The vinification of red wines

The grapes must be perfectly healthy.
The date of harvest is determined by monitoring the evolution of sugar and phenolic ripeness.
The 8 varieties of grapes are managed and vinified separately and individually, splitting them into further different lots in the case a grape variety comes from different units/micro-zones. Even the vinification of red wines does not follow any table or schedule or standard wine-making method: the choices are taken first tasting from time to time the grapes brought to the cellar during the harvest and then tasting the wine during maceration, in order to enhance its best varietal features according to the annual climate.
The grapes are destemmed and crushed differently.
The pre-fermentative maceration, more or less prolonged, and in the absence of alcohol, enhances the varietal character and spares time to start of a small fermentation with the must in a separate bowl to be added then to the crushed grapes in the tank. The alcoholic fermentation lasts for about 20 days, the contact with the skins may be more or less prolonged according to the extraction of polyphenols aimed. The mingling and aeration of the mass will vary depending on the variety of grape and on the idea of wine we aim, the moment of racking is determined by taste.
At the end of maceration, the 10 different basic wines are decanted to separate the coarse deposit. The 4 basic wines that will make the local red wine named Campiani (Barbera, Marzemino, Schiava gentile and Incrocio Terzi N°1- a crossing between Barbera and Cabernet Franc) refine in stainless steel vats, they are kept separated until the end of malolactic fermentation and then assembled before the bottling. The other 6 basic wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Nebbiolo) refine in oak barrels and are tasted at the end of malolactic fermentation in order to decide the assembling for the red wine named Farfallesco or for mono variety wine.

The wines do not undergo any kind of stabilization, no bentonites nor filtrations are used. Time is our only stabilizer for the wine during its stay in the tank or barrel. When the wines are stable, they are bottled and stored horizontally, from a minimum of 3 years to 10 years or more before they hit the shelves.

Sulfur dioxide, used to preserve the wine, is added only on the musts (to limit bacterial growth and promote the multiplication of yeasts suited to the alcoholic fermentation) and at the end of malolactic fermentation (to prevent bacterial spoilage and stink). Before we put on the market the wines, we control the amount of total sulfur dioxide ( currently under 35mg/l - legal limit is 160mg/l), the presence of any trace of pesticides, chemical and toxic substances ( so far we have never found any trace at all ).