Our company and the work we do in our vineyards and hazelnuts, in the small barn and in the fields are as simple as possible.

We work every day in the vineyards and our goal is to protect our health and the one of the people who drink our wines, according to the protection and respect of the environment from which we get the profit that allows us to live. For this the vines are grown without the use of chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides. We use, when the health of the vines and grapes requires that, sulfur, copper sulfate and organic manure produced in our small stable for fertilization. The vines are left grassy and are populated by many types of herbs that in the spring season also offer some flowers, such as dandelion, useful to our hives.

In the cellar the wines are neither filtered nor cold stabilized and we don't add substances that may change the texture, the flavour or the nature of the wines.

Our business could be classified as organic, but we prefer not to be certified by an external body, just because we believe it is more important to carry out the work with the care and attention necessary according with our passion and ideal rather than do the same job only because it is dictatet by an external institution or by the market needs.

OUR WORK DURING THE YEAR

There are many jobs that took place throughout the year in the vineyards and in the winery.

You will find below a brief description of the various works, with an approximate date, which may have variations depending on the season trend that can be very different every year.

In the vineyard the more intense work period is from May to mid-July, while in the cellar the most complex period is the harvest, that is from September to mid-November.

Winter December to March

Vineyard

Pruning, Ripalatura and Binding

During the period from December to mid-February the vines are pruned. The system that we use is called Guyot Simple, that is the most worldwide used method of pruning for a type of viticulture dedicated to quality. We leave a small outcrop (which will give the shoots for the following year) and a fruiting. The branches of the past season, called "sermenti", are thrown to the ground and comminuted in a way that will form the organic substance. After the step of pruning the new fruiting must be linked to the support. This work begins controlling stakes and replacing those worn out. It is therefore necessary to cut  the wicker from the willows, used for the ligation, and start the "legatura", which usually lasts from mid-February until the end of March.

CELLAR

During this period in the cellar wines are periodically decanted. In correspondence of the coldest days doors and windows of the cellar are opened in order to permit to low temperatures to favor the natural process of sedimentation.

Spring from April to mid-May

Vineyard

This is the time to plant new vineyards, to replace existing ones in the failed areas and hoeing the ground between a screw and another. In these days it is also necessary to cut the grass and to control at night, with the use of a lamp, if caterpillars are eating new shoots. We install also the "rete antigrandine" that is an anti hail coverage.

CELLAR

It continues the periodic decanting of all wines, while the Sauvignon Blanc and the Grinolino are already bottled.

Summer from mid May to the beginning of September

Vineyard

In mid-May it begins the most challenging period for the vineyard work. The new shoots start to grow  and the most important thing to do is to do the green pruning operation: this means that shoots are selected leaving from 5 to 8 shoots per fruiting and eliminating most of the new bunches. These last one could be 15 or 20 per plant but only one per shoot must remain. The plants are very generous, but they would not be able to bring to maturation all the bunches. Our vineyards are at a high altitude and therefore we prefer to remove the bunches immediately rather than take them off later when they are already formed.

This period is very important to the health care of the plants, not using systemic chemicals is important to take action at the appropriate time, not too frequently, but not too late. In the latter cases, in fact if you wait the onset of the disease that could not be stopped and no remediable cause damage to new leaves and new clusters, which dry up rather than mature. In case of too frequent interventions instead of waxing it can be delays in the normal seasonal evolution of resistant strains as well as to create rooms that will make future treatments

GREEN PRUNING finished the branches in the meantime continue to grow should be continually monitored and linked to the supports, lest the wind does not break them and their posture is vertical to ensure that there is a good arrangement of leaves in the sun. Simultaneously with this we need to eliminate the new shoots, called femminelle, arising from major shoots in addition to continuing periodic mowing grass.

In the period prior to the harvest also you have to remove the leaves in bunches strap so that the wind keeps them healthy and can sunbathe. In very hot years this work we try to ritardalo as possible or even not to do so to preserve together the fragrance and freshness of the wine.

In the early days of September also it happens harvesting hazelnuts.These are taken home, spread in the sun that dries up in the right place for storage and later clean and selected.

CELLAR

In the mid-late July usually we put in the bottle a good part of Dogliani Pianezzo and Freisa Bosco delle Cicale.

All other wines are bottled in the period instead of an old August, ie in the period from 20 August to early September.

Autumn from September to November  

Vineyard

The harvest period is certainly the most known by all. Our harvest started after a careful assessment of the grapes, both from a visual point of view (it is estimated that in fact the spine especially in sweet varieties may experience in drying problems and the health aspect of the grapes especially in the rainy years) , taste and the analytical point of view (sugars and acidity).

The collection which is completely manual provides for the selection of the grapes. The best will in fact be used for wines that are bottled, while others use them for the production of a more simple and everyday wine.

Le Vigne used for Dogliani Superiore Sori San Martino, the Langhe In Sorì and for most of the Barbera Langhe are very steep so the baskets once filled are moved to the top of the vineyard using a winch and a sled.

In November instead after removing hail nets alternatively the vineyards are fertilized with the manure produced by cattle of Piedmontese breed of our little stable, after which the land is worked to bury the manure and aerate the soil.

CELLAR

After harvest the grapes reach the winery and immediately de-stemmed, while crushing is very soft, not to damage the skins.

The fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks at a temperature vaia 25 to 28 degrees C.

During this stage we do not add sulfites or other products, to try to facilitate as much as possible the development of indigenous yeasts that occur naturally on the skins. The tanks undergo several daily pumping of which 2 air using a container to incorporate the must oxygen for the life of yeast.

After the alcoholic fermentation, the must is separated from the pomace, and the new wines are kept separate vineyard to vineyard, and very frequently are racked (about 6 -8 racking Girne from early October until the Christmas period), fundamental operation to keep the wines clean from the olfactory point of view.

It happens then of course the Malo-lactic fermentation after which the wines for which they foresee starts aging in wooden casks. The winery that so far is maintained at a temperature of about 18 degrees is no longer heated and thus begins the aging period of new wines.