September 20 - Happy Birthday Mom!Today was vendemmia (grape harvest) at our home in Anacapri. We started today's harvest with white grapes grown in our vineyard and next weekend, we'll harvest our red grapes. This is our second vendemmia together, and Antonio and I have great hopes for this year's grapes following last year's fantastic production.
A little about our first vendemmia...
Last year in late September, we harvested our red grapes and then the following we
ek we harvested our white grapes. After pressing the red grapes, Antonio didn't feel like cleaning the torchio (press) right away and said he would clean it 'dopo' (later). Well, the week passed and the torchio still wasn't cleaned. When it came time to harvest the white grapes, Antonio said we could just press the white grapes by hand (literally) as there weren't nearly as many as the red. So we began squeezing the white grapes - mind you it turned into an all-day process and by the end of the event, my hands were crippled. I was half-way cursing Antonio for not cleaning that frickin' torchio!
When the vendemmia was all done, we had 100 litres of white wine and 300 litres of red. We just had to wait for the outcome....
In December with excitement and great trepidation, we tasted the red wine and it was really quite good, according to us.Almost immediately we started prefering 'our' red to the commercial wines, simply because we had made it ourselves and there were no preservatives --which meant no headaches. We were satisfied with the outcome; however, we were hesitant to share with our friends for fear that they wouldn't find it as good. To our delight, when our friends asked for another and another and yet another glass of our red, we were convinced that we had enjoyed beginners' luck.
January rolled around and it was time to taste the white.... Antonio walked out of his cantina smiling and carrying a glass of the limpid liquid to taste. It was good, but we both agreed that it needed to rest.
Another month passed and, one night after dinner, Antonio was ready to hold another taste test.... He walked out of his cantina with a glass of wine but this time he wasn't smiling - he was perplexed by the orange color of our hand-pressed grapes.... We both tasted it and were surprised that it was so sweet. I asked him if he was going to throw it out and his response was clear: 'ma sei matta?! (are you crazy?!)' worst case we'll keep it for 'aceto' vinegar, but let's just leave it alone for another month to see what happens.'
I was so disgusted I could have spit! Had it been up to me, we would have emptied the vat into the garden and been done with it. Thank heavens for Antonio and his 'pazienza' (patience)! Another month passed and Antonio walked out of his cantina with a wheat colored wine which rivalled any rich, full-bodied chardonnay.
I must tell you that after living in Siena for several years and being spoiled by the super Tuscans, I was no lover of white wine. In fact, I used to say 'I'd rather drink water than white wine'. My opinion has radically changed. I would like to say that it changed due to our home-made white wine, but I would be remiss in giving credit where it's due for my conversion to Ghino, of Enoteca di Ghino (Pienza), who finally twisted my arm to taste Antinori's fabulous chardonnay 'Cervaro della Sala'.
So Antonio and I were all set for the 2008 season with our wonderful red & white wine. Folks always ask me how I spend the winter months, and, while Antonio is busy with his business in Naples, I'm at home working on Capritime's coming season. Naturally I stop for lunch and enjoy a glass (or two) of our wine. Antonio tells everyone that I've consumed all of the wine, but that's not quite true.
A couple of weeks ago, we had 10 friends over for lunch and we served our 2007 white wine. We had a couple of bottles in the fridge and quickly went through those, so I went to our vat to fill another bottle. As the liquid was draining slowly, I thought I could run to the kitchen, bring out a cold bottle to the guests and get back before it filled. Well, I got out and started chatting with everyone while filling their glasses when ALL OF THE SUDDEN! I remembered the vat was open and frantically I ran back to the cantina to find our white wine overflowing. I almost started crying! We got two more bottles after that and that was the end of the 2007 white wine production : (
We still have some red so that is some consolation. I'm consoling myself as I type, as a matter of fact....
This is Antonio and Cesare. Cesare oversees everything we do and recognizes a good 'grapola di uva' (bunch of grapes) when he sees/smells one.
Here we are running the grapes through the initial press and tomorrow we'll 'torchiare' (press) the grapes in the wine press and then get ready for the fermentation process.I'll keep you posted on the outcome.
Oh yeah, we have a new comer to the family and are looking for a fitting name...any ideas?
Ciao for now,
Rebecca
"It's always Capritime!"
http://www.capritime.com/
