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cantina Tenuta Montemagno

Spring works in the Tenuta Montemagno vineyard and cellar

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Article written in collaboration with Roberto Nantiat and Gianfranco Cordero, winemakers of Tenuta Montemagno

2022 will certainly be remembered by all wine producers as a year of severe drought.

Similarly, 2023 will be remembered for being, at least in the first 6 months, a particularly bizarre year from a meteorological point of view. Past year’s drought lasted for the first months of this one to then suddenly change and bring the attention of winemakers and agronomists from scarcity to abundance of water in the soil.

In this article we will find out with Roberto Nantiat, the winemaker who, with Gianfranco Cordero, follows the works at Tenuta Montemagno, what happened between the rows during the spring on the estate and what was done to deal with the sudden abundance of water and to prepare the vineyard at its best for a season, the summer, which leads to the harvest.

The first part of spring 2023 was still marked by drought. A status that has its origins in the past year and which has persisted, except for some sporadic rainy and snowy events, throughout the winter and the first part of this year. Since May there has been a climatic inversion: from zero rain to 2-3 days of rain per week.

This reversal brings with it two potential consequences: one positive and one negative.

The first, as it is easy to imagine, solves the water problem; the abundant rains bring a lot of nourishment to the vines and these show a strong vegetation. The second, also easily guessable, is the possible presence of fungi (mainly downy mildew and powdery mildew), which caused by the very short time between one rainy event and the next, could become particularly strong and aggressive. Utmost attention therefore, with protective interventions to be carried out in the vineyard, such as the more orderly “distribution” of the shoots, so that a greater passage of air is created and the potential risks of taking root and growth of fungi are reduced.

Uva

Another rather unusual aspect that could require corrective interventions is always linked to the abundance of water and the consequent vegetative thrust of the plants which is shown with an evident luxuriance of the foliage.

This sign is definitely positive, but shows a slightly uneven growth of the shoots even at individual plant level.

This is the result of the stress suffered by the vines during the drought, when the shoots all grew with great difficulty; now, with the arrival of rainfall, the differences generated by this stress can be clearly seen, with some shoots stronger than others.

This vegetative inhomogeneity leads us to monitor the evolution of the season with great meticulousness, to plan in advance interventions in the vineyard, presumably at the beginning of August. Normally we already carry out the thinning of the bunches, so as to guarantee the right balance between the quality of the harvested grapes and the quantity; this year we expect an intensification of this operation which gives strength to the vine and to the ripest bunches and nourishment to the soil, on which the pruned bunches are left.

In the cellar we continued with the bottling of most of the red wines, while for the whites this activity was completed at the end of winter: Violae (blend of Syrah and Barbera d’Asti), Soranus (the Barolo of Tenuta Motnemagno), Mysterium 2019 (Barbera d’Asti Superiore) and Nobilis (Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato).

Invictus will soon follow, always Ruchè from Castagnole Monferrato, particularly decisive and structured, obtained by carrying out a late harvest of the grapes. Resting horizontally for 24 and 36 months, on the other hand, the TM Brut (Metodo Classico from Barbera grapes), whose “draft” was carried out in mid-late March.

The climate changes we wrote about in the first part of the article have had another positive response. While during the winter it was evident that the vegetation of the vineyard was two weeks early, now it can be seen how this condition has been reset; as a result, the harvest forecast could return to the more traditional deadlines, from the end of August to the beginning of September onwards.

We will therefore talk about this again in the next editorial, when we will have updates on the status of the vineyard during the summer and on the preparation or completion work for the 2023 harvest.

Tenuta Montemagno in inverno

Work in the vineyard and cellar of Tenuta Montemagno at the end of winter

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Article written in collaboration with Roberto Nantiat and Gianfranco Cordero, winemakers of Tenuta Montemagno

A few days ago we entered the spring season, the period in which the vineyard wakes up from its winter rest and prepares to be reborn to bear those wonderful fruits that we will harvest at the end of the summer season. In the last article, we learnt what work had to be done at the beginning of the cold season.

In this one, we will see with Roberto Nantiat, the oenologist who, together with Gianfranco Cordero, follows the work at Tenuta Montemagno, what has been done in the second half of the winter and how we are preparing for the spring awakening.

Let us begin by pointing out that from January to the present (we are now in the last ten days of March), winter has been characterised by mild temperatures. 

Roberto Nantiat

Only in February, and for less than a week, temperatures dropped below freezing. As far as precipitation is concerned, it must also be said that it has been decidedly scarce, indicating a continuity of drought that has persisted since last year.

In the vineyard, all pruning was completed; the shoots that had been cut at the end of the harvest were removed completely.

Since the beginning of March, we have been bending and tying the fruit heads to allow the plants to start sprouting for the new vintage.

It was precisely in this latter period that a much faster vegetative recovery than normal vine activity was noted.

In fact, the presence of the first cotton buds was observed, a sign that these are swelling, when normally in March the first ‘weeping’ of the vines should have been seen.

It must be said, however, that these weeping did take place, even if, due to the low amount of water reserve, they were not as vigorous as can normally be observed.

Vigna inverno

The climatic changes observed last year, and in particular from the end of the 2022 harvest to the present, were the subject of a meeting between oenologists and Tenuta Montemagno’s agronomist, Maurizio Cerrato. The purpose of the meeting was to define a strategy to be implemented in order to deal in the best possible conditions with the adversities brought about by the weather and not only. In fact, this year a number of new natural-based products will be used to support the plants both against water shortages and to supplement and reinforce their defences against attacks by parasites and fungi.

In the cellar, bottling of all the white wines continued (an activity that should be completed by the end of March), while, again towards the end of the month, the TM Brut will be drawn, thus initiating the second fermentation in the bottle with yeasts and sugars to produce the bubbles. At the beginning of March, the Grignolino was bottled, while for all the other red wines the ageing phase continued, depending on the type of wine, in tanks or in barrels.We can say that the winter was a season of work to prepare the vineyards in the best possible way and to activate the strategies that will allow nature to work in the best conditions with. the arrival of fine weather. The next appointment with our editorials dedicated to Tenuta Montemagno’s vineyards and winery is scheduled for July; on that occasion we will be able to tell you what was done during the Spring 2023.

Tenuta Montemagno in inverno

Winter work in vineyard and cellar of Tenuta Montemagno

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Article written in collaboration with Roberto Nantiat and Gianfranco Cordero, winemakers of Tenuta Montemagno

A question that we often hear during guided tours of the cellar: “… but in the winter months the cellar is closed so you are on vacation?”

It would be really nice to be able to rest for so many months, but nature never sleeps!

Thus, after the 2022 harvest, in Tenuta Montemagno, as well as in all wine cellars, we enter the period of winter and pre-spring activities of maintenance in the vineyard and wine processing in the cellar.

vigna Timorasso in inverno

Let’s go back for a moment to October and November, when winter has not yet arrived in full force. In these months the plants marked out and cut during the months of July and August are removed to make place for the vine cuttings, planted in autumn and, after the cold months, in spring.

This is an important operation to always maintain a cultivation capable of ensuring a yield per hectare adequate to the production quantities expected in the years to come. It will take three years before the vine cuttings produce the precious fruits and can make their contribution to the production.

During the short days of the long winter months, ordinary maintenance works are carried out on the vineyard with the replacement of damaged poles and wires, in order to refine the arrangement and the supporting structure of the vineyard and prepare it for spring. We then proceed to observe the state of the soil after a year, 2022, characterized by extreme and persistent drought.

This year, to strengthen the root system of the vines, we carried out fertilization interventions with organic material; this operation ensures an increase in oxygenation for the nutrients present in the clods and improves the water retention conditions (during the expected rainy periods), and its release on sunny days.

cisterne Tenuta Montemagno

It is very important that the soil is in the best possible condition as early as spring to create a water reserve capable of helping the vineyard during the vegetative restart.

Now let’s move to the cellar, where constant temperature and humidity reign, a perfect microclimate for storing wine. About the end of autumn, the alcoholic fermentations are completed. We then proceed with the cold setting of the tanks for the white wines, regulating them so that they maintain a constant temperature of around 6°/8° C.

In this way the malolactic fermentation (which would lead to an undesired increase in the alcohol content of the final product) is blocked.

For red wines, on the other hand, this fermentation is stimulated by regulating the temperature of the tanks around 20°C. The consequent result is a softening and biological stabilization of the wine. Once these activities have been completed, and we have now reached the middle of winter, we proceed with the refinement and then with the bottling.

The winter of 2022-2023 was distinguished, from a climatic point of view and at least for the first period, by anomalous high temperatures. After the first cold days of November and a light snowfall, temperatures have risen almost excessively. Even before the mid-November cold, the leaves remained on the plants; the autumn foliage took place late, signalling, in practice, that the plants perceived that winter had not yet arrived and, in turn, delaying the dormancy phase. All this will involve a careful and precise intervention by our agronomist who will serve, on the one hand, to evaluate the state of the vines and, on the other, to give indications about any ad hoc interventions to be carried out before starting the spring pruning.

We will talk about the final winter works and those of early spring in the next article dedicated to the works in Tenuta Montemagno, scheduled for March/April. See you soon!

Tenuta Montemagno vite

Work in vineyard and cellar: spring

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Article written in collaboration with Roberto Nantiat, winemaker of Tenuta Montemagno

Tasting a good wine is the final act of a sublime love story. A story that connects man and nature, the passion for the cultivation of vineyards and the acceptance of this attention by nature. But how much work is there behind a glass of wine? It is a work that lasts months, sometimes years, if we consider the time required to obtain wines matured 3, 4, 5 years and even more.

calici vino

So let’s find out together the work that the winemaking technicians carry out in Tenuta Montemagno over the seasons so that the vines, in their path of development and growth, reach the optimal conditions to produce the bunches from which the good wine to be tasted will be obtained.

Let’s start this cognitive journey by talking about spring. An important and, at times, critical season, as it is subject to substantial changes in temperature (sometimes with the return of frosts), and even long periods of drought as happened this year in the months of February, March and April.

Without water, the plants slow down their growth, so in this period the technicians of Tenuta Montemagno have kept their attention high to catch any signs of suffering of the vines which, fortunately, have not appeared, a sign of a perfectly healthy cultivation.

May saw the return of rain which brought new energy for sprout growth.

While waiting for the rain to arrive, shredding and mowing (that is, cleaning the ground from grass) began between April and early May. An operation that facilitates the absorption of rainwater and eliminates water competition between the vine and the grass. These operations are performed exclusively with the use of mechanical tools and without chemicals.

Green pruning was carried out between May and June, namely the suckling and removal of side growths in excess. This well-calibrated operation allows to balance and facilitate ventilation within the leaf mass, with the advantage of reducing susceptibility to fungal diseases and increasing the capacity of sun rays absorption.

vigna

Starting from March, with the vegetative restart of the vine, the vineyard requires careful management of growth and operations to be carried out, in order to ensure the best vegetative-productive balance and therefore be able to arrive at harvest with a quality product.

cantine

The same can be said for the commitment required in managing the cellar works. As for the still white wines of Tenuta Montemagno (Musae, Nymphae and Solis Vis), following the alcoholic fermentation, the wines were kept in contact with the yeasts (refining sur lies) for about six months and bottled at the beginning of the spring.

The spicy and fresh Ruber (Grignolino) and the mellow and intense Violae (red Monferrato) were subsequently bottled.

In March the draft of the Barbera vinified in white was carried out, to produce the Spumante TM Brut. This operation is followed by about a month of refermentation and will remain for the next 24 and 36 months in refining on the yeasts.

The wines still present in the cellar remain in refining, some inside steel tanks (Austerum, Nobilis, Invictus) and some inside wood (Mysterium), waiting for the perfect moment to be bottled.

A lot of work to be done in spring and a lot of love we give to produce wines in the optimal conditions to reach tasting tables around the world.