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Harvest News - Vintage 2008
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September saw the beginning of the harvest for Guerrieri Rizzardi, a few weeks later than our 2007 harvest. A brief report now follows outlining our results from the different wine regions/ appellations in the Veneto.
Valdadige and Bardolino: The Chardonnay harvest began in our Dolcè vineyard in Valdadige on September 16th - two weeks later than the previous 2 years: September 8th in 2006 and August 31st in 2007, respectively. The harvest then continued with our Tocai Friulano grapes in Cavaion and Cortese grapes in Bardolino. September 20 th saw the selection of grapes to be dried for the production of our Castello Guerrieri Rosso wine. The final result was a blend of Corvina (75%) and Rondinella from several old vineyards in Bardolino and Cavaion. Harvest continued with the picking of the Sangiovese, Corvina and Rondinella grapes from the youngest vineyards in Cavaion. These grapes were picked at an early ripening stage in order to preserve the fresh and fruity aromas which are very important for the crafting of our Rosé wines. After a short break between October 2 nd and October 15 th , we then harvested the red grapes of Bardolino, ending with our highest quality Corvina grapes from our Vignai and Cà dell'Ara vineyards in Cavaion. The cooperative weather (no rain!) helped us to harvest in an organized fashion. We also decided, due to these favourable meteorological conditions, to extend the picking of our Corvina grapes in our Dògoli vineyard. With its high quality soils, the resulting grapes were very healthy and rich in sugar. Lastly, harvest ended on November 6 th with the picking of our Garganega grapes in Cavaion. Overall, 2008 was a very good vintage in Bardolino for the red wines while being a bit unusual for the rosé wines as the sugar levels were very high in the grapes when compared to the last 5 vintages. In this case, by picking early, we seem to have good results!
Valpolicella: The first grapes harvested from this region were selected to be dried for our award-winning Amarone wines. The harvest started on September 17 th in the following order of varieties: Barbera and Sangiovese, followed by Corvina, Rondinella and Corvinone. The highest quality grapes in 2008 were Corvinone from the Pigozzara vineyard. This vineyard, which was planted in 2000, was thus selected for the 1 st time for its use in our Amarones. We do not use any grapes from vines younger than 5 to 7 years. We selected approximately 15.000 bins in 15 days, with a great quality from all of the grapes! On October 1 st we picked the Merlot grapes. This is the first time we are cultivating this grape variety in Valpolicella in October (vines planted in 1999). We waited for perfect grape maturation in order to avoid the risk of green notes in the aromas of the resulting wine. Between October 10 th and October 15 th we harvested the grapes from our younger vines. After October 20 th , we picked Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes, all vines trained in the double pergola system in our Pojega vineyard. This vineyard's harvest ended by November 7 th with grapes going through the Ripasso winemaking process for our Pojega single vineyard wine. 2008 is a great vintage in Valpolicella: we have had excellent results from all our wines. We await the end of the drying process for the Amarone grapes, but so far the grapes, in the drying rooms, look fantastic!
Soave: The harvest started in Soave with the picking of our Chardonnay grapes. This variety now encompasses 20 to 30% of the blend of our Soave wines. Harvest for these Chardonnay grapes began on September 17 th , one to two weeks later than the 2006 and 2007 harvest. Next, we continued with the grape selection for the drying process for the Recioto di Soave: which is crafted from Garganega grapes grown from an old pergola trained vineyard. Trebbiano di Soave, was then picked on September 24 th and Garganega grapes, from the youngest vines, were picked on October 27 th and 28 th , respectively. We then waited for a very advanced maturation level from the oldest pergola trained vines from the Costeggiola vineyard which were planted between 1960-1980. These grapes are the essence of our Costeggiola single vineyard Soave wine. In conclusion, in Soave, 2008 has been a very late vintage, but we have been positively surprised by the quality of our oldest vines of Garganega, which should produce a very complex wine!
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