The 2019 vintage in Northern Italy is now complete and the wines are safely wrapped up in tank.
First pressing of Field Blend 
Free run Barbera 
Racked Moscato
The fruit for the dry Moscato “Mascot” was the very first fruit picked the season. This had the potential for the fermentation to start slowly, but actually kicked in and was merrily bubbling away within 24 hours. I slightly increased the volume of whole bunch fruit and cut back on the cap plunging but more or less the same procedure as the 2018 wine. Fewer days on skins post fermentation has led to a wine with a fine texture and a really elegant palate .
The Barbera has been fermented in the same two old tonneaux 500 litre barrels as last year. The minor finesses have been an earlier picking and fewer punch downs but otherwise a carbon copy of the successful 2018 wine. The major change for the 2019 will be that I am de-classifying out of the Italian DOC/DOP system completely. I will have significantly less paperwork to deal with, but I won’t be able to say “Barbera” on the label. Current working title is “Both Barrels” for reasons that are apparent.
New for 2019 is the Field Blend. I harvested only indigenous Piemontese varietals in roughly the proportions that they are grown in the vineyard and co-fermented them in one old tonneaux. It’s not exact, but we have roughly 35% Moscato which was all fermented as whole bunch, 35% Barbera, 10% Nebbiolo, 10% Dolcetto and 10% Gamba di Pernice (you might have to look that one up). In my head I thought I might end up with a light, chillable, smashable Summer red. It’s not even remotely turned out like that; deeply aromatic on the nose but super savoury and dense on the palate with a cobweb of superfine tannins holding it altogether. I love it and I’m slightly over excited by it considering the tiny volume made.
The intention is to release the Moscato and Field Blend in the late Spring of 2020 and the Barbera in the early Autumn of 2020. Anticipated volumes are not more than 80 cases of Moscato and Barbera and in the region of 25 cases of the Field Blend.