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piscina notte

New interior design and new services at Tenuta Montemagno Relais & Wines

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During early months of 2023, important work was carried out to give the rooms of Tenuta Montemagno Relais & Wines a new look. The objectives of these activities were to renovate the structure, to maintain a service adequate to the customer expectations and, above all, to increase the level of quality to be offered to guests staying at the relais.

The main work was carried out in the Junior Suites and, to a lesser extent, in the Classic and Superior rooms. Aesthetic improvement work was carried out in all the rooms of the relais.

In all rooms and suites, the light lines have been changed. New lamps with a modern design that wink at the lighting that once characterised country houses, thanks to their tapered shapes that evoke candle flames.

In the Junior Suites, the furnishings have been completely redesigned and the spaces on the ground floor have been reconfigured.

TMM rooms

Here, thanks to the introduction of the new furnishings, small sitting rooms have been created that can be reconfigured to create an additional one-and-a-half bed, to accommodate one or two children for the night or daytime rest hours.

But the renovation also concerns the services offered to customers. New relaxation and entertainment activities that make, and will make, your stay in the rolling hills of Monferrato extremely pleasant.

Starting in May, a piano/american bar will be available. This activity, available from early evening until around midnight on weekends until the end of May and every day from June onwards, will be available to guests, but also to outsiders not staying at the relais. The service will take place in the courtyard in front of the tasting room, where new furniture will create the piano bar lounge space.

sala degustazione

In the tasting room bar, a barman will prepare customers’ orders while a pianist will entertain customers by playing a grand piano.

Summer evenings and the colours of sunset creeping across the contours of the hills and villages in front of the Tenuta will become magic moments for guests at the Piano Bar. Music and taste will be actors that make the Tenuta Montemagno Relais & Wines experience even more unforgettable.

Carciofo confit

Artichoke confìt on roasted cauliflower cream, red cow parmesan mousse and candied lemon

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The cuisine of Tenuta Montemagno’s restaurant, La Civetta sul Comò, is led by Executive Chef Giampiero Vento, who proposes a menu composed of dishes made by combining the great Piedmontese tradition with a pinch of creativity and innovation.

For his early spring recipe, artichoke confìt on roasted cauliflower cream, red cow parmesan mousse and candied lemon, Chef Vento has selected a seasonal product typical of an area just a few kilometres from Monferrato: the spiny artichoke of Albenga. 

In the preparation of this recipe, Vento has added a fundamental ingredient, for him: memory, the call of memories of home cooking, with the aromas and flavours of good home cooking, of barbecues with friends… in short, all that baggage of extremely pleasant feelings and emotions that one wishes to replicate in one’s own preparations to donate to the palate of guests new elegance and interpretation.

carciofi

This appetiser dish has as its main protagonist, as mentioned, the artichoke, a vegetable that goes very well with first courses, fish and meat, but which the chef wanted to make the main subject of his recipe.

The first step towards confit preparation is to marinate the artichoke in plenty of oil, garlic and herbs. It is then steamed for an hour at about 70°, to avoid overcooking and to maintain a good consistency of the artichoke. The passage to the blowtorch to gently burn our ‘protagonist’ begins to add those flavours linked to memories such as the smell of grill and charcoal. Together with the artichoke we also burn some herbs, first and foremost rosemary, which will give a special touch to the flavours of the final dish.

The first touches of elegance are then added to the dish through the mousse of red cow parmesan cheese aged for 36 months.

Further ingredients that give a unique and personal style to the dish are the caramelised lemon peel, with sour and sweet notes at the same time to contrast the bitterness of the artichoke. The completion of the dish is rendered with a previously roasted cauliflower cream, which adds the final touch of elegance to this starter that is proving to be a great success with guests at the relais.

The wine to go with this dish is, according to our sommeliers, a strong and powerful white. We therefore recommend Tenuta Montemagno’s pure Timorasso Solis Vis. A structured white, capable of supporting courses typically accompanied by great red wines.

You can purchase Solis Vis from our online shop. So those who wish to try their hand at this preparation can complete the experience with pure Timorasso. On the other hand, we will be happy to welcome those who would like to taste the dish and wine directly at the estate, contacting us at reception to book a tasteful stay in Monferrato.

Solis Vis
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 in tour a Praga con Barolo & Friends

17 January 2023, Prague: Tenuta Montemagno’s international tour begins

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The consortium for the promotion of I Vini del Piemonte confirms the stage in Eastern Europe to promote Piedmontese excellence in new and important markets. On Tuesday 17 January 2023, the second Barolo & Friends Event will be held in Prague, at the Eurostars Thalia Hotel.

Tenuta Montemagno in tour a Praga con Barolo & Friends

The initiative will be aimed exclusively at trade operators: importers, distributors, sommeliers, Ho.Re.Ca and journalists. This is an important opportunity to consolidate the market positions of our wineries, as Italian wine ranks first among imported products, with demand in the last 5 years growing in value by almost 20%, reaching 215 million euros.

Tenuta Montemagno will be present at this event, bringing for tasting:

  • TM Brut 24 months – classic Piedmontese method obtained by vinifying Barbera grapes
  • Mysterium – excellent red from Barbera d’Asti Superiore grapes
  • Solis Vis – white from 100% Timorasso grapes
  • Invictus – red from late harvest Ruchè grapes
  • Nobilis – red from Ruchè grapes
WORLD BOUTIQUE HOTEL AWARDS 2022

Tenuta Montemagno awarded at the World Boutique Hotel Awards 2022

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On November 8th, the winners of the prestigious Boutique Hotel Awards 2022 were announced.

The jury mentioned Tenuta Montemagno Relais & Wines for its “excellent and healthy food” and for its exceptional position in the Monferrato area, surrounded by vineyards and hazelnut groves.

“Seasonal tasting menus are offered in combination or not with the wines from the cellar. What our judges found quite unique is the exceptional pairing for each course. We are so pleased to award the Wine Pairing Excellence award to Tenuta Montemagno Relais & Wines ”.

vendemmia timoroso 2022

Work in vineyard and cellar: the harvest 2022

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

The harvest, as we know, is one of the most awaited moments for wine producers. The final result of the harvest is destined to end up on the tables and tasting counters, to crown the sublime love story that unites man and nature. In Tenuta Montemagno the 2022 harvest has just ended. Begun at the end of August, with the harvest of the Sauvignon grapes, it ended more or less four weeks later.

This year the work was particularly demanding due to the severe drought that characterized the summer of 2022. During the summer months, as we described in the previous article, we worked to ensure that the vines best overcome the stress caused by dry land and water scarcity.

These operations led to the desired outcome and the rows entered the harvest period in the best state of health. However, during the harvest it was noted that the ripening of the grapes was uneven. For this reason we proceeded to make a careful selection of the rows and the individual bunches to be harvested, carrying out the operation at the right time. 

The fact of having brought to the cellar uneven bunches in the maturation, allowed to have, in the whole harvest, a more balanced product: not too alcoholic and, at the same time, not too low in acidity. This is why Tenuta Montemagno’s technicians are extremely satisfied with this vintage. Also from the quantity point of view there is satisfaction as we obtain a harvest equal to that of last year.

At the time of writing this article, the alcoholic fermentation and winemaking operations are almost complete; shortly we will proceed with malolactic fermentation, which serves to transform malic acid into lactic acid and to reduce the presence of residual sugars present after alcoholic fermentation.

This is one of the final stages before the product from the last harvest got goes to rest in the tanks and, for the reds, in the barrels, and gives life to the final wines.

We conclude by stating that the expectations on the quality of the 2022 harvest are very high. A very atypical vintage, even for the most experienced operators who have been working in the wine sector for some time, but which will lead to obtain, at least as regards Tenuta Montemagno, high quality wines balanced between acidity and alcohol content.

Tenuta Montemagno brindisi

Tenuta Montemagno on tour with Simply Italian Great Wines

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The Simply Italian Great Wines tour continues in Northern Europe (Norway and United Kingdom), organized by IEM – International Exhibition Management, intended to introduce the best Italian wines to a foreign audience of professionals in the wine sector.

Tenuta Montemagno participates in this traveling event with a selection of its wines, chosen to best represent the winery and the territory which they belong to.

TM Brut 24 months – classic Piedmontese method obtained by vinifying Barbera grapes

Violae – red blend made with Barbera and Syrah grapes

Nymphae – white blend obtained from Timorasso and Sauvignon grapes

Solis Vis – white from 100% Timorasso grapes

Invictus – red from late harvest Ruchè grapes

Mysterium – excellent red from Barbera d’Asti Superiore grapes

Oslo

OSLO

On 21 September we will be together with “I Vini del Piemonte”, at the Oslo Scene in Oslo, Norway.

This event follows the success of the previous edition, during which there was a demonstration of how the Norwegian public particularly appreciates Piedmontese wines.

Piedmont is in fact in second place among the Italian regions for the export of red wines to Norway, not only in terms of volumes, but also for value, so that it has won the title of one of the first wine regions in the world for bottled red wine exports.

Tenuta Montemagno will be present for the walk around wine tasting with a tasting table and a MasterClass dedicated to Mysterium 2017.

LONDON

After Oslo, still as part of the Simply  Italian Great Wines event, we will be present on October 3, in London, England.

The venue for this event, now in its fifth edition, is the ONE GREAT GEORGE STREET, a classic location of great elegance, with a typically Anglo-Saxon style. Italian wines have long been appreciated by the English market; this event aims at renewing our attention to an audience of professionals, introducing the most recent or interesting novelties of local wine production.

Also in London we will propose the selection of labels on stage in Oslo, through the traditional walk around wine tasting formula and with the MasterClass Myterium 2017.

London-Sharpened2-e-edificio e Institution_of_Civil_Engineers,_One_Great_George_Street

This continues with these two stages the journey that brings the wines of our cellar around Europe and, soon to Asia. At the end of August we went to Tallinn and Helsinki; in September we will be in Oslo and London; in November we will be in Tokyo, in the Land of the Rising Sun. Important events to make our products known to someliers and importers who want to know, and propose the excellence of our country and our territory for their local audience.

Timorasso

Work in vineyard and cellar: summer 2022

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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.

Let’s continue the journey that began three months ago, to discover what summer 2022 reserved for the vineyards of Tenuta Montemagno and which works have been carried out this season, both between the rows and in the cellar.

We specify that this article was written with the harvest in progress; an early harvest, due to the particular weather conditions (as we will see later), started with the Sauvignon grapes followed by the Barbera grapes; in this case too the harvest will be deliberately anticipated, to give life to TM Brut, Tenuta Montemagno’s Classic Method.

2022 is destined to go down in history as a particularly stingy year of water. Few rains, indeed very few, which resulted in an extremely dry and difficult climate for the vineyards. This is why, in Tenuta Montemagno, we intervened with the ripping process, that is the working of the compact soil through a series of vertical cuts aimed at eliminating the risk of dry crusts on the surface and to facilitate water drainage in case of rain. The rains arrived, although not copious, in the second half of August and the ripping carried out in the vineyards helped to absorb the rainfall.

Another intervention carried out this year among the rows of some vineyards was an early thinning; this allowed to balance the vegetative-productive relationship, that is the balance between leaf mass and amount of grapes. The drought recorded this year avoided chopping operations, usually carried out to remove weeds between the rows of grapevines.

While in the vineyard we worked to facilitate the absorption of the rain that took a long waiting time, in the cellar we continued with the bottling that began in the course of spring. Nobilis, Invictus, Austerum and Mysterium passed from tanks to bottles, to leave place to the 2022 harvest.

Each season is important for the vineyards and for the harvest of their fruit. So, utmost attention is paid to nature, listening to it and observing its behaviors, its signals. Each year, then, has unique characteristics such that specific man’s work becomes, from time to time, necessary and of vital importance to reach a harvest and a final product that lives up to expectations.

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.