Anticipating our 2011 harvest

Anticipating our 2011 harvest

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Here we are with the latest news about our new production of  Grapes: there are not many  grapes on the vines so it will not be necessary to thin  them out. The grape vines are very advanced this year,  this means that the next harvest will be earlier than expected.

 

Do you know what  we mean when we say the vines are advanced.  The first

green shoots of the vine  over time turn into a yellow colour with brown streaks and then harden. This process coincides with the start of  the change of the colour of the grapes themselves, from green to blue. This usually occurs at the end of July but this year it started about a week ago, a good 10-15 days ahead of our normal schedule. This is a result of water stress triggered by the sudden and violent high temperatures which we

experienced in the first half of July. The roots of most of the vines are still sitting in the ground water  which  fell as heavy rain during the winter, which thankfully have made large reserves of water for the plants. However in the more arid parts of the ground the growth of the young green shoots has been affected and is subsequently reduced.
Taking into consideration all these phenomena we now anticipate an early harvest, around  10 days earlier than we would normally expect. The Brunello vineyards of Casato  Prime Donne at Montalcino, although they  germinate later than the   Sangiovese vineyards of the Fattoria del Colle,  should mature first. This is because they have a much shorter growing season.

Looking in detail at the the vineyards themselves, there are not a large number of grapes this year which means it should not be necessary to thin them during the green harvest. Most likely the reason for the decrease of both  grape clusters correlates with the cold period in which fruit set occurred. However, poor harvests are generally very good in terms of quality of wine therefore we are very optimistic.  ‘Nature gives back what it takes’, an old saying meaning what nature claims in numbers it compensates with quality.
Good news also from our new Fattoria del Colle vineyard  ‘Cancello Nero’.   These  Sangiovese vines which we planted in May are very healthy. Thanks to the rains we have not had to water them but we will if the heat and the sun continue.

Brunello di Montalcino and other wines