Originally Published September 2019

Harvest is always an exciting time of year for us. We have one opportunity to express what the past year has given us…

It is also a great time for our team to understand and grow from the collaboration of everyone’s combined efforts and knowledge. La Stoppa is already a diverse team with 15 people from 9 different countries. Each of the team brings a different element to the table and it is exciting to see all of our combined energies come to fruition. This year a couple of Chilean winemaker friends joined us, as well as a return veteran from 2018 Vendemmia. It has been a long time since I’ve had a connection with Chile (as my mother moved there and started another wine project in the 90’s) and since 2016 I’ve been making a wine there called Pisador with one of my dear friends… so we will finish this harvest and in the spring head there for another!

We’re just a bit behind schedule. We had a bit of a rainy and cooler spring and a couple of weeks that were similar in late June and early July. We have begun to pick Malvasia di Candia Aromatica for our passito, Vigna del Volta. For this wine, we rely on the sun to do most of the work. We pick for this wine first as Malvasia has little acidity, and what exists we would like to capture instead of losing it with a later harvest. We have designated an open portion of land between some vineyards to dry the fruit. Now picked, the clusters are left to dry in the sun on a big tarp (covering at night and in the event that it rains). Once a significant amount the liquid has evaporated from the fruit, we put everything in an old vertical hydraulic press. From there, it is a relatively hard pressing as you need some power to extract the juice that remains and with this, a bit of tannin extracted from the fruit and stems as well. The wine is then fermented and aged in barrique. A year or so from now when we reach a point that the fermentation stops, the wine usually finishes with about 120g/L of sugar with about 13% alcohol. From there it is bottled and aged further. It has been many years since we have made this wine and we are excited to have the grapes to make it again this year.

“It has been many years since we have made this wine and we are excited to have the grapes to make it again this year.”

In the next couple of days, we are looking at beginning to harvest the rest of the Malvasia di Candia Aromatica for Ageno Bianco. After that we will begin on the reds: first with Barbera and then the Bonarda is usually gets picked up a couple of weeks later. Everything will ferment outside in steel and concrete tanks without temperature control.

There is nothing out of the ordinary to note this year about harvest – thank the gods and goddesses! If anything, we have a bit of luck as a lot of our friends and neighbors suffered from hail. When all of the bad weather went down, it seems to pass right by us and dump down on the valley floor and the lower surrounding foothills.

There is always a bit of static in the air when we are buzzing around, with lots to look after and even more to get done. Apart from picking grapes, our garden and fruit trees have been particularly productive this year, which means there are many great harvest lunches and dinners to look forward to… just need to find a few more creative ways to cook zucchini.

Elena Pantaleoni: Harvest Report–La Stoppa, Emilia Romagna (Wine Zine 03)