Tomorrow, November 11, for the Feast of Saint Martin, vintners seek the first taste of their year’s work to gauge how the new wine (or novello) is progressing.
Tag: wine making
Today’s Sicily Wine-making Report
This grape mosto may not look too exciting to you, but it is exciting for winemakers! Currently, mosto, or grape juice, is in the midst of the fermentation process. Wine making takes time and patience and practice. See the stainless steel “barrel” in the background? That’s where the magic is happening right now (in a…
The Vendemmia In Sicily
Currently throughout Sicily grape growers are measuring the sugar, acid, and tannin levels of their grapes in preparation for the annual vendemmia, or grape harvest. Up to now, wine-making has been about caring for the vines, pruning the growth, and ensuring that the fruit has received enough air, sunlight, and water for an abundant and…
A Palmento On Etna (Where The Magic Happened)
A palmento is a building and the antique mechanism inside of it where wine grapes were made into juice (mosto) that eventually became wine. This outstanding palmento photographed at Benanti vineyard offers visitors an opportunity to understand the wine-making process from ancient times and how that translates to today’s stainless steal, squeaky-clean laboratories and cantinas….
Saint Martin’s Day: Time To Taste The Novello
November 11 is La Festa di San Martino, or Saint Martin’s Day. It marks the first tasting of the new wine, known as “novello.” September marked the grape harvest, when the grapes are picked, cleaned, and macerated to make juice (must or “mosto”) that was then left to age. This week, depending on the varietal,…
Best Wishes To Cantina Quattrocieli
Cantina Quattrocieli in Alcamo, Sicily, a winery I visited in September (pictured), reported that they tasted their novello (new wine) for San Martino, and they are happy with the results thus far. For the young wine makers, who are still growing their business and perfecting their craft, this is wonderful news! Bravi e auguri!
Saint Martin’s Day: The Test Taste
After an arduous year of meticulously caring for the vines, pruning them, constantly minding the ground at the bases of the plants, and praying for fare weather conditions, in September, wine makers harvested their grapes for the next step of the wine making process. Today’s production is done in laboratory-like cantinas of stainless steel… An…