Roshan Abenaim runs up and down the rows of vines in the warm light of the early morning. The air is still buzzing from the night before – September is coming up – and it is a pleasure to walk along the side of the sunny vineyard. The parched land crackles under the soles, the drought of the past month has been felt; although this summer has been milder than the previous one, the sky has been very poor of water in August and the campaign has suffered a lot thereof.
Good for the grapes, this sun has pushed the accelerator on aromas and flavors; certainly a bit of rain would have been a godsend in recent weeks, as it would have been enough to awaken even more bunches and prepare the ground for the new season. But the season has worked well, and this strong temperature range between day and night of the previous days was providential. This vintage promises to be excellent, probably not as memorable as the one of 2015, but by working with the right knowledge, we will achieve good results this year in terms of quantity and quality.
The winemaker, off and on, takes a grape and tastes it: he exalts the sweetness of some vineyards, and says that we still have to wait few days before picking others. He shows us the little Moscato, already sunny brown, and large bunches of Vermentino between the green and the blond colour.
Following the precious guidelines of the oenologist Graziana Grassini and observing the results of the last analysis, we decide to start now with the harvest and beginn with Moscato, a grape used in Torre a Cenaia for the production of table wine; it will soon be the turn of Vermentino.
Thus, the scissor start to cut, many lizards flee from the vine leaves still numbed from the cool of the night and we fill up the first red boxes. This first phase of the harvest is hand made; then the machines will intervene, when the work will be more pressing and it will necessary to act quickly on several hectares to get the best out of the vine and do not miss the most precious moment.
We leave everyone to his work and we return to the office; the air becomes more and more hotter…it’s august… but we already imagine the scent of this ancient square at the threshold of autumn, when the vats will be filled and the first wine rackings will anticipate impressions and opinions on the new vintage.
