Wine bottles are supplied on shrink-wrapped pallets that are guaranteed for hygiene by the glassworks. Each pallet contains between 2000 and 2700 bottles and can only be purchased whole.

As a result it is always impossible to buy the exact number of bottles that are required per bottling.

For a big winery continually bottling large numbers of different wines this is probably a minor irritation. For us, a small estate, bottling tiny quantities on three different days spaced throughout the calendar year, it is always problematic. In 2011 we bottled a total of around 16.400 bottles of Brunello 2007, Brunello 2006 Riserva, Rosso del Palazzone 01/11 which meant three separate bottle deliveries. More detail on these bottlings here.

Our feeling is that there is no way to be entirely sure that an opened pallet, however carefully one reseals it, is truly impermeable to spiders and dust so the excess bottles are usually recycled.

For those not intimately involved in the wine business, an empty wine bottle can cost between 0,20 and 0,35 Eurocents depending on the weight of the glass.

But as of yesterday, our extra bottles have a new destination…. water tumblers!

The first buds have appeared, signalling the start of the vine’s annual growth cycle. In Italian they are called gemme, which also means jewels. The next stage is known locally as sfarfallamento from the word for butterfly since the first leaves look like farfalle perched on the vinestocks. Budbreak at Le Due Porte, our highest altitude vineyard, was 22 March 2012. This is early for us – last year it was 1st April (and that was early). Our agronomer, Massimo Achilli, has confirmed that that this year in Montalcino budbreak was between 10 -15 days earlier than usual.

This was caused by there having been no intermediate spring season after February’s cold. Normally spring temperatures are around 15-16 degrees (59 °F) but this year we went from -10 °C to + 24 in a week (from 14°F to 75°F). The plants, vines and fruit-trees were rudely awoken from their winter slumber and their only course of action was frenetic budding.

The first “gemme” always give me the feeling of being perched at the top of a rollercoaster, ready for the plunge. Within weeks there will be leaves and then walls of foliage, tendrils, grape clusters and bunches and everything else that has to happen before harvest in October.

There has already been talk of emergency irrigation because of drought. We have had 40-60% less rain than at this point last year and, in spite of the snow, the water table is low. The current DOCG regulations do not permit irrigation (see the Weather Rule) and if it doesn’t rain soon there will be problems for 2012 vintage.

Mercifully rain has been predicted from next Tuesday onwards, just in time for Easter and the school holidays. Fingers crossed.

Collectively, it can do a lot, which is why I am very proud to announce our membership in 1% For the Planet.  By becoming members, we have joined a rapidly growing network of businesses that share a strong commitment both to philanthropy and protecting the earth’s resources. Each company pledges to donate at least 1% of its yearly revenues to non-profits who focus on the environment and sustainability.  As Terry Kellogg, the CEO of 1% said, the members all believe that we can do well as a business by doing the right thing for the environment.

Since our beginning, we have been making “smart” choices for the environment in every decision regarding our wine production and business practices.  From our new cellar that was designed with sustainability in mind, to our packaging, where we never use polystyrene and have lightened our bottle weight by 1/3, how our actions impact the planet has always been a concern.

Our number one goal has always been about producing a great wine, and because of our philosophy that the wine is made on the vines, it is our duty to treat those vines with care and respect.  In the vineyard, we have never used chemical pesticides, and when we do need to treat the vines, we use only base metals that are allowed in organic farming.  For fertilization, we plant cover crops (nitrogen rich plants) which get ploughed into the soil, leading to many benefits from offsetting carbon dioxide to enhancing the soil structure.

As new members, we’re excited to start making our donations.  If any of you know of organizations that could benefit from 1% donations, please feel free to suggest them to us!

About 1% for the Planet

Started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, 1% for the Planet is a growing global movement of over 1,350 member companies in 44 countries that donate one percent of their sales to environmental organizations worldwide. Members have contributed over $70 million dollars to environmental causes to date.  Each day, more than one new business joins the 1% for the Planet movement. As a network, the 1% community has become a frontrunner in funding the work of environmental groups around the world. To learn more about 1% go to: www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

Spring seems to be with us and all traces of February’s snow are long gone. Timid crocus or zafferano are peeping out of the grass and wild asparagus are in season, just waiting to be hunted down by Marco. Mimosa and almond trees blossom in bright yellow and delicate pink in the warm spots of Montalcino’s hills. At this time of year, these splashes of colour are a visual guide to where the sun hits first and longest amongst the various vineyards.

[This week we received an exciting delivery of baby Sangiovese barbatelle, baby vine-stocks, and we will be planting the lovely nubbly things in our Castelnuovo vineyards in a few gaps where there are vines missing. They are covered with green paraffin to protect them in transit. We buy them from a registered nursery in Pisa and they cost a massive 80 Eurocents a plant….

The chaps, Osso and Jacopo, have been in the vineyards all week, folding over and tying up by hand any loose shoots on the existing vinestocks. We have pruned all our vineyards; to see them and the state of the new cellar, there are some beautiful shots by talented photographer Adam Allegro here

This morning I invested 80 Euro in new technology for Il Palazzone.
No more hand-writing vintages on our cartons… from now on we will be ink-stamping!

In the next week or so we will be cementing our time capsule into the foundations of the new cellar to confuse, perplex and ultimately disappoint some far-off generation of alien archaeologists.   What will they make of our peculiar offerings?

1. A bottle of Il Palazzone Brunello 2000; the first vintage picked and produce
2. The head builder’s ruler and marker pen, bearing his name, Salvatore
3. A message from the Sig. Pacella, our general contractor
4. The estate postcard of a clapped out old Fiat on the property
5. Consorzio del Brunello information booklet
6. Magnifying lens for looking at grapes from Massimo Achilli, our agronomer (the first he ever owned)
7. A sketch of the cellar by Marco Pignatti, the architect
8. A spanner from Andrea Meacci, FOP and mechanic
9. A used cartridge from Marco Sassetti
10. An impenetrable code created by a New York FOP
11. The table for sugar/alcohol levels in fermenting grapes from Paolo Vagaggini, our enologist
12. An instant coffee capsule (?)
13. A Milan/Buonconvento train ticket
14. Our 2011 harvest team signatures
15. A pouch containing secrets
16. A special paperclip from Mandy Presser
17. A union jack from Laura Gray
18. Assorted coins from Italy, Britain, USA, Tunisia and Marocco
19. A cigarette lighter (that should keep them guessing)
20. A trusty Bic pen
21. A beer opener from the Seversons
22. A cardboard bone from Gianni Petricci, known as Osso
23. A plastic frog from Jacopo Ferretti, cellar-man
24. This year’s on-site price list
25. Isla and James’ harvest label
26. One of our corks
27. A piece of hose from the plumber
28. The time capsule tin itself, hand-made by Paolo Pieri

It’s no secret that a Siberian cold spell has Europe in its icy grasp.

Montalcino’s mayor closed the school on Wednesday and every day since then, conveyed by a flurry of midnight text messages from mother to mother. There’s no meat left in the Coop, the elderly are skittering about on the roads and many farmhouses on the northern slopes have been without electricity for two days now.

We are sitting tight at Il Palazzone; there are over 50 cm of snow and our road is impassable by car. The snow is positive for the vineyard since it is a great way for the soil to absorb a substantial quantity of water. Sadly this is not so true for the olive trees and we are all crossing our fingers. Their branches are weighed down with snow; the risk is that they break and then be frozen by the cold.

The forecast weather has been billed as the coldest since 1985 (and before that 1956). For me personally, winter 1985 is indelibly linked to the vivid memory of watching my father breaking and then burning the kitchen furniture to keep us warm. For Montalcinese 1985 is unforgettable because it was the year the olive trees froze. For Club100 olive tree owners reading this and fearing for the livelihood of their trees, in 1985 the thermometers in S.Angelo Scalo read -25°C (-13°F).

The sky is a dirty-blanket grey, snowflakes are falling thick and fast and temperatures are meant to go down to –10 this weekend (14°F)….Brrrr.

2012 is already an exciting year for Il Palazzone. The cellar is nearly finished and we have two new members in our team. Let me introduce these two SuperTuscans:

Gianni Petricci, or Osso as he is known, has fifteen years of experience working in Montalcino vineyards. He’s a local man and a great asset to the estate, thanks to his abilities as a mechanic and laconic good humour.

Jacopo Ferretti qualified from the Istituto Agrario in Siena in 2003 and has been working for estates in Montalcino and Tuscany since then. Cellar management is in his genes; his father is the cantiniere at Poggio Antico and he grew up amongst the vineyards there. We are thrilled to have him with us as we embark on the adventure of the new cellar.

Today we are bottling 2007 Brunello and 2006 Riserva…. The variety of noises that a bottling line emits is an astounding collection of clinks and clanks, juddering rattles and hisses. Although the insertion of the cork is automated, the bottles need to be lifted manually one by one onto the line and removed and placed in their cages on the other end. We do not label yet, and the bottles stay nude and upright for a week before being gently lain on their sides to get over the trauma that is known as bottle shock (for a full explanation of this temporary condition, see here)

Our production of these vintages is limited to say the least; a puny 1200 bottles of 2006 Riserva (yep, that’s right, 100 cases….) and under 5.000 bottles of 2007. Small numbers indeed but picking up “just” 6200 bottles twice in one day is a taxing day’s work.

2007 and 2006 are both five star years. This is actually the first time since 1945 that two consecutive vintages have received the prestigious five stars “annata eccezionale.” See for yourself here

Obviously late and early are relative concepts but it is true to say that most Montalcino producers bottled these vintages between 6 months to two years ago and that we are – in a sense – late to bottle. All Brunellos must spend a minimum of 24 months in wood and Riserva can only be released on the 6^th year after harvest. In our case this wine is a different composition than our vintage 2006 and has also spent an extra 18 months in wood. Our 2007 and 2006 Riserva have spent respectively 43 and 57 months in wood – infinitely more than the current DOCG regulations for 24 months. We decide to bottle our wines when they are ready and this decision is determined by the vintage and the wine’s development in the cellar. This prolonged time in wood, which two such great vintages can well withstand, will extend the “cellarability” and increase the complexity of these wines.

After bottling Brunello must spend 4 months of bottle ageing and Riserva 6 months before we can request the DOCG strips.

Many of our colleagues are gearing up to present their wines at Benvenuto Brunello next month and journalists are already rounding up bottles in order to review the new vintages. We will be hanging back until after the summer.

Watch this space.

Bottle-shock is the inevitable trauma that wine experiences when it is transferred to a new environment from a familiar one. In our case a wine ready for bottling goes first from wood to stainless steel. There we blend our Sangiovese from 3 different vineyards. Its final home is the sterilized bottle; cold, unyielding glass, makes me shiver just thinking of it.

In response to this new environment, wines tend to get shy and retreat into themselves, even acting a bit sharp and uptight, before settling down and remembering who they really are. Bottle shock is characterised by muted or disjointed fruit flavours in the wine… jagged in short.

The good news is that it is temporary and the wine will get over the shock by resting and recovering, working inside the bottle to reach a new equilibrium. The more tannins in a wine, the more recovery time necessary. Obligatory bottle aging for 4 months is part of the DOCG regulations which apply to all Brunellos. Riservas have to spend 6 months bottle aging.

Bottle sickness more often refers to travel abuse of wine; continuous vibrations and changes in temperature can upset the elements of the wine. No need for a doctor or last rites; given time, the wine will recover its poise and balance.

The days are crisp and clear, with startling blue skies and beautiful sunsets. We have been working the soil around the vines so that any and all winter rains will be fully absorbed by the land. These water reserves may prove useful later in the 2012 growing season.

Winter pruning started this week, a “potatura soffice” meticulously performed by hand. Soffice in Italian means soft; it is an adjective most often used to describe sponge cakes, clouds and kitten fur.

After his weekly visit to the vineyards, our agronomer Massimo Achilli, instructed us how best to cut back the straggly offshoots this year, cutting only last year’s growth and allowing the vine to develop. “Soft pruning” is a revival of traditional pruning methods which is gaining momentum in Italy. Once upon a time, when vineyards were all small and tended by hand by the farmers themselves, the potino was fully attuned to the vine’s health and was committed and concerned about the effect of every operation performed in the vineyard. Nowadays with the use of machines and/or itinerant workforces who lack preparation and a long-term connection with the vines, this art has been lost and the Italian vineyards have suffered generally as a result.

When the potatura soffice is used correctly it is proven to significantly increase the vine’s life-span and can cut annual pruning costs by half. Most importantly the longer the vine lives, the better the grapes are…

The champions of this tecnique are two specialists from Friuli; Marco Simonit and Pierpaolo Sirch. Over the last two decades they have perfected and patented their method, see here. They are responsible for creating the world’s first Pruning School to recover and teach a dying art. They consult directly for forty or so prestigious Italian estates; Angelo Gaja and Spinetta in Piemonte; Bellavista in Franciacorta; Hofstatter and Tenuta Manincor in Alto Adige, Feudi di San Gregorio in Campania; Planeta and Tasca d’ Almerita in Sicily. The school has courses during the winter in most of Italy’s wine-growing areas and I have just signed us up for the 2012 course… evviva!

BB will be from 24-27 February next year. This is an unique opportunity to see many of Montalcino’s two hundred plus producers standing cheek to jowl in their Sunday best in a tent or a cloister. It is also a wonderful chance to sample two five star vintages – 2007 Brunello and 2006 Riserva – and form an opinion about these two wines that will be on the market in 2012. 24 and 25th February is reserved for journalists while on the 26th and 27th the event is open to trade and interested public. Admission to ticket holders only. Let me know if you are interested in attending and I will do what I can!

2011 was a funny old year – there’s no two ways about it.

It’s mid-November now and while the nights are bitterly cold, around midday, temperatures could still pass for summer in some countries.

In the wake of the March “super” moon, Easter was late (April 24th) and the vines were slow to start. Budbreak was on 10th April 2011. In 2010 it was on 1st April although 2011 was characterised by much less snow and infinitely less rigid temperatures.

From the beginning of the year until 14 May there was only 10cm of rainfall, compared to the 20cm that is considered normal. Then on Sunday 15th over 5cm of rain fell in 5 intense hours. Another 10 cm of rain fell in Montalcino between Sunday 5th and Wednesday 8th June. We had a cool and rainy July (particularly the last ten days of the month) and a torrid August and September with no rain.

On 21st August searing hot winds of 41°C (106 F) blew their way across Montalcino. This is called “effetto phon” – the hairdryer effect – continual hot air scorches the leaves and dehydrates the grapes. Sadly our lowest vineyard suffered and we threw out some 3.000 kg of grapes. From 26th August night temperatures became decidedly chilly and the grapes benefited from extreme thermal excursion. Due to the heat spikes in August, many producers in Montalcino began harvest at the beginning of September. Temperatures in mid September were 5-7 degrees Celsius higher than average. During the hottest hours of the day, temperatures hit 28° C. (82° F.), while during the night the temperatures went as low as 16° (61°).

We were tempted to pick on 15th September but after some havering we decided to brave the storm that was predicted; in the hopes that a little water would be beneficial for the vines and the fruit. Ten days of perfect weather plus the ever widening day/night thermal excursion gave our grapes perfect physiological ripening.

We picked our lowest vineyard on 22 September, the second Castelnuovo vineyard on 29 September and Le Due Porte on 4 October. Yields were low, selection and quality were high. We were delighted to use a stainless steel vibrating selection table for the first time.

From 2011 vintage onwards we are fermenting in oak barrels instead of in stainless steel. The wine will go from fermentation wood barrel to large ageing wood barrel. So far we are extremely pleased with our 125 quintals of 2011 (equivalent to around 11.000 bottles). This was a year when we chose to combine ruthless quality control with patience, and that choice ultimately rewarded us.

We’re thrilled to announce that the 2004 Riserva has just been named as one of Wine & Spirits Magazine’s 100 Best Wines of the Year in its Winter 2011 issue, and is tied for Best Brunello!

According to Wine & Spirits, “Of the 10,867 wines we tasted last year, these are the 100 that excited us the most, the ones with the most elegant and delicious ability to taste of where they grow. By nature, the 100 Best Wines of the Year are diverse in style, ranging from tart and lean to welterweights to ripe blockbusters,from those that strike a resonant chord with our expectations and those that help us understand a region in a completely new way.”

The wine was awarded 93 points, and W&S continued on to say, “From a ten-acre vineyard in western Montalcino, at an altitude of 480 meters, this wine developed its share of earthy power in 2004 (the first great vintage since Dick Parsons, then president of Time Warner, bought the property in 2001). Rooted in mineral tannin, the wine is brisk and sunny,with an elusive power to its fruit. New oak is still a major element, but there’s plenty of earthen depth to the flavors that emerge from underneath.  For the cellar and eventually, a thick-cut ribeye.”

The limited production of this wine included 3,916 750-ml bottles, 125 Magnums and 25 Double Magnums and was bottled on July 1, 2009.

For more information:
http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com/

We read in our local paper just the other day that architects are creating “wine cathedrals” for storing and aging wine. Our new cellar, designed by Marco Pignattai, should be finished and ready for use at the end of January 2012.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MMvP0zJ0s

I’d like to think that visitors to Il Palazzone never forget our wines but the reality is that few people who drive to the property ever forget the rollercoaster white-knuckle ride that it takes to get to us. We may only be a kilometre from the centre of town, but it is 900 metres of steep, dusty, pot-holed road, with a drybrick wall on one side and a ravine on the other.

In anticipation of the building work for our new cellar we widened the road where possible and removed the blind-corner-on-a-hill so beloved by our guests.

This said, it was some job getting the 9 metres of roof-beams on site, not to mention the recent delivery of three 5.000 litre wood fermentation tanks.

From 2011 vintage onwards we will be fermenting in these beautiful oaken barrels instead of in stainless steel. The tannins in the oak are an anti-oxidant. This, combined with the micro-oxigenation permitted by the wood, gives wines that are more “limpido” with increased stability of aromatics and tannins.

The tanks weigh in at around 1000 kg each so navigating them up our hill and around the bends was quite something, not to mention squeezing them into our temporary cellar space. In order to get them functional we need to fill them up with water for 48 hours to see if they leak.

As I write in my tasting room, the heady slightly-sickening aroma of fermentation is wafting through the building. The sounds of swearing shouting men have finally abated and the barrels are in place, ready for harvest and fermentation next week.