Nova Cadamatre

Harvest 2011: How California became Italy

This year has had it all.  We started with heavy frost on the Central Coast, rain during bloom and spring hail.  The craziness continued with a long temperate summer which was punctuated by few heat spikes (if you can call mid 90s a heat spike out here).  Growers fought Powdery Mildew and numerous invasive insect ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 11 – The Grape Landslide…

Right now, things are crazy! People are rushing to pick fruit.  We’re working 24/7 to get all the fruit in and we’re running out of tank space.  I haven’t really had time to put all my thoughts from this week into words because I’ve been frantically trying to make the best wine we possibly can ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 10 – It Rains… so I make Soup!

Well, we all knew it would get to this.  What we didn’t know is how much it would rain. Asti topped out at almost 2 1/2 inches of rain over last week.  We’re getting more today as well.  Rain during this time of year is challenging for several reasons.  1) When it’s raining there is no ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 9 – The Beginning of the End.

In case you haven’t heard we’re going to have a weather event this next week.  Now, being from the south, I love the way the western weathermen talk about precipitation.  I hear “weather event”, “Major trough”, and my personal favorite “heavy drizzle”.  In the south, weathermen would usually say “It’s going to rain!” and then ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 8 – Harvest Halfway and MW preparations

At this point we’re halfway through the harvest season.  In another 8 weeks it will all be wrapped up.  Wine will be tucked away in barrels or tanks either going through ML, extended maceration, and sur lee aging.  Between now and then is the most complex time during the harvest.  This is when the bulk ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 7 – The Waiting Game

This past week brought cooler temperatures to the regions around Asti Winery.  We saw a noticeable slowdown in sugar accumulation and thus a drop in tons being delivered as growers waited to see movement again.  This week is forecasted to be warmer and hopefully this will kick ripening back into gear.  Chardonnay is coming in ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 6 – How One Decides When to Pick

We just finished Week 6 which saw the bulk of the Pinot Gris that we’re harvesting along with the first part of our Chardonnay.  We even brought in some Zinfandel last week at 26+ Brix! No joke!  Weather was a bit warmer last week with some days in the 90s but it has still remained fairly ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 5 – Things REALLY get moving…

This week we’ve started seeing far more grapes than the previous week.  Our Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc were joined by our first Chardonnay of the season!  Fruit quality looks really nice and acids are still staying put thanks to the more moderate day time temperatures as well as the cool nights.  The Alexander Valley ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 4 – Grapes, Pigs, and Fun Varieties at Asti Winery

Week 4 has come to a rather quiet close as we only processed a few hundred tons this week atAsti.  It’s a drop in the bucket for what is to come this season.  We were led by Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris from the Lodi area which both had perfect Brix, crisp acids, and really ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 3 – The Pinot Commeth

We’ve begun harvesting Pinot Gris from the Central Coast vineyard, CatCanyon (also the source of the Emma Pearl Chardonnay).  Pinot Noir doesn’t seem to be too far behind in Brix so I’m sure we’ll start to see that soon as well.  Here atAstiwe have our first grapes scheduled for mid-next week however it’s mainly Sauvignon ...

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