Asti

NovaCadamatre October 28th, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . .

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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NovaCadamatre October 10th, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . .

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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NovaCadamatre September 19th, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . .

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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NovaCadamatre September 4th, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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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NovaCadamatre August 26th, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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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NovaCadamatre April 29th, 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . .

My speed tour of Piedmonte

The day after Verona we headed west towards Piedmonte in search of another Italian tradition…Gelato!  This was something I was very excited about since I had always heard that Italians make Gelato very differently from ice cream as we know it.  We stopped at a little town that was recommended to have some of the ...

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