Corte Giara, Recioto della Valpolicella

The vineyards are situated in the hilly areas of the Valpolicella DOC, at an altitude of 240 metres above sea level. The vineyards face south-east and are based on chalky and clay soils. The vines are trained according to the traditional arbour training system with a density of 3,000 vines per hectare. They are on average 29-years-old.

The 2022 winter was, like most of Europe, cold and dry. The lack of rainfall during the winter and a rise in temperatures at the beginning of the spring, meant an early start of the growing season, almost 20 days before average. The spring was followed by a vicious heatwave so a good canopy management and effective emergency irrigation systems in the vineyards, were fundamental to survive the heat. Despite the efforts, some fruit was inevitably lost due to below average yields. but the fruit still showed a great fruit concentration, due to the increase in the day-to-nighttime temperature range that occurred in the second half of August.

The selected bunches were harvested by hand and were left to dry for four months in a humidity-controlled drying rooms where they lost about 50% of their original weight. After destemming and soft crushing, the grapes were fermented in temperature-controlled, stainless-steel tanks at 8-22°C for 22-24 days with daily pump overs. The wine was aged for 5 months in stainless-steel tanks, before 15 months in oak and a further 6 months in bottle before release.