The last few grapes were picked by our crew without any hurry or overly stressful selection - the grapes were healthy and fully ripe.
It looks like this is going to be another (!!) great harvest for Barolo, perhaps with a little too much alcohol, but definitely with good acidities and balance.
The last tank of nebbiolo was pressed on Sunday. For the first time we fermented longer than usual, we left it for a week on the skins..."just a week" some might say, but for us it's a "record". We tried to keep the temperature lower than usual, about 28°, and for longer. We will see the results soon as the juice is almost dry now.
Luckily this year we haven't had any arrest of fermentation, all tanks are turning dry naturally and some have even started their malolactics already.
We never inoculate with powdered yeast, preferring to create a "mother yeast" that we carry on for the whole vintage. I think that is a very good natural way of working and of giving your wines a special "familiar" taste every year.
Now that the crazy action is over we start to realise just how much work we have done and how many hours we have worked. Sleeping till 7,30am now feels like a total luxury!
This morning we racked the Dolcetto from one tank to another. It has such a nice aroma of violets and cherry that you almost want to eat it!
Just a few more day of moving stuff around, racking, then putting the new wines in barrel, turning the heaters to help malolactic fermentation and.....finito!!!!!!!!
