Weingut om:
Tenuta di Trinoro
After the sweltering 2017, we welcomed the cooler, more even temperatures of 2018 in the valley. Abundant rainfall in late spring helped the vines recover from the preceding year’s fatigue and ready themselves for the hotter summer months ahead. Showing healthy signs of abundance, we spent many hours in the vineyard debudding with an eye toward achieving concentration later in the growing season. Summer came and went, bringing with it a mix of rainy and dry summer days as well as cool breezy nights.September brought beautiful clear skies and warm, dry days. Near the end of the month, we were dizzy with the silver of the new moon, and from the 21st, there was a sudden density in the merlot: the astronomy signaling. The grapes were showing dark and soft, and we began bringing in twenty tons of merlot a day. The juice was low in alcohol, high in acidity, rich in taste, reminding one of Saint Emilion.The dry days continued, with winds whipping through the valley and a sudden drop in temperature as we moved into October. The fruit began to lose its swelling, and the berries began to soften, so we misted the fields to give the grapes the final push, and ten hours later they had recovered back from their weakened state. Then real rain arrived over the dustbowl; a distant foam in the wind; followed by the late season sun, low, orange, but still strong enough to carry the grapes into the very last new moon.Everything again became profound and ripe, and we brought in an unexpected record crop. 2018 brought ripeness and complexity because of the long, dry autumn and the long hanging time. Beautiful, intense merlot and rich, fragrant cabernet franc are at the core of the vintage, which will produce wines of great beauty, balance, and complexity.
