The 2016 vintage, in the area where our vineyards are located, was characterized by a mild winter, with the exception of some days in January where in the early morning temperatures dropped to -5/-6 °C, before raising again over 0 °C during the daytime. Rainfall and snow were also very rare between November and January.
This mild winter has provided an earlier sprouting and growing phase in around seven/ten days. Despite these premises, we noticed adverse weather conditions in the following months (in particular in Val d’Enza area where “Rampata” Estate vineyards are) and a sudden drop of temperature while the fruit set stage was going through; this led to a decrease in productivity for Lambrusco grapes used in our most famous wine: lambrusco Concerto.
The hot summer with low rainfall has prevented vines diseases and, allowing consequently less operation of protection of the grapes in the vineyards.
At the end of the summer Val d’Enza area experienced a significant difference between day-time and night-time temperatures, which brought a great benefit to the wines in term of acidity and flavor profile.
The harvest began on 30th of August with white grape Malvasia. For the red grapes on September 5th with Ancellotta and later on 9th with the Lambrusco grapes. The harvest was completed on the 1st of October.
A dry September allowed a good maturation of the grapes and helped in scheduling the harvest without any interruption as ideally planned.
In terms of quantity, unfortunately we observe a decrease of production for Lambrusco Salamino grape (from the estate “Rampata”) corresponding in 41% loss of production for Lambrusco reggiano DOC Concerto. Other major losses, about 15%, are from Ancellotta and Lambrusco Salamino grapes from Quercioli, Gaida and Favorita vineyards.
However, the quality of grapes came out great with a slightly increase both of acidity and alcohol. The low productivity has enhanced peculiarities of Lambrusco, with absence of potential deseases. We can predict to produce wine (in particular for Lambrusco) with a good aromatic intensity, structure and alcoholic content.