As it happened many times in the last decade, the end-of-year reflections on the vintage, in this case 2012 are strongly affected by the bizarre weather events of the last season.
The 2011-2012 autumn-winter featured a substantial lack of rainfall, particularly conspicuous in Tuscany, interrupted by the respite offered in February by the abundant snowfall, especially in Romagna.
And so the start of spring in many areas arrived with small deep water reserves (where the snowfall was modest) while the Romagna hinterland, where the snowfall was abundant, the peace of mind of the water supply was offset by the extensive damage to the buildings and supporting structures of the vineyards from the weight of the snow and the cold.
The spring and start of the summer were characterised by warm-mild weather conditions, dry and with little rain that generally significantly simplified pest control (fungi and insects) and led to controlled vegetative response in vines, with thin foliar walls and few sucker shoots.
The start of veraison, basically early, was also marked by the sequence of African anticyclones that occurred several times (as many as 8 in little more than two months) until ripening, replacing the gentle and Mediterranean anticyclones of the Azores.
Ripening conditions, characterised by low water reserves in the soil, strong and prolonged heat waves and low temperature differences between day and night made the 2012 vintage like the torrid 2003 and 2007, with sudden sugar accumulations, strong risk of burning the grapes, little time to reach phenolic ripeness and strong risk of losing the primary aromas.
It should however be noted how the spring vegetation, much less expansive than in 2007 (in still hot 2011) and also in 2003 allowed the vine to defend itself better from the evapotranspiration excesses normally associated with summer heat after veraison.
Harvest – when we were able together to accurately interpret the best time and agronomic techniques to counter the effects of the heat – came with grapes in more than acceptable conditions, with good concentration and depth despite the early harvest. That still leaves the open wound of the low yields of the vineyards and low yields in the cellar, which frequently reached and exceeded 30%, especially in the hills and in non-irrigated areas.
The reflections of this year end focus on the thought that in the last decade (2002 – 2012) as many as 3 torrid years occurred (2003 – 2007 and 2012), 2 hot ones (2009 – 2011), 3 wet ones (2002 – 2005 and 2010) and only 3 were perfectly balanced (2004 – 2006 and 2008) . Compared to the past, one is now aware that the difficult vintages used to be wet ones, while currently the greatest risk is represented by excess heat, which is now 50% of the vintages.
We will build on these remarks to plan together with you how to best manage the vineyards, to deal also with these events, on which we are accumulating experience and developing new agronomic protection techniques.
We wish you a good year and keep up with the good work, again best wishes to you all and your families.
Sant’Agata 31/12/2012

Francesco Bordini