FINALLY A DIFFICULT VINTAGE

MAURO SIRRI’S HARVEST NUMBER 27

Dear Friends,

Usually the producers, when interviewed by journalists greedy for sensational news, not hold back and let it go to statements which not always are reflecting the reality. We live a life of glittering light, so everything must be exceptional and every year we outdo ourselves in more and more sensational performance. Over the past decade, we have had at least two vintages of the century, 2003 and 2007 which were not perhaps of the century, five great vintages and two exceptional ones and at last a good one. Well, I felt a longing for a “difficult harvest”, I missed, indeed it is a beautiful “human experience. I speak of “human experience” that brings the man to deal with nature and the awareness that not everything we have is due to us.

WEATHER CONDITIONS

The abundant snowfalls of the winter 2009-2010, (the last snow dates back to mid-March 2010 with about 30 cm that are added to the snowfall in December, January and February) have replenished the land of abundant water resources. Budding began in early May with force, taking advantage of beautiful spring days, but the weather did not last long and by mid-May to 20 June the weather was disrupted with widespread rains over the period with temperatures below the media. These conditions have caused two problems: the slow development of vegetation and the difficulty of entering in the vineyards with farm vehicles, especially in those having clay soils. The work in the country has committed significant, “defogliatura”, suckering and management of green, in order to maintain balance in the vine and its fruit. With many difficulties we arrived in July where the temperatures were raised sharply, reaching even 34-35 degrees. The heat and light are definitely friends of the grapes, however, when temperatures exceed 32 degrees, photosynthesis stops and slows down the ripening of the fruit. So if we add the delay due to weather conditions in May, June and July, we arrived in early August with a delay of schedule by about 15 days. Normally the last week of July begins the ripening of red grapes. Well, this year, in the first week of August we could not see any trace of the colour’s changing. It was urgent to find a solution to recover at least part of the delay.

Make the “green harvest”, ie drastic thinning and removal of part of the underlying leaf cluster to air, in order to avoid possible Botritis cinerea attack (a not noble rot) that considering the skin is not thick, was not a hypothesis ruled out a priori. Along the way, we arrived in September, harvest time, the phenolic ripening was slow to arrive, despite the growing operations performed. So a further action was necessary to pre-harvest, going to defoliate the part of the cluster to the south that, this point was no longer at risk of burns due to excessive solar radiation.

The grapes have begun to reach maturity, but in different way, so the selection had to be careful, going to select the parcel to parcel of vineyard areas most ready and ignoring the others. You can imagine the difficulties and costs we have incurred, however, despite nature was not benign, diligence, perseverance and the method allowed us to produce wine grapes with not so high sugar concentration, but in very healthy condition. Achieving such success in this “Finally Difficult Vintage” was a great result that is rewarding us as a company, as winemakers and as people who were able to capture the best of not always favorable events.

Two thousand and ten is my 27th harvest
Believe me, I have not seen one like another, each one different, each special, unpredictable and somewhat bizarre.
Dear customers and friends,
Thank you so much for the friendship you reserve

Kind regards

Mauro Sirri