Our vineyards are situated just a few hundred metres from Mornico Losana castle. On the north side they overlook the Ronchi valley where is located the Isimbardi Palace on the top of the hill. On the East side they bump into the Torricella sanctuary and in the background there are the Alps where the Mount Rosa stands out.
The synergy between the landscape, the pedoclimatic environment and the right agricultural practices, permit the production of special bunches. Our two labels "Venti Pertiche" and "Vigna Rondinella" have their origins in areas destined to vineyards historically.
In the past our soils were cultivated by Giuseppe, my grandfather, who succeeded in unifying little plots with a lot of efforts, in order to create a unique area of 20 poles (Pole is an agricultural unit of measurement that corresponds to 654 square metres).
After my family enlarged that area, achieving to own a plot of land of 30 poles. They decided to concentrate on this area by analysing the oenological results that it could achieve, by comparing them to the results obtained in different areas that they decided to sell.
Our vineyards are cultivated with a Guyot*1 pruning system that allows to obtain the best bunches quality. This technique requires a lot of handwork because it is really difficult to mechanize it. The yields are managed through balanced pruning: 5/6 quintals per Milanese Pole*2.
The pruning is followed by the budding and then by the growth of shoots that will compose the crown. It is fundamental to manage the crown in the right way to balance the leaf surface. The first and the second steps consist of binding of shoots. The first step is done when they are 40/50cm long and the second one when they are 120 cm long. These two procedures avoid the breaking of shoots and allow to allocate them on the rows of grapevines homogeneously; the last step is the pinching and the wraparound of shoots. It is done manually in order to be sure that each vine follows specific relationship between the leaf area index and the kilos of grapes.
In order to safeguard the biodiversity, a fundamental detail for the grapes' quality and the preservation of the ground from the rainfalls erosion, it is important to put in place the regrassing. The cutting takes place when the grass is 40-50 cm height. It allows to reduce the number of interventions in order to limit the CO2 emissions and to compensate them. The grass includes a lot of herbaceous species as taraxacum, mint, daisies, violets, bindweed, wild garlic, and many others.
The harvesting is done manually by filling small hoppers (400kg). These herbs are pressed 50 minutes after their harvesting in order to maintain the whole scents and organoleptic qualities.
The vinification
The Pinot Nero grapes (Cloni 777 and VCR18) in our "Vigna Rondinella" wine and Croatina, Barbera and Uva Rara grapes in our "Venti Pertiche"wine, are destemmed in our little cellar near the castle.
The must obtained thanks to the grapes destemming contains grape skins and grape seeds*3. It is put in little storages in which the alcoholic fermentation takes place at a controlled temperature, with selected yeasts*4 and low quantity of sulphites.
We have decided not to use indigenous yeasts*5 because climate changes permit that the alcoholic content always exceeds 13° by volume. For this reason, inefficient yeasts could cause the raising of volatile acidity or a partial fermentation of sugar. The management of temperature is fundamental in order to avoid the extraction of too much astringents tannins that could bring about an "edgy" wine.
In the first phase of fermentation, pumpings and manual follatures takes place. These procedures facilitate the extraction of: polyphenols*6, aroma components*7 and tannins*8. Follatura is the cap breaking through a pole, in order to submerge it into the must. The cap is composed by grape skins pushed to the surface by CO2 produced by the fermentation naturally.
During the pumping the must is picked up from the lower part of the vat in order to wet the cap. This technique allows to:
● decrease the temperature
● extract substances from the grape skins
● avoid the acetous fermentation that could occur on some cap areas
After 10 days of fermentation in contact with grape skins, the "Vigna Rondinella" racking takes place: the liquid and solid are separated. The same procedure requires only 6-7 days of fermentation for "Venti Pertiche".
Then the fermentation will continue until the moment in which sugars are completely transformed into alcohol. When the fermentation ends, the pouring off starts. Pouring off is an oenological technique utilized to divide the roughest particles for the decantation.
When the fermentation ends, the malolactic fermentation*9 starts: this is another biochemical process that takes place naturally through the malolactic bacteria, thanks to the previous vinification done by Grandpa Giuseppe.
The Malolactic fermentation transforms the malic acid into lactic acid giving softness, elegance and microbiological stability to the wine.
All the biochemical processes runs out at the end of the spring that follows the grape harvest. After that, we are ready for the first bottlings that will be concluded in November - December.
*1 Guyot: Farming method that include a cane fruit and a spur. The cane fruit will produce grapes for the current year while, from the spur will born the cape fruit for the following year.
*2 Milanese pole: agricultural unit of measurement that corresponds to 654 square metres.
*3 Grape seeds: seeds of the berry.
*4 Selected yeasts: yeasts that belong to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae family. They have been selected in nature in order to have a low production of acetic acid and enhance the scents, by preserving them from oxidative stress.
*5 Indigenous yeasts: yeasts which belongs to the microflora that is on berries, composed by many species of yeasts like: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Kloeckera.
*6 Polyphenols: red wine colouring substances.
*7 Terpenes: aromatic compounds that give flower or fruit smell to the wine. Some particles are: geraniol, linalool, nerol, etc.
*8 Tannins: they are extracted by the grape seeds. The structure of these tannins is characterized by the Catechin which can condense proteins that are in the saliva, by producing an astringent taste.
*9 Malolactic: biochemical process that transforms the malic acid into lactic acid, thanks to malolactic bacteria.