The silence is over. Now we here the rhythmic noise of the bottling line all day long. It’s done. We made our possible. Now there’s the Graduate, when the wines are coming one by one on the market, when they are tasted, valued, critizised. The time you are standing apparently relaxed behind your table, waiting on the response of the taster in front of you. Of course you do everything to seem to be sure at the positive answer. But you toes are moving in the shoes, your hands are playing with the corkscrew, while the nose is approaching the glass, the wine is flowing through the mound. Of course you try not to show relief when there come the four magic letters: “GOOD!” You try not to show your pleasure when the letters become more: “EXCELLENT!”
We have delivered. We all. The farmer in the vineyard, the winemaker, the workers in the cellar. Actually, 2017 was way harder for the winegrower than for the winemaker. All began with an extremely dry winter, until into the spring. That’s never good. Anyway, you don’t know what to say when Max, a young winegrower who had the farm from his father only two years ago, telling you that the Müller Thurgau vines didn’t sprout. Grubbing and re-planting. Some year of economy. Sometimes it’s hard if you are depending on the nature. In April, then, the temperatures went down. It’s a strange feeling when you are going to bed not thinking whether there would be damages or not, but only how big they would be. At the end, two hectares frozen, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer and, again, Müller Thurgau. Sometimes nature can be cruel. The first half of summer, extremely hot and dry. Bad news from all over Italy, where some winegrowers had to renounce the harvest to save the vines. Then you are grateful to nature that in your irrigation tubes there’s still fresh water. Then, the August, with heavy thunderstorms, heavy rainfalls flooding parts of the city. Each day the concerned look to those yellowish clouds, those clouds of hailstorms. Each day damage notices of all parts of the province: 5 %, 10 %, 30 %. And each day the relief hearing that your winegrowers were only slightly affected. In autumn we had very instable weather conditions – forecasts changing every day, harvest schedules that had to be adjusted continuously, and many, many phone calls: “Do you get your harvesters a day earlier? Can you bring me the Chardonnay before you harvest the Pinot Blanc? Does the Pinot Grigio weather two days of rain?”
Everything went well. The harvesters came a day earlier, the Chardonnay before the Pinot Blanc, the Pinot Grigio weathered the two days of rain. Sugar contents were surprisingly high and constant, acidity on an optimal level, the grapes were healthy. Just as we winemakers are wishing it, just as our work in the cellar gets easy. 2017 isn’t an outstanding vintage. The wines, compared to the top vintages 2015 and 2016, are a bit smaller. But they are elegant, they are fresh, they are mineral, with a good fruit. Wines that, especially considering the circumstances of their birth, are laying a smile on our lips. No, we don’t have to be ashamed for these wines, au contraire. And who knows, maybe, in 5 or 6 years, we will get to a different conclusion: “2017 – extremely underrated!”.