It takes time, patience and dedication to see the grapes turn into wine. It is a slow transformation for a “fast” process in which the work of an entire year takes place in the harvest. With the harvest, the winemaking process is started, an important moment that brings into play all our passion and all our knowledge.

Luigi Di Tuccio

A deep bond

There is a time of the year when all our work is summarised in one word: harvest. In those weeks of hard work, all our being as a family is released, all our labours bloom like a miracle from the earth. Grape harvesting turns into a party, full of enthusiasm and authentic joy as it was in times past. A celebration of joy because from the spinning of the grapes will pass into our glasses to toast to life.

The harvest, with its gestures and its customs, is a real ritual that recalls facts and stories of the agricultural world, of peasant traditions handed down from generation to generation. For all of us it represents the most important event of the year and a circumstance of social sharing. The harvest represents for us the synthesis of a deep bond.

From the vineyard row to the glass

The harvest makes us partakers of a natural process that man, thanks also to technological innovation, has improved over the millennia to obtain a wine always qualitatively more valuable.

Our harvest begins when the grapes have reached the degree of aromatic and phenolic ripening of the grapes. It is the month of September that usually starts this period of great turmoil and also covers the months of October and November.

The operations begin with the harvesting at dawn, with the cool. The best bunches are placed in crates and immediately taken to the farm for pressing. Before this operation, a very important process takes place: the berries are separated from the stem, respecting the integrity of the fruits in order to avoid the release of tannic substances with a woody taste. In this way, an intense scent of fresh grapes is created in an instant that surrounds and intoxicates the air.

The first important step in the winemaking process is now taking place: the production of the must. With the crushing of the grapes, a liquid rich in sugars, tannins, acid and nitrogenous substances, mineral salts and those yeasts responsible for the transformation of the juice into wine is obtained.

The must is then fermented in large tanks. Each type of wine has its fermentation: for the reds the must remains in contact with the skins, to accelerate the dissolution of the polyphenols and the aromas contained in the peel and seeds. For white wines the opposite happens: the must is immediately separated from the skins and from the pips to dampen the tannins and obtain a delicate taste. The rosé instead provides a period of particular and variable maceration. Once fermentation is complete, one of the most characteristic phases begins, the reference phase and the aging that declares the origin of the characteristics that distinguish each bottle. The end result will be a product expression of centuries of history, of the land it belongs to and of our family.

Antica Enotria