The year 2013 was like some others, unlike many others. Certainly of strong character and perhaps also to remember the nature-man hierarchy.
Winter in the normalcy of rain and snow to form a good deep reserve, then, and very particular here, with continuous and persistent rainfall throughout almost May; overflowing aquifers so much so as to cause oxygen depletion in soils and nearly radical asphyxiation. The best situations in soils with much skeleton, and for others where one uses wisely the mole plough.
The late spring and summer period will be remembered as basically cold and humid with few weeks of sun and the relevant effect on fungal diseases often arisen with virulence, first downy mildew, then powdery mildew and botrytis late in the season. On the vegetative plane delays in budding and flowering, then a long season of growth to slowly reach veraison.
The short truce in mid-summer rainfall was followed by rainy ups and downs until the harvest, which came with average delay and often plenty of production.
The organic management techniques were reassuring, even on botrytis, this year again the “white filter” was useful in warm areas and for early varieties, some glimmer of hope came from research on hairy curtain crust, always aggressive after a year as dry as the previous one in 2012.
Fine aromatic potential, minerality and acidity of the wines. Extraction difficulties were omnipresent as well as the search for potency, with products still very vertical and often on the edge of rawness. Certainly a long-lived vintage.
It was a very intense and hard “Life”, seeking to find the vegetation-production balances in the vineyard and human sharing of the difficult choices of this vintage.
A vintage of significant confirmations on the importance of knowledge of one’s vineyard, the manic search for balance, sensitivity in assessing the grapes and skins; these aspects of knowledge, often related to instinct, make emotions possible even in this vintage, a bit old-style in taste and in “pre global warming” style.
After about 20 years of activity the path of the Antares cooperative comes to an end, although we will continue bearing in our heart its spirit of mutual help which has guided us since the start of our activity.

 Remigio Bordini                                                                                                                   Francesco Bordini