rosé wine.
The grapes are brought to the winery and from the destemming machine sent directly to the press. Here, however, it is not pressed but simply allowed to drain.
The resulting must is transferred to a steel container in which the fermentation will take place, at a temperature of 17 degrees Celsius. Fermentation lasts about 30 days. After that, the wine thus obtained will have to mature for a few months in order to bring out the aromas, caring to periodically remove the lees that could compromise the wine’s flavor.