Diary of the harvest 2024

Today is the first day of harvest. We begin with the harvesting of the Chardonnay for the sparkling bases to create the Extra Brut and the Dosaggio Zero. The harvest starts slightly delayed compared to the previous year 2023: the favorable weather conditions this summer allowed a few more days for the bunches to ripen on the vine. They therefore arrive perfect, sweet and juicy. 

We continue in these first moments of harvest with weather that supports us, despite some early September rain. The harvested grapes are beautiful, ripe, turgid and fragrant. We have also begun the first harvest of Turbiana which, together with the Chardonney harvested in the very first days of the harvest, will come together to create the classic method sparkling wines.

The red grapes are also harvested in this first week of the harvest. These sweet grapes, which arrived in the cellar in perfect condition, will be vinified to become our Extra Brut classic method rosé sparkling wine. The freshness and acidity of this wine come from here. The climate is still mild in these first days of harvest, with a perceptible temperature range between day and night. The episode of rain that occurred yesterday did not ruin the harvest and for this reason we are confident in an exceptional year. 

On Monday we begin the harvest of Turbiana, the native vine for the creation of Lugana DOC. The grapes we are harvesting are good, well ripe and rich in sweet and fragrant juice. Everything seems to be going well. The weather is unstable, heavy rain showers slow down the harvest, but for the moment the grapes do not seem to suffer particularly. 

After a meeting with our campaign manager (who coordinates more than two hundred people who constantly work in the vineyard during the harvest, strictly manual in Ca’ dei Frati) we chose in which plots of our 300 hectares to begin the Turbiana harvest to make not only the Lugana I Frati DOC, but also the Brolettino (both 100% Turbiana) and the Pratto (a blend of Turbiana with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc) for which overripe grapes are required on the vine. We therefore started the week with the harvest of these grapes for our most iconic DOC wines.

15 days have now passed since the beginning of the harvest and we have finally arrived at tasting and comparing the first musts obtained: our winemaker Carlo is choosing the best ones, constantly tasting and comparing them in the laboratory. Each place from which the grape comes has very specific characteristics that contribute to forming the aromatic bouquet of the future wine. We are therefore in the fermentation phase: despite the rather cool temperature these days, everything is going well in the steel barrels. 

The harvest of red grapes has also begun in Valpolicella: Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella. All three in different percentages according to the trend of the vintage – but naturally Corvina in greater quantity – will flow into the creation of our special Amarone della Valpolicella Pietro Dal Cero DOCG. After the rigorously hand-picked harvest, the grapes remain in our fruit cellar to dry. The bunches are particularly beautiful and sweet, the grapes dark and rich in anthocyanins which will give the wine a splendid ruby ​​red. In the photo the preparation of the boxes that will contain the grapes during the harvest. 

Here are the first bunches of Corvina harvested by hand in Valpolicella. The grapes are excellent, well preserved on the vine and ripened perfectly, thanks to a hot and clement summer in terms of rainfall. The grapes are soft to the touch and very juicy, sweet and very fragrant. Amarone promises to be a great vintage. The weather these days is rather cloudy with frequent more or less light rains which interrupt the grape harvest. Autumn arrived early, but the forecast improves towards the weekend. 

After a focus on Valpolicella, we return to the Lugana area. In the photo our boys check the presses and the progress of the work during the soft pressing of the grapes. The musts we obtain are free-run musts and musts derived from the very first pressings of the grapes, that is, only the best, tastiest and most sugary juice derived from the grapes themselves as soon as they are harvested from the vineyard. This system, inaugurated in 2020, allows us to press the grapes in the total absence of oxygen, thus avoiding any spontaneous fermentation or the development of bad aromas. Quality and its control are the order of the day, not only in these days of harvest.