2016 La Spinetta Ca' di Pian Barbera d'Asti

We are still on our quest to taste and understand Barbera, so my husband bought this 2016 La Spinetta Ca' di Pian Barbera d'Asti for us to try.
We recently had this wine paired with meatballs and spaghetti. I thought that this wine was a heavy body Barbera, it could stand up to steak. Traditionally, Barbera was not made in oak but in stainless steel. However now, both styles can be found. We detected a bit of oak on this Barbera.
I was interested in learning more about the wine so I went to the La Spinetta site. Giuseppe and Lydia Rivetti were dedicated farmers in Piedmonte that began the business in 1960. La Spinetta means top of the hill, and is located in Castagnole Lanze. Their children Carlo, Bruno, Giorgio, and Giovanna took over the business with the blessing of their parents. They first made a single vineyard Moscato and then in 1985 produced their Barbera Ca' di Pian.
And what is it with the rhinoceros on their label? The pencil drawing by German artist Albrecht Dürer records the arrival of an Indian rhinoceros in Lisbon, Portugal in 1515. It was the first animal of its kind to be seen in Europe. The choice of the rhinoceros on the label was due to Giorgio Rivetti’s admiration for Albrecht Dürer. Giorgio credits Gabriele Cionini, a close family friend and an expert in the world of wine and art, who introduced Dürer’s works to the family.
Giorgio's respect for art is carried over to his wine. No chemicals or pesticides are used at the family-owned winery. Rivetti personally plows fields with horses and directs a “green harvest” each July when vines are thinned of grape bunches to keep yields low and to maximize the fruit’s healthy development. “We respect the land and it returns beautiful fruit. That’s what we want to get into each bottle – the character of the land – not the winemaker’s hand.”²
This philosophy is one that we also adhere to, although we haven't gone as far as the Rivetti's, we also respect the land and try to express it in the wines we make.
References:
1. La Spinetta
2. Jim Campanini, Grapefully Yours, Giorgio Rivetti’s art is in La Spinetta’s gorgeous wines.

Tasting Our 2019 Chardonnay

Yesterday, we decided to taste our 2019 Chardonnay fermented with the X16 yeast that we bottled on December 12, 2020. It's almost a month since we bottled it and my husband had the perfect meal to pair with the wine. He made a wild sockeye salmon with the Florida Seasoned Pepper from Penzeys. We had a side of green beans to go with the dinner.
The Chardonnay that we tried was one of our 375 mL bottles. Good for two people. As we swirled the glass, I detected the aroma of orange blossoms. The flavor was also of oranges with a decided acidic kick at the finish.

This is interesting because the titratable acids are only at 7.3 g/L, although the pH is 3.07. We'll taste this wine again after it has a few more months of bottle aging to see if the acids marry with the other components of the wine. All in all, we thought that it was our best attempt at making Chardonnay so far.

Preserved Roman Wine Barrels Reveal Ancient Coopers' Art

This morning, my husband sent me this link, Preserved Roman Wine Barrels Reveal Ancient Coopers' Art¹ published in the drinks business. The story begins in 2008 when, as part of an archaeological excavation, three water wells (Pts 378, Pts 354 and Pts 417) were discovered along the right bank of the river Vesle which runs through Reims. The casings of the water wells were actually constructed of reused vats identified as wine barrels dating back to 100-400 AD! The wine barrels were in such an outstanding state of preservation which made it possible to carry out a very faithful reconstruction:²

• each of these barrels was made up of 22 to 25 tapered, 2 meter-long staves
• the barrels contained between 1,000 and 1,200 litres of wine as deduced from the deposits of malic and tartaric acid on the walls of the staves indicative of alcoholic fermentation
• the wood used in their construction was not oak but European silver fir (Abies alba)
• marks left of the surfaces of the staves helped to identify the tools such as the doloire, adze and croze which were used in the shaping of the staves
• all of the hoops were made from hazelnut saplings (Corylus avellana) with a semi-circular section, which were split and cut using a billhook (barrel hoop maker’s tool), then bent and tied
• one of the hoops was fastened with esparto grass (Lygeum spartum) which, unlike the fir and hazelnut, is not native to northern Europe but the Mediterranean
• the barrels had also been sealed in places with pitch, known to be produced in this period by distillation of pine wood
• the wooden surfaces of the three barrels contained over 45 branded or stamped mark, like their modern counterparts, each one of which signified a step in the barrel making process, as well as the route the barrel took once completed

I enjoyed reading the three articles listed in the references below. It made me realize that wine storage in 2021 may not be so different from 100-400 AD!
References:
1. Rupert Millar, Preserved Roman Wine Barrels Reveal Ancient Coopers' Art, the drinks business, January 5, 2021.
2. Pierre Mille et Philippe Rollet, The study of three large barrels excavated at Reims/Durocortorum (Marne): the skills of ancient coopers.
3. Emma Cranston, Gerry Selian, Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Roman Wine Barrels in Champagne, Vinepair, January 6, 2021.

Recap of Vintage 2020

Every month, I try to write a blog about what the month was about and I have been doing this since 2015. All of these blogposts are located under the Vintages Notes Tab, located at the top of this blog.
It is time again to collate all of the blogs related to Vintage 2020. It amazed me when I was going through the posts that I wrote a blogpost last year on this very day, and remarked how warm January was and how we were still working in the vineyard rolling up our netting.
Here are the Vintage Notes for 2020:
Vintage 2020
Vintage 2020: Winter
Vintage 2020: February
Vintage 2020: Pruning Time
Vintage 2020: Still Pruning
Vintage 2020: Spring Help in the Vineyard
Vintage 2020: April Weather
Vintage 2020: May Cold Temperatures
Vintage 2020: Got Rain Will Grow
Vintage 2020: June Update
Vintage 2020: July Brings Needed Rain
Vintage 2020: Summer Heat Waves
Vintage 2020: Auxerrois at Véraison
Vintage 2020: Getting Ready for Chenin Blanc Harvest
Vintage 2020: Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc Harvest
Vintage 2020: Harvesting our First Crop of Barbera
Vintage 2020: December Weather Highs and Lows
What I will remember about 2020 will be a warm winter followed by a cool spring and then a summer of heat waves. Luckily for us, the heat wave allowed our grapes to accumulate the highest level of Brix that we had ever seen. Our stellar crew and Jonathan Edwards helped us with the harvest and processing the harvest and now we settle in for a small respite.
Looking ahead, it appears that the weather this year is similar to last years with warm weather for the first week of the new year. The vineyard is calling us to get out and do some pre-pruning preparations.