WELL BEGONE IS ..NOT ALWAYS… HALF DONE

MAURO SIRRI’S HARVEST NUMBER 23

Dear Friends,

2005/2006 winter passed by without leaving particular marks: no snow, few rainfalls, mild temperatures, so we could quietly start the pruning operations in January and February.

Heavy rainfalls arrived in spring, contributing to enrich the water reserves and enabling the vegetative growing to start in May. The buds were quite regular except some excesses for varieties like SANGIOVESE. We were compelled to assist the greenery selecting the best buds and removing the superfluous (first thinning operation). We continued to assist the greenery in June as it exceeded especially in the vineyards downhill due to the water reserves of the winter and because the contents of acitve limestone were under the average.

July, the great heat: very high temperatures over 32°C stopped the photosythesis, consequently the fruit’s growth was hindered by the weather course. We were worried about the seasonal course and tried to lighten farther on the production (second thinning operation).

In the first 20 days of August (when the grapes start changing their colours due to the ripening) we had some even heavy rainfalls with few light-hours, so the ripening process slowed down. Well, all these elements together were not really very auspicious: at the end of August there were at least 15 days delay in the ripening process.

We placed all our hopes in September and October and luckily fortune smiled on us. These two months were marvellous: sun, constant breezes mitigating the temperatures and excellent temperature ranges at night. Even if the first grapes collected were a little penalized, Chardonnay and Albana showed interesting features, all the other grapes (especially the red ones) arrived in our Cellar in a perfect healthy state: sugar content, balanced acidity and most of all an adequate phenolic ripening.

TWOTHOUSANDSIX is my 23 rd vintage

Believe me, I have never seen one vintage similar to another, each one is different, each one is particular, unforeseeable and peculiar. Dear Customers, I thank you sincerely for the preference you reserved us until now and I wish you a prosperous and happy 2007.

Best regards

Mauro Sirri