UVA Italy

The Magic of Red Winemaking: A Journey Between Tradition and Innovation 🍇🍷 #Redwinemaking is a fascinating process that blends art, science, and tradition. It’s a practice with deep historical roots, yet it continues to evolve thanks to technological innovations and new sustainable approaches. Key Stages of Red Winemaking: #Harvesting and #GrapeSelection: The quality of the wine begins with the choice of grapes. For red wines, it’s crucial that the grapes are ripe, perfect, and free from defects. #Crushing and #Maceration: Once harvested, the grapes are crushed to extract the must, which then remains in contact with the skins for a period of time, depending on the desired wine style. This phase is essential for extracting the color, tannins, and aromas that will define the wine. #AlcoholicFermentation: The must, enriched with substances from the skins, ferments thanks to yeasts that convert sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. #Aging: After fermentation, the wine is left to mature in wooden or steel barrels, where it acquires complexity and finesse. #Bottling and Further Aging: Finally, the wine is bottled and sometimes further aged in bottle before release, allowing its flavors and aromas to develop even more. 🔍 Red winemaking is not just a technical process but also a matter of passion, patience, and dedication. Every harvest presents a unique opportunity to explore and reinterpret the terroir and its winemaking heritage.

🍇 The Magic of White Wine Production: A Process of Purity and Elegance 🍷 #Whitewine production is one of the most fascinating and delicate practices in the world of winemaking. Unlike red wine production, which involves using the skins to extract color, tannins, and aromas, white wine production focuses on extracting the juice from the grapes while avoiding prolonged contact with the skins. This process results in wines that are fresher, more aromatic, and have a bright, pale color. 🔍 Key Steps in White Wine Production: #GrapeHarvesting – Grapes are handpicked, with careful attention to their freshness and acidity. #GentlePressing – The juice, obtained through pressing, is separated from the skins to prevent the extraction of compounds that might alter the wine’s profile. #Fermentation – The juice ferments at controlled temperatures to preserve its fresh, fruity aromas. #Aging – In some cases, the wine is aged on lees to enhance its structure and complexity. 🎯 Wines produced through this method are typically lighter and fresher, with flavors ranging from white fruits like apple and pear to delicate floral and mineral notes. 🌿 An invitation to discover the authenticity of nature in every glass!

Baratuciat. #Baratuciat is an Italian white grape variety grown in #Piedmont, precisely in Val di Susa. It is thought that in the 19th century it was cultivated as a table wine, but its traces were lost around 1930 due to phylloxera. It was then rediscovered between the 80s and 90s and in recent years, also thanks to its organoleptic characteristics, it is becoming increasingly popular, even if, having only recently been rediscovered, it still remains a rare variety. For some years now, the #Crealto company has been working hard to make this variety grow and prosper. This variety gives life to #Anime wine, an intense and aromatic wine. Its flavors can usually be identified with flowers, green and tropical fruit but also with a marked saltiness. A wine worth trying!

The remontage In the context of winemaking, #remontage (also known as "pumping over") is a technique used during the fermentation of wine, especially red wine. It involves taking the juice (must) from the fermentation tank and pumping it over the solid parts of the grapes, known as the pomace, which float on the surface. The purposes of remontage include: Color and #TanninExtraction: It helps extract more color, tannins, and aromas from the grape skins, enhancing the wine's structure and complexity. #Oxygenation: Introducing oxygen during this process can benefit the yeast, creating a favorable environment for fermentation. #TemperatureRegulation: It helps maintain a more uniform temperature throughout the fermenting mass, preventing overheating in certain areas. The frequency of remontage can vary depending on the desired wine style and the winemaker's techniques.

Punching down #Punchingdown is one of the main operations carried out during winemaking. This is a mixing technique that occurs through pressure where the #pomace is #lowered to re-immerse it in the fermenting must. During some types of winemaking, the pomace is left to macerate with the fermenting must. The yeasts in the must and pomace mixture activate alcoholic fermentation, transforming the sugars into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide brings the pomace upwards, making it emerge and thus giving life to the cap, that is the layer of pomace that forms on the surface. Then the punching down begins and is carried out by hand or using special machines. With the #oxygenation of the must, alcoholic fermentation is made more effective. Breaking the cap on the surface allows for aeration and therefore gives oxygen to the must, allowing for effective alcoholic fermentation. Thanks to #mixing, the formation of volatile acids is avoided: possible attacks by acetic bacteria would transmit an unpleasant odor to the liquid. Furthermore, too prolonged contact of the pomace with oxygen could dry it out. By mixing the pomace it is possible to obtain a more aromatic wine with a more intense flavour. Punching down helps to extract the #phenoliccompounds contained in the skins and make them dissolve in the must.

Destemming and pressing. The harvest in our vineyards is going swimmingly. The grapes are now ready for #destemming and #pressing. Destemming is the operation that allows you to separate the grapes from the stalks to facilitate the release of the #must and then send them to pressing. This operation must be carried out delicately, so as not to compromise the quality of the grapes and leaving the stems intact, to avoid the transfer of unwanted substances to the must. The grapes are then pressed to obtain the must. Pressing is the first mechanical operation to which the grapes are subjected after the harvest and has the function of extracting the juice and pulp from the grapes, giving life to the must that will then be transformed into wine. It is a particularly delicate operation that must be carried out with care. It is essential that the grapes have not undergone pressing during transport, which could trigger unwanted fermentation. Our grapes are getting ready to give life to our fantastic wines.

Harvest.   It’s #harvest time!   The harvest is the moment in which, after careful evaluation and precise analyses, the grapes are considered ripe and ready for harvesting.   The harvest represents not only an annual event linked to work in the vineyard, but also a ritual included in the #agriculturaltraditions throughout Italy and has always brought with it a great charm and has both historical and anthropological value, inherent in social sharing and territory.   Our winemakers carry out a #manualharvest, cutting the bunches from the peduncle with the appropriate scissors and placing them in baskets or small boxes containing a maximum of 15-20 kilos. During the harvest, attention is paid to the #quality of the bunches, discarding those attacked by mold, or in any case with obvious defects, so as not to contaminate the must and therefore the wine. In this period, the winery awakens, and it becomes the center of the entire wine operation. It’s the place where the grapes, that were nurtured and cared for the previous 10 months, are ready to be transformed in wine. The goal is to produce wines that fully embody the #essence and #personality of the territory of origin.

The vine’s sentinels. In the past, roses acted as "spy plants" for the vineyards, meaning that in case of the presence of diseases or parasites or even mineral deficiencies, they were the first to show the relevant symptoms. Among these, the most common and well-known are gray mold, or botrytis, powdery mildew, also called white mold, and metcalfa. Since roses are less protected than other plants, after seeing them affected, the winemaker could intervene promptly to safeguard the well-being of his vineyards. Today, thanks to improvements made in agricultural techniques and vine breeding, the role of roses is not fundamental. However, it remains an ancient technique that is very widespread and appreciated by those farmers who are particularly attentive to safeguarding the traditions and natural cycles of the plant.  

The veraison.   Depending on the variety, #veraison takes place between mid-July and mid-August, when the berries of the white grapes varieties go from green to yellow and when the red berry varieties take on different shades of red and purple. During this phase the #coloring of the skins occurs, the #acid grows in volume and the #bunch takes shape. At this moment the plant interrupts the photosynthesis and begins the synthesis of aromas and polyphenols, the natural substances in the grape that give color, aroma and flavors to the wine. The sugar content increases, and the acidity decreases until the final #maturation phase. Veraison is a very suggestive phase, as it may not occur at the same time for all the bunches. Each single grape, presenting itself with a different shade, will make the bunches very different from each other, giving life to a palette of fascinating shades that color the vineyard.   Since the achievement of the desired ripeness of the fruit is determined by the producer, our expert winemakers are the ones who will evaluate the concentration of the substances found inside the berry in order to determine the most suitable moment for the start of the harvest, so as to obtain a wine that respects the desired characteristics. 

Orange wine: the other color of white.   The #orangewines represent an ancient and new style at the same time: the extended contact with the grape skins, first with the must, then with the wine, gives unusual flavors and colors for a wine made from white grapes. It’s a classic winemaking process as used for red wines. The grape skins release the substances they contain, making the wine much more complex both on the nose and in the mouth. It is an ancient, peasant tradition, which disappeared or almost disappeared with the advent of new cellar machinery that allows the skins to be eliminated immediately, but a tradition that resists in some wineries of the Italian countryside.   The orange wines are usually produced with grapes from clean, organic or biodynamic agriculture, for the fact that everything on the skins is found in the wine.   The result is #healthier wines, with an increasingly wider niche, perhaps a little complicated at first, but so rich in aromas and flavors that they quickly become addictive.