Harvest, harvest, harvest. The Vintners Association " Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella" gave the go ahead for the Amarone grapes on the 5th and for the Valpolicella’s on the 8th.  We started on Sept. 7th with the Croatina, which is a varietal that matures somewhat earlier.  

I had left you last month saying we were hoping and praying for rain, well it id rain on the 4th and 5th of September.  Great rain, no hail and it did a lot of good to our grapes and … to my nervous system.  With the occasion of the photography show of works by Henri Cartier Bresson, on September 8th in Verona a wine tasting was held where we presented the Santa Lena 2010.  The wine was well received by the numerous visitors to the show, which by the way was very interesting.

On Monday, September 12, there was no harvest.  Sunday we had a lot of rain and even though Monday started clearing and there was a strong wind to dry the grapes, we decided to wait until Tuesday to continue harvesting.  Never pick grapes, especially for the Amarone, right after the rain.

Cleaning the clusters , one by one, with pointy scissors

     
When picking  for the Valpolicella wines, we do so in medium sized boxes,  which as they get filled in the vineyard are brought to the cellar and with the fork lift are directly turned into the crusher; by doing this we want to avoid any micro-fermentative processes that could start before the actual crushing.  We harvested in a new vineyard just 4 years old, where we only picked for the valpolicella wines; this vineyard is still too young to make Amarone

This year the vintner's association has authorized us to put away, for the Amarone, 50% of the total allowed production of Valpolicella grapes. The last day of harvest 2011 was Saturday, Sept. 30th.  The end of one more cycle. The weather helped a lot, no rain at all, this is turning out to be a very unusual fall with temperatures way above normal. My crew was wonderful, they all worked very hard and got along well; in this lasat day,  they were singing, laughing and all of them were a little sad to say goodbye to one another;  they will not work together again until next.  It was  a work well done. Here is to vintage 2011! 

Valpolicella grape Corvina

Officially announced: The month of September, for the north part of Italy was the warmest in the last 150 years, I do not think it was recorded before. We were able to eat outside  the nights of Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st, something we had never done, on these dates, in the 23 years I have lived in Monteleone

Best wishes from
Lucia D. Raimondi and the whole staff at Villa Monteleone Winery, Verona, Italy