GANACETO (Province of Modena)

Alberto Fiorini owner of Poderi Fiorini (Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP, Lambrusco di Sorbara DOP, Lambrusco di Modena DOP, Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto DOP) – the following is a letter sent by Alberto to the clients of the winery

Finally’a’“normal”’harvest’ 

After  many  vintages  where  the  harvest  was  early,  the  2013  harvest  goes  back to  climate  parameters  that  are  decidedly  more  suitable. 

After a rainy springtime that made the bud break of the vines start late, especially  in  the  vineyards  on  the  hills,  the  growth  cycle  of  the  vines  speeded up during the summer months that were quite warm and dry with a low rainfall. 

In the zone of  Sozzigalli the vines vegetated very  much  especially during the months of June  and July  and benefited, differently from the hilly zones, from the  summer  rainfalls  that  helped  the  vines  and  the  clusters  to  ripen. The vineyards standing on the hills, and the younger vines in particular, suffered  from  light  hydric  stress  that  was  counteracted  with  drop  irrigation.   The harvest started on the 26th of August  with Pignoletto and  it finished on the 6th of September. After that Merlot and Barbera of the Torre vineyard were  picked. 

The clusters this year were particularly beautiful and flawless and great attention was given to the time of harvest so that the sugar content, the acidity  and  the  pH  were  suitable  for  each  specific  type  of  wine.  

From one of the young Barbera vineyards we carried out a rosè vinification from a small selection of Barbera  grapes  which  made an excellent base for the  new  wine  of  Torre  dei  Nanni,  MareMagna. 

After mid September the harvest of Lambrusco Sorbara and of Lambrusco Salamino  started.  A few  days  of  rain  slowed  down  the  ripening  process  of  the grapes.  The  ripening  of  the  grapes  was  consequently  perfectly  balanced. During the  last  week  of  September  we  decided to  stop  before  starting to  pick the Lambrusco Grasparossa grapes, but we had to wait for 10 days due to intense  rain  and  due  to  a  sudden  slowing  down  of  the  ripening  process  of  the grapes  in  the  Grasparossa  vineyard  of  Torre  Maina. 

We started picking the Lambrusco Grasparossa grapes for the production of Becco  Rosso  at  the  beginning  of October  and  we  started  picking  the  grapes  for the  production  of  Terre  al    Sole  towards  mid  October. 

After the first tastings and the first prise de mousse  we can say that the Pignoletto  wine  is  more  mineral  with  tropical  fruit  notes,  while  the  Lambrusco Sorbara is very good with an evident violet note and with a slightly higher 

alcohol strength. The Lambrusco Grasparossa is fruity and with evident   tannins. 

We  consider  the  quality  of all  the different  types  of  wines  of  the  2013  vintage excellent due to the variable climate that made it possible for the various varieties  of  grapes  to  reach  a  perfect  ripeness. 

Alberto  Fiorini