A note from the Barone Pizzini agronomist Pierluigi Donna:
Here are the first flowers that announce the vine’s upcoming production. It’s a very delicate phase in which the interaction between all the essences present in the soil and the biodiversity of the organisms become active again after the winter break.
With their presence and complexity, they help to contain the spores of the early parasites.
Today in Franciacorta…
Last week’s on the ground in Franciacorta is a good sign for the 2013 vintage: it means that the soil will have an extra reserve of water for the warm summer months when water could be scarce. It’s also a good start to a “balanced” vegetative cycle, with “four seasons” as the older folks like to say. Here are some beautiful photos taken by Barone Pizzini manager Marta, who kindly shared them with us.
Last week, Pievalta winemaker Alessandro Fenino began tasting the 2012 parcels and revisited the 2010 reserve wine. His notes follow…
We were pleasantly surprised by our tasting of the 2012 base wines. It was a difficult vintage where heat and drought had stressed the youngest vines. And the heat during harvest didn’t bode well for great aromas.
But when we sat down to taste the 2012 wines (one wine for every vineyard parcel), we found that our ugly duckling had become a swan: aromas of fresh flowers and great elegance for this harvest, flavorful in the mouth and refreshing on the palate. At the same time, our lab analysis told us that the wines had good acidity with a pH around 3.1. But lab results don’t tell you if the wine is good or not.
So we decided to age all of the wine produced from our San Paolo vineyard because we feel that it will make for an excellent reserve wine.
We used the wines from our Maiolati Spontini vineyard to create a 2012 Pievalta. The wine is fragrant with spring aromas and it promises to become an irresistbly fresh, easy-to-drink wine.
We also tasted the 2010 San Paolo and decided that it’s ready to be bottled. This spring we’ll bottle this great vintage and the we’ll watch it grow.
At the moment, it’s dominated by citrus and mineral flavors, with brilliant hints of aromatic herbs. In the mouth, the body of the wines is balanced by good acidity and the classic vein of savory flavor that the vineyard gives us each year.
—Alessandro Fenino
grape grower and winemaker
Pievalta
Castelli di Jesi
The staff at the Barone Pizzini winery arrived this morning to find a “veil” of snow covering the Franciacorta amphitheater.
We’ll be reporting on weather and the progression of the 2013 harvest here on the blog for both Barone Pizzini (Franciacorta) and Pievalta (Castelli di Jesi).
Stay tuned!
