Passopisciaro

2015 was a quick and early-ripening year on Etna. It was a year of great vitality within the plants, fertilized in the well-watered soils from the rainy winter, followed by tremendous heat during the summer. The long period of rain in early October weakened the skins, with a nasty cloud hanging and dripping humidity for weeks, leaving dew every morning. The grapes began showing color, ripeness, and sweetness quite, while maintaining their searing acidity, bringing advanced ripening across our vineyards.

The rains brought with them mold and other problems, so to keep them healthy, we returned again to the vineyards after our green harvest and began to pick out the unhealthy grapes from each bunch, one by one. We began to pick some of the cesanese d’Affile and petit verdot on the 10th, finishing on the 17th.

This year brought us austere petit verdot and bold cesanese, with even tannins and color, with a good skeleton, high acidity, and low alcohol. The wines from this vintage are not very concentrated wines, but they are certainly of great longevity.

Vineyard age: 14 years

Vineyard area: 2 hectares

Vineyard density: 12,300 vines per hectare

Vineyard altitude: 900 m/2,900 ft above sea level

Yield per hectare: 17 Hl/Ha

Spraying: Propolis, clay, grapefruit seed extract

Harvest: 10-19 October

Vinification: Fermentation in 30hl steel vats for 14 days

Aging: 6 months in new French oak barriques and 14 months in large cement vessels

Bottling: Waning moon of April 2017

Production: 3,000 bottles