Fermentation
Running Off
Press Wine
Ageing in barrels
Bottling
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.
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.
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.
The objective of ageing in barrels is to allow the wines that so deserve to acquire a potential of harmonious ageing in bottles.
After two to three years ageing in Slavonian oak barrels from thirty to sixty hectoliters, and one year in bottle before being released on the market (as established by the Disciplinare di Produzione of the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG), it’s in bottles that our wine will spend the rest of its life.
