San Polino 2024 Schrodinger's harvest.

Do you know the Schrodinger's cat paradox? Simply put, if you put a cat in a sealed box with something that can kill it, you could say that the cat is in a “superposition” of both dead and alive at the same time until the box is opened and the measurement is taken.

That’s what it was like for us this summer, our grapes were fantastic one day and catastrophic the next: climate chaos in action. From May to October we were on an emotionally draining rollercoaster of hope, delusion, euphoria, despair or wild excitement, all following the weather patterns and forecasts of the day.

On the morning of October 2nd we marched into the vineyard with pruning shears, boxes and determination to reap one of the most extraordinary harvests of our experience, ending on the 16th with threatening clouds chasing us for the last boxes.

In the winery, the new wines are housed in 22 still bubbling barrels, each carefully labeled and numbered with the day of harvest, the specific part of the specific vineyard and the fermentation history. As if they were patients in a posh, well-run hospital. Temperatures were taken twice a day, kept clean and tidy, records were kept
kept. All in the name of great wines.

Today we went to the lab with samples of the first 9 barrels we filled, so the first ones that finished fermentation. A further Superposition will be finished as soon as we have the measurement of their analyses in hand. We hope to hear that the San Polino Harvest 2024 lives gloriously, that Schrodinger's cat jumps out of the box, powerful and strong.

More details:
The winter was mild and bud break came 2 weeks later than normal with a rainy, cool spring and early summer.

While July and August were marked by periods of intense heat, with some days exceeding 40°C in the vineyards, September saw rain and a constant threat of hail. As the month progressed, contrary to our expectations that the summer heat would cause rapid ripening, our sugar values ​​for the grapes showed an extremely slow ripening. Presumably, the vines had gone dormant in the heat of July and August, as they closed themselves in self-defense to the excessive sunlight.

At the end of September we waited with bated breath, fearing that the predicted storms would spoil the grapes. We sprayed the vines with fungus-eating bacterial mixtures that kept them beautifully healthy and intact.
Despite the forecast of more rain, we kept our cool and decided to postpone the harvest until the grapes were at their best. The timing was right on October 2nd when we walked into the fields with secateurs and boxes.

We harvested intermittently, plot by plot, based on grape ripeness, characteristics and rain. We worked meticulously and hard, with many people in the vineyards and around the clock in the winery. During our tense 10-day wait for harvest, the grapes had ripened at a rapid pace and by the time we were finally done on October 16th, we had harvested an abundant, beautiful and healthy crop.

When we assess the situation, we believe that any success we had was mainly due to painstaking work, all by hand, in the vineyards and precise harvesting practices. Every week of the summer months
Difficult decisions were made in the vineyards: when to act and when to wait, each choice was analysed with patience and the experience of what our terroir has to offer.

So now we are delighted that we have managed to complete our work in such a unique and complicated year. By meeting nature halfway, by following its wild course with sensitivity and respect, we found a
model for mutual benefit in the vineyards and the winery. The 2024 San Polino harvest was the year of regenerative viticulture in action.

This summer nature in and around the vineyards exploded in a mad profusion, with unlimited abundance of insects, flowers, fauna, reptiles, mushrooms, bats, birds, fruit, heat, rain, beauty.

And let it continue, despite everything that is happening in the world.
The new wines are still in the winery with their skins. We are preparing for the press and planning the order of which barrels we will use first.
October 31, 2024