Vendemmia 2026: a short, hot harvest

We started picking on the ninth of September, a full week earlier than last year. The summer was dry and the grapes were small, thick-skinned and very sweet.

Enzo, who is ninety-one, still walks the rows every morning to taste. He decided the Riserva block was ready two days before the refractometer agreed with him.

“He tasted one grape, nodded, and walked back to the house. That was the decision.”

The rosato is already in tank and the reds are on their skins. It is too early to promise anything, but the kitchen smells of fermenting grapes again, and that is our favourite week of the year.