Cultivation Tecniques
Few decisions are as important in the life of a wine than blending, because we have to produce three wines: Brunello di Montalcino Donna Olga, Brunello di Montalcino Le Cacce, together with the Supertuscan named “Clos degli Amodeo” from Gianmaria and Federico Amodeo, Donna Olga’s sons. The blending, therefore, is primarily an operation of selection but also of creation during the course of which several plots merge as one, producing a wine greater than the best of the individual constituents. For us, it is a real new beginning.
Of course, we think about it from the first day, when, toward the end of the harvest, we start to taste the result of the vinifications, carefully separated, from each plot. But it’s only after putting it in barrels that the moment of blending arrives.
Two, sometimes three, grand tastings bring us together during the month of January around a long table covered with samples. The atmosphere is slightly solemn.
It’s with emotion that we discover the finesse that was hiding behind the slightly severe tannins, or the balance that we never suspected under this power, still raw. Little by little the blendings of the first, then the second, then at last the third wine are built and refined.
The Clos degli Amodeo also is subjected to very rigorous selection. Only a low percentage of the Sangiovese harvest is retained in the final blending, together with a main part of Cabernet coming from our sunny vineyard of the southeastern part.
Cultivation Tecniques
The objective of ageing in barrels is to allow the wines that so deserve to acquire a potential of harmonious ageing in bottles. During this period of at least two years and half, respectful of the “Brunello di Montalcino disciplinare di produzione”, a certain number of physico-chemical transformations occur naturally, which lead to a perfect transparency and a better wine stability, as well as a refinement of its organoleptic character.
Nowadays, the barreling is effected as early as possible after the completion of the fermentations, towards the end of October or the beginning of November. It almost always takes place in new, slavonian oak barrels, of which the aromatic finesse and the delicate tannins have a natural complicity with our wines. The temperature and humidity conditions that are prevalent in the cellar follow more or less the rhythm of the seasons: the winter cold favours the precipitation of the unstable components, therefore the stability of the wines, whereas the moderate highs of the summer temperatures speed up the chemical reactions and allow the wine to evolve both in finesse and sweetness.
Cultivation Tecniques
At the end of the running off, when the free-run wine has been put into vats, or already into barrels and is waiting to start its malolactic fermentation, the grape skins that form the marc are extracted from the vat and pressed, so as to produce the press wine. It’s a very delicate operation that we do with a lot of care because the future success of the blending depends in part on the success of the press wine.
When the marc hasn’t been exhausted during the vinification through excessive extraction, it’s capable of producing by pressing, a rich, powerful, very tannic but well-balanced, bold, with a long finish, sweet and fleshy wine. Such a press wine can only improve the blending, because it brings strength, structure and length, without upsetting the subtle harmony that the addition of the better free-run wines build spontaneously.
It’s firstly the gentle manipulation of the marc that makes it possible to obtain press wines; as in times gone by their transfer from the vat to the press is manual, in order to avoid any form of crushing. But, the real quality is naturally in the press. Modern technology allows both a gentle and deep pressing and also rigorous selection according to the pressure levels. And so comes the last and decisive phase of the process: all the barrels of press wine are tasted, one by one, after a few days and blended according to their respective quality.
Cultivation Tecniques
During the vinification of the red grapes the fermentation is accompanied by the extraction from the must, of a great number of components from the skin and pips. This maceration extends for several days after the end of fermentation, up to the running off; which is in fact the separation of the wine from the solids (all the solid parts of the grapes) by pumping.
The running off also ends the very complex process of dissolving the parts of the grapes in the wine. Of course the result depends primarily on the quality of the grapes: only very good grapes have the potential to being transformed into a great wine. When the vintage is more difficult, generally because of lack of ripeness in the grapes, there is a big risk of extracting bad flavours particularly vegetal aromas, as well as rustic and bitter tannins. This is why meticulous checking of a maceration is essential. Only regular tasting enables us to appreciate the wine’s slow acquisition of its aromatic complexity, of its richness and tannic finesse and to detect the moment where this semblance of bitterness risks appearing; this point of astringence indicates the need for the running off.
Cultivation Tecniques
It’s the alcoholic fermentation that is responsible for the transformation of grape juice into wine. This spontaneous phenomenon was empirically mastered well before being scientifically explained by Louis Pasteur in the 19th century.
The biochemical transformations brought into play by fermentation are multiple and complex. That’s why this process should be carried out in the best possible conditions. The fermentation takes place in steel vats and/or in small barrells: it depends on the researches led year by year by our wine making team.
After numerous experiments, it turned out that the temperature control by the most advanced technology available today is equally as good in wood as in the stainless steel vats. Therefore, Donna Olga has kept its wooden vats along with new stainless steel vats for the vinification of the red grapes, because the wooden vats offer numerous advantages. Their tapered shape and their thermal inertia favour the concept of extraction by creating a stronger contact between the must and the grape skins, where the wine draws its colour and body from. This closer maceration makes the wines both richer and softer, which better express the extraordinary potential of our wines as well as our own conception of taste.
In order to compare all existing techniques, our Research and Development Department carries out a great number of tests in an experimental vat room. These tests have already enabled us to build a new vat room for vinification whilst improving our methods of ageing in barrels.
This process is undertaken under rigorous temperature monitoring so as to avoid the heat produced by the fermentation hampering and finishing by killing the yeasts that are responsible for it. Equally, by pumping the must from the bottom to the top of the vat, this favours the dissolution of the composition of the grapes, as well as the small amounts of oxygen required for the metabolism of the yeasts. The more recent use of selected strains of yeast enables certain difficult vintages to avoid a languid fermentation.
Once the alcoholic fermentation is finished the maceration continues until the running off: the wines are almost “finished” at this point. But so that they are completely stable, a last biochemical transformation has to be accomplished: the fermentation by bacteria of malic and lactic acids.
At the end of the year’s work comes, at last, harvest time. Everything is finished, or nearly finished: the ripening is completing “August develops the must”, the great balances are happening, or not, in the grapes.
However, a bit of suspense remains, because it’s in these last days that a good vintage still has a chance of becoming great. First, we have to choose the date, examine the grapes and analyse them, squeeze them, feel under our fingers and our tongue the softness of the pulp and the firmness of the tannins; ignore the big clouds rolling around in the sky in order to gain several more days and allow the Cabernet Sauvignon to finally reach perfect ripeness. In the meantime, we’ve formed our two hundred pickers into five teams, each made up of wine growers, and a majority of young students, who, instead of experience, bring us their willingness and their good humour. The pickers, more than half of whom come back year after year, receive training.
Here they are now, working hard in our plots. First, the Merlot, always earlier, then the Cabernet Franc, and finally the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, always later. The thinning operations in the summer have already allowed us to dispose of the unwanted clusters but a last rigorous sorting is imperative. The responsibility comes back directly to each picker and then to a specialist team for a final sorting before the grapes are destemmed.
In the Cellar
The objective of manure is to bring to the vine the nutrition that it needs, without excess that would increase the vigour to the detriment of the quality and in respect to the environment.
A manuring process known as “concimazione di fondo” can also sometimes be applied as a preamble to a new plantation. Its objective is to restore structure and life to the soil. In all cases, we only use organic fertilisers that integrate naturally into the environment. A large part of this is brought in the form of bovine manure, from the cows of Val di Chiana region.
Cultivation Tecniques
The acquisition of the grapes in a perfect state of ripeness is the precondition for producing a great wine; consequently, all our winegrowing practices are directed toward this objective. But by far and away the most important factor is the terroir: it’s their aptitude to enable the wine varietal to ripen well that distinguishes the greatest growths. To enable a grape to ripen “well” is to ensure that its components, that is to say sugar, acidity, aromas and tannins, evolve together at the same pace. In Montalcino region, we’re lucky enough to enjoy a temperate climate and a moderately rich soil, allowing the vines to accompany the grapes in this effort to create the perfect balance.
Cultivation Tecniques
The very high density of the plantation in our vineyard (6,600 plants per hectare) would lead very quickly to an impossible tangling of the branches if we didn’t provide a good trellising. Primary objectives are to allow free circulation between the rows, on foot or by tractor, and to maximize the exposure of the clusters to the sun, a factor so necessary to their optimal ripening.
The trellising consists of two successive steps: first, lifting of the branches. That is done thanks to a set of mobile wires that we pick up as and when the vine grows. Then the cutting, or “topping”, of the tips of the branches, carried out mechanically by a piece of equipment on the overhead clearance tractors.
Cultivation Tecniques
We are proud to practise thinning, which consists of removing a certain number of clusters before the start of the ripening period. In most of the young vines, the harvest in practice is too abundant to produce a quality wine; by reducing them at their mid-term, that is to say just before they change colour about the beginning of August, we encourage the ripening of the other clusters left on the vine, without increasing the vigour of the plant.
This technique also allows us to select the best clusters and to eliminate those that are badly placed on the vine, or that are already late compared to the others. It is work that is really meticulous and differs for each vine, grape by grape, which gives a good idea of the increasingly precise and rigorous attention given to the care of the vineyard.
The yield from the vines, expressed by their production (kilos of grapes or hectolitres of wine) is a key factor in the quality of the grapes. Too abundant a harvest never ripens because the vines become exhausted for no other reason than trying to feed too many clusters at once. In order to protect the quality of the wine and the longevity of the vines, the Brunello di Montalcino appellation has fixed a limit that is in general the most restrictive in Italy.
Cultivation Tecniques
Obtaining grapes that are ripe enough presupposes a perfect control of the phyto-sanitary condition of the vineyard.
Mildew, powdery mildew, black-rot, excoriation, almost all fungal diseases, with the notable exception of the wood diseases, mal dell’esca, are now well controlled, after decades of researches of more sustainable methods of cultivation.
The case of grey rot (Botrytis cinerea) is certainly more delicate, but the low instance of vigour in our vines and their traditional behaviour create rather unfavourable conditions for the development of this disease.
The problem presented by parasites, insects and spiders is complex in a different way. In the nineteen eighties we questioned all of our vineyard protection policy with the objective of finding an alternative method to chemicals to preserve the balance of the spider and insect populations. After a few years of work, we were able to stabilise the situation. Since then, all these populations cohabit and autoregulate themselves without us having to take any action, or only in an organic way. At the end of the nineteen nineties, sexual confusion was developed in order to stop the grape worms reproducing. Not one insecticide is now used in our vineyards, SIAMO BIOLOGICI!
Protection against frost
Among all the risks that are the farmers’ lot in life, frost and hail are the two most terrible and unfair.
Fortunately, Donna Olva’s vineyards are divided in two main plots located in different slopes of Montalcino hills.
On the one hand, the southwest part of our vineyards is protected by a relevant presence of the wind, that allow the wind to circulate inside vineyards; on the other hand, the southeastern part is a wormer site, thanks to the presence of the ancient volcan Monte Amiata. If frost misses the greater part of our vineyard, it’s thanks to those particular situations.
Cultivation Tecniques
Donna Olga intentionally keep the work of the land traditional, although a great part of it is carried out by high-clearance tractors and equipment that is of ever-increasing efficiency.
Our four ways of ploughing: surfacing and desurfacing, surfacing, desurfacing rhythmically throughout the farming year is done in an almost unchanging way. It’s true that our soils, generally light and well-structured thanks to regular addition of manure, lend themselves well to this superficial work.
Cultivation Tecniques
Great wines are always produced from vines that are at least twenty years old. So the main objective of our wine-growing practices is to maintain the old vines in production for as long as possible, but when vines become too old, the best is to replace the plants, one by one. This is called “complantation”. This practice, as old as the vineyard, occupies all our winegrowers for two months just after the winter pruning.
The complants themselves have a limited life expectancy… At the end of the day, it’s the whole plot that expires. So we then have to carry out a complete renewal. What a sacrifice! First, we have to pull up all the vine stocks and then let the soil rest for six years. Finally, we replant it and wait until these new vines grow and age in order to produce great wine.
Cultivation Tecniques
Pruning, the “potatura secca” is essential to ensure the production quality and the longevity of the plots. Indeed, the number of buds per plant determines the delicate balance of the vigour; pruning that leaves too many buds leads to a harvest that is too abundant and unable to ripen sufficiently.
Conversely, pruning that is too severe leaves vines that are too vigorous, encouraging excessive growth to the detriment of the maturity of the grapes.
There is, not only for each plot, but for each grape variety, an optimal balance that only winegrowers understand with experience.
Winter pruning extends into the spring by a green pruning, the “potatura verde”, and bud-thinning. This means avoiding a build-up of vegetation that is harmful to the exposure of future grape clusters to the sun and as well to concentrating the nutrients produced by the leaves towards the branches that support the grapes, which encourages ripening. Lastly, bud-thinning enables the winegrowers to select future branches for thinning in advance.