The Dynamics of Seasons
"Minor vintages and
memorable vintages
still vintages
all to be discovered."
A round hill, a few isolated houses, a row of vines holding up the sky. And somewhere you can hear the slow footsteps of autumn.
Vintages
How to recognize the best vintages?
Those atmospheric conditions are undoubtedly the conditions that contribute more than others to the formation of the peculiar characteristics of the grapes, the dynamics of which in relation to the course of the seasons is certainly a complex relationship and often with unexpected results.
Of course, great vintages help to make great wines, positively affecting their longevity, but one should not make the mistake of considering with the term vintage only the microclimate in the specific production area.
Also making a difference are the business choices, which are manifold. First, the planting design with the choice of grape variety type and rootstock. Then vine training, various green pruning systems, and agronomic choices according to climate. Thus, fungal treatments. Harvests, winery operations, and more. So in conclusion, in addition to the “solar” vintage, it is necessary to consider the “business” vintage more as a whole.
The requirements for an excellent vintage
In any case, speaking more strictly of solar vintage, there are three parameters to be used to define the concept of “vintage,” which is encapsulated in the multiple effects of light, heat and humidity.
Three crucial phases should be distinguished in each vintage, firstly that from budding to flowering (April, May), then that from flowering to ‘ veraison (June, July, August), and finally that of ripening (August and beyond).
In the first stage, a mild climate with sufficient rain for healthy cell reproduction would be optimal. During the second, a warm temperature with limited rainfall input would be ideal to avoid fungal disease issues. In the end for the third phase, it takes warm (but not extremely hot) weather, brightness, with little rainfall especially in September and wide temperature swings between night and day to strengthen the boost of aromatic precursors.
Memorable vintages such as, for example, 1997 are historic for their harmony of the three aspects Light, Heat and Humidity.
Minor vintages
Even in lesser vintages, very interesting wines can be obtained thanks to optimal and well correlated agronomic choices with very careful vinification and refinement: in short, even in less memorable vintages, wines of surprising elegance and pleasantness can be obtained, of great extension in pairings, well balanced , but above all distinctive wines of the territory.
It is up to the winemaker to be able to smooth out the aspects of less good vintages, with appropriate agronomic interventions that often make the difference between farms in the same area.
For example, the 2017 vintage is considered a very bad year due to excessive heat and low humidity. In this case it was necessary to take corrective agronomic interventions and avoid certain operations.
Deleterious would have been, for example, defoliation operations (with the risk of leaving bunches uncovered), or harvests too early, and so on.
Each vintage gives us
a unique experience.
There are always many operations to be done in the vineyard, often the winemaker has to anticipate their strategies in time, but making the right choices requires excellent preparation and experience, and sometimes a little luck doesn’t hurt!
Each vintage, in each case, should be experienced, exalted, loved, pampered and respected by the producer, cellarer and winemaker and directed to achieve the maximum expression of the wines, respecting their diversity.
Vintages and wines
Efforts aimed at achieving maximum expression of the uniqueness of the vintage can easily be seen in artisanal wines .
No two vintages will ever be the same in wine production, in any area. It is the magic of diversity related to variable weather phenomena on the one hand and different colors, scents, textures, complexity of grapes on the other hand that generate different and original emotions and sensations.
How wonderful when wine gives the opportunity and freedom to discover these intimate emotions and sensations!
The season starts with a late winter and early spring characterised by cold and dry weather, but without frost, the temperature never drops below zero.
The months of April and May are regular with moderate rainfall, a gradual rise in temperature, excellent budding and good flowering.
A modest hailstorm does no damage, but the summer months are characterised by an incredible increase in rainfall, temperatures and fungal diseases.
In September, the rainfall increases again with heavy storms that not only delay ripening but also put a strain on the health of the grapes. Rainfall also increased in the final stages of ripening, making the vintage one of the worst in the last twenty years, with a strong imbalance towards the humidity factor. A mediocre vintage.
The year 2003 witnessed a heavy frost in the first ten days of April, which fortunately caused little damage to the buds of the Sangiovese vines. This occurred after a mild winter and early spring that had lowered the guard against the problem of spring frosts.
We then had one of the hottest summers in recent years with an early ripening of 15-20 days. This imbalance towards the heat effect continued in September and October: the bunches, especially of Sangiovese, were extraordinary, perfect, sparse, with small berries and thick skins, but the light and heat effect made the wines certainly less elegant.
For the older vineyards with less exposure to the sun, however, it was an excellent vintage.
The 2004 vintage began with a mild winter and an averagely cool spring, with some very hot days. The summer was fairly regular but in the second half very rainy, with fine days but also a lot of rain in September.
An average vintage, slightly skewed towards the humidity factor, however excellent for white grapes.
After a very cold and rainy winter, with snowfalls in February and high water reserves, the 2005 vintage began with a cool and rightly rainy spring with a regular flowering followed by June with warm and bright days. August and September were quite cool, with significant temperature fluctuations. Those who managed to contain fungal diseases were able to benefit from a slow but complete ripening of the grapes. Agronomic interventions in the vineyard aimed at defoliation and aeration resulted in excellent products.
This was a very good year, with excellent products obtained from the most suitable areas, which were better looked after by targeted agronomic interventions.
The 2006 vintage started with a regular winter and a mild spring until the first half of May, which led to lush vegetative development. The energy of the plants was so strong that it could have generated problems if the cold weather between late May and early June had not arrived; the cold temperatures slowed down flowering and the pressure of fungal diseases.
The high temperatures from the second half of June made it possible to catch up with the vegetative delay, and the subsequent heat was exploited by the plants without any stress thanks to the water reserves accumulated during the spring period. The month of August was temperate and September very sunny, with strong temperature fluctuations, albeit with a few days of rain (never excessive): this created the conditions for healthy, abundant grapes, very rich in terpenes.
An excellent vintage, with a perfect balance of light, heat and humidity.
The year is immediately characterised by an early vegetative recovery thanks to above-average winter and spring temperatures. This year saw the first serious alarm of a lack of water reserves for the plants. Fortunately, the rains in June resolved the problem and at the same time, as temperatures dropped, the grapes were able to regularly complete their vegetative development.
The summer was hot, but not too hot, with large temperature swings at the end. At harvest, the bunches were perfect, fully ripened with good acidity and a considerable concentration of polyphenols.
Excellent vintage, both for reds and whites
The 2008 vintage began under the banner of variability. From a mild winter, the very wet and cold spring led to a delay in flowering and the subsequent phenological phases. At the end of June, with high humidity, temperatures rose, favouring fungal diseases: disease pressure was one of the strongest in the last twenty years.
The hot summer suggested an improvement, but the September rains combined with the delay in ripening confirmed the negative forecasts for the vintage.
A mediocre vintage, especially for red wines.
Balance is the constant that characterises the 2009 vintage. It started with a fairly mild and rainy winter that allowed the water reserves to be filled. A trouble-free early spring, with the final heat offset by a June with just the right amount of rain: this allowed the plants to withstand the high temperatures and lack of water without stress.
The month of August with average temperatures allowed an optimal veraison phase, and the temperature range with moderate rainfall in September allowed optimal ripening.
A very good vintage, especially for Sangiovese.
It began with a harsh winter, with abundant snowfall, and a cool, rainy spring. Water supplies combined with moderate spring rainfall enable the plants to withstand the summer heat and drought well.
The season ends irregularly. The month of September was rather rainy, with temperature fluctuations. Those who managed to contain fungal diseases and delay the harvest, harvested excellent grapes, very rich in aroma precursors even if less sugary.
Good vintage, excellent wines from the young Sangiovese plantings
The 2011 vintage was extraordinarily hot and dry, very similar to the 2003 vintage characterised by a torrid summer with above-average temperatures from June to the end of September. The grapes ripened 15 days earlier.
A good vintage even if less suited to the harmonious expression of Sangiovese.
If in other areas of Italy 2012 was the annus horribilis, due to its strong heterogeneity, for the company it was definitely a great year. The weather in 2012 was immediately very hot, so much so that another hot 2011 vintage was feared. The slowing down of the budding caused by a cool and rainy spring was easily made up for in the warm and dry months of June and July. August was also very hot, and had it not been for the important water reserves accumulated in the spring, it would have been a truly horribilis vintage in our production zone.
The vintage was saved thanks to a cooler and wetter September, which, in some cases, put a strain on the grapes (many producers experienced rot and mould), but where the necessary agronomic interventions were made, perfect, balanced grapes with a good sugar content were obtained.
The wine obtained was influenced by the strength of the vintage and the struggle of the plants against ‘adversity’: the result was a very well-balanced and fragrant product, thanks also to the temperature fluctuations. An excellent vintage.
It was a cooler year than previous years, where heavy winter and spring rains created water reserves and caused a slight delay in flowering. However, the high temperatures at the end of June and July allowed the plants to catch up, and the ripening process continued well into August and September, albeit somewhat slowed down by lower than average temperatures.
The temperature fluctuations between day and night were balanced, while the not excessively hot temperatures, with few dry periods, favoured a distributed and gradual ripening, but agronomic interventions aimed at aerating the grapes were necessary, as in the 2012 vintage. It was only thanks to this care that healthy, good quality grapes were obtained, rich in aromatic substances and polyphenols with ideal values, with the same gradations as in the 2012 vintage. An excellent vintage.
In the Ascione Valley, the 2014 vintage was decidedly uninteresting due to its irregularity: it was very cold in spring and rained a lot in summer. The season was brought forward by a very hot and rainy winter, leading to an early bud break that immediately required a strong defence against fungal diseases.
The only regular months were May and June, while July and August were characterised by lower than average temperatures and abundant rainfall. The high humidity associated with hot air bubbles led to a further exacerbation of fungal diseases. A mediocre year
Thanks to an extraordinary summer and the regularity of the seasons, the 2015 vintage was exceptional in both quality and quantity. In the Ascione valley, the 2015 season was practically perfect, rightly rainy in the spring (the rains of the 3rd of June gave that important water reserve to finish the vegetative development and face the ripening phase with energy).
The summer was hot but not too hot, with excellent temperature fluctuations in September and constant moderate ventilation.
Exceptional vintage
If for some areas of Italy, the 2016 vintage was very good, for the Pian del Pino estate it was decidedly negative, not so much because of the weather (actually cooler, but suitable for a good ripening of the Sangiovese), but because of the two big hailstorms, the first in June and the second in July.
A decidedly negative year for the winery: no wine was bottled.
But it is indeed true that often one cannot only associate the worst with the worst, it was the hail that created opportunities to meet, generating new friendships.
A very unusual year, marked by one of the worst spring frosts in the last 20 years, the one in the third ten days of April, which caused a real disaster in the vineyards. But the plants always have a plan ‘B’, calling on the ‘latent’ buds, the vegetation restarted a month late. The hot, dry summer allowed the delay to be fully recovered and the harvest was even brought forward by about a week.
Despite a lower yield, the 2017 vintage, thanks to the agronomic interventions aimed at covering the grapes, is nevertheless to be remembered as an excellent vintage and the wines acquired a complex bouquet with very pronounced tertiary notes, as well as great structure and complexity.
Excellent vintage
An ‘unusual’ year due to the alternating peaks of heat and heavy rainfall, where the good vintner was nevertheless able to make a difference, despite the high humidity and the pathogenic force of fungal diseases. The season started with a warm and humid early spring, which resulted in an abundant flowering and a high number of bunches. Production was therefore more abundant and difficult for fungal diseases.
Unlike in 2017, in order to produce healthy grapes, it was necessary to defoliate and thin out, with maximum aeration; the fine days at the end of September and beginning of October allowed optimal ripening.
Good vintage.
The 2019 vintage resembles the previous one in terms of moisture, flowering and yield. Also in this vintage, the work of the winegrower, with the management of aeration and defoliation was essential. It is precisely in these years that one can understand much better why topping the shoots is a practice that is not very advisable, not only because of the imbalance it brings to the plant, stimulating vegetative recovery at a late stage, but precisely because of the stimulation to a microclimate of humidity, caused by the females, in the area of the bunches.
The high temperatures in June/July after 30 days of continuous rain led to vegetative exuberance, but the normal temperatures with moderate rainfall in August and September allowed constant ripening with delicate tannin development. A certainly good vintage, for wines that will not be too structured but definitely elegant and very fragrant
After a mild and rainy winter up until February, the season begins with drought. A first spring frost with temperatures as low as -3 on 02/04/2020, although causing damage in several neighbouring areas, did not cause any damage to the Pian del Pino vineyards, which were pruned late and still behind in budding. A subsequent frost unfortunately does serious damage to the Colorino plants and it is clear that the production of Colorino del Valdarno will not be sufficient this year.
The heat of the year 2020 is memorable, but there was no shortage of rain, certainly making the season difficult for fungal attacks: this was certainly not the year to use only natural products and it was even necessary to resort to classic copper, albeit in limited doses, but when you need it, you need it!
The season was not easy for harvesting either, because the frequent rains at the end of summer could have compromised the crop. For this reason, it was necessary to carry out a long defoliation in good time, a painstaking job (the company vineyards have never been so well cared for!); it was indeed a great job, but one that made it possible to obtain a very fine product, perhaps the best in the company’s history. An excellent vintage, for wines that are structured but not alcoholic, elegant and fruity, certainly not to be missed.
The year 2021 will long be remembered for one of the worst late frosts in history.
In our area on the night of 7-8 April, the thermometer dropped to -7°, but the problem was not just the peak of the cold as much as its duration. The sub-zero temperature lasted 12 hours!
The fires in the vineyards were of no avail, as they were unable to stop the force of the night frost. Another clear manifestation of an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Fortunately, the generosity of the vines made it possible to avoid the worst and despite a 60 per cent drop in production, thanks to a season and care of the plants, we arrived at the harvest with excellent grapes. Never has the saying for this year been so appropriate: ‘little but good’.
In the end, surprisingly, a great 2022 vintage, but what a struggle!
The season began in the rainy Spring, but the character of the vintage was already visible in May with very hot and sunny days that continued into June and July. Consider that the soil temperature in the first few days of July was close to 65°!
The absolute lack of rain and the stifling heat put a strain on the plants. What really made the difference this year was the care taken in bringing organic matter into the soil, one of the first major goals of our company.
The further drought at the beginning of August also started to put our plants to the test, but here was the gift of mid-August, a long and abundant rain. That pure nocturnal water incredibly stimulated the descending sap, which triggered a gradual ripening process that then continued in September thanks to the subsequent abundant rains, resulting in a perfectly balanced harvest in terms of both acidity and polyphenols. Never would we have thought such a result in the first days of August.
At the time of writing this post, the harvests have just finished and the impression we have is very good: it had never happened that we produced all our labels in the same year, giving way to two more trials that will probably become new wines (a re-fermented Sangiovese-based white and a Tempranillo-based red).
We cannot but conclude with a thought for all those farms (including those in our area) that unfortunately suffered great damage from the violent hailstorms. Unfortunately, the 2022 vintage was not good for everyone!
A unique vintage, to be remembered for its exceptional spring rainfall!
I generally write my commentary on the vintage at the end of the harvest, the aim being to give the reader an idea of the main characteristics of the season which, especially in natural/homemade wines, we will find in our ‘glass’. For this vintage, which is certainly extraordinary (if this were always the case, viticulture would have no future!), I would like to make a reflection even before the harvest.
The 2023 vintage will be remembered for its excessive spring rainfall; it had never happened that it rained almost continuously in the May-June period. In my vineyards I counted over 20 continuous days of leaf wetness! In this context, no organic product, which only has a preventive effect, can effectively protect against downy mildew attacks. So the damage to the grapes from fungal attacks has been there, made evident by the abrupt change in temperatures in July.
From an exceptional rainfall, we have moved on to extreme temperatures with peaks of 47°, putting the plants under extreme strain. The climatic emergency is no longer silent, even the large oaks are telling us so. In order to defend themselves against the excessive aridity, they have once again been forced to change their leaves from green to brown, due to the absolute lack of rain and the stifling heat, despite all the rainwater they received in May and June.
What will the harvest be like? Answer: very varied. This year there will be those who will prefer to leave the grapes in the field and those who will probably make a good, albeit modest, harvest, but everything will depend on the weather in September and the agronomic decisions taken in good time over the past few months. Our choice was to carry out treatments with organic products and plant macerates, and in some vineyards (when it was not possible to do so with tractors) we went in with ‘shoulder’ treatments. We also identified in advance with appropriate cultivation the vineyards from which to obtain red wines (whose grapes will be harvested as late as possible) and the others from which to obtain rosé and refermented wines. I believe that this was the right choice, we will know in about a month…
Pian del Pino, 30/08/2023
CERTAINLY A CHALLENGING 2024 VINTAGE, THE QUALITY OF WHICH DEPENDS ON MANY FACTORS…
Last year I wrote: ‘the climatic emergency is no longer silent’. This year I can only confirm, for the umpteenth time, that we are facing another anomalous vintage. The spring was characterised by too much rain, followed by a very hot summer until early September, then more rain, which did not stop even in October.
The consequences were obvious:
1. High alert in the early part of the season for diseases such as downy mildew.
2. Protection of the bunches in the second part of the season to prevent the grapes from cooking, especially for the more sensitive varieties.
3. Maximum efforts to defoliate the later vines from the beginning of September onwards, to prevent mould and rot, especially on Tuscany’s flagship variety, Sangiovese.
2024 required a huge effort from the winegrowers, but what can we say about the quality of the grapes?
In my vineyards, the medium-early varieties such as Tempranillo and Merlot were the most manageable. The quality is high, thanks also to the rains in the second half of August, without which the vintage would not have been as good.
For the medium varieties such as Trebbiano Toscano, a slight defoliation allowed us to obtain an excellent quality product.
It was a different story for the medium-late and late varieties. Without intervention, the vintage would have been very bad, with grapes affected by mould, rot and immaturity. Fortunately, we realised in time and decided to intervene with massive defoliation and thinning (pre-harvest) for the Sangiovese, which is particularly sensitive to mould and rot. This allowed us to bring the grapes in perfect health to the harvest at the end of September, without having to resort to anti-mould products. The result was optimal phenolic ripening and an alcohol content of around 13 degrees. Without this hard work, I am sure we would have obtained a wine of poor quality.
Even for the even later grape varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, there was no shortage of difficulties. Since 29 September, the weather has worsened, and today, as I write, is the first beautiful sunny day I have seen in a long time.
Giovanni – Pian del Pino, 12/10/2024
