From a bunch of grapes to a bottle of wine takes months, sometimes years. In between come the harvest, the selection of the grapes, fermentation, time in the cellar, ageing and finally bottling. These are very different stages, and each contributes to the final result.
Making wine means guiding a natural transformation: grape juice becomes wine through the activity of yeasts, while the work in the cellar is mainly about creating the conditions for this transformation to happen in the best possible way for the wine being made.
The harvest: where it all begins.
The first step is picking the grapes. The timing is not decided simply by looking at the calendar: the ripeness of the berries, sugar concentration, acidity and the health of the grapes are all taken into consideration.
In Ampeleia, harvest is particularly demanding. Our four vineyards are spread out and located at different altitudes. This means that the grapes do not all ripen at the same time, so harvesting takes longer.
It is more complex work, but there is also an advantage: each vineyard brings different characteristics to the wine. Grapes harvested in different places, at different altitudes and at different times contribute to wines with greater depth and complexity.
The grapes are harvested by hand. The bunches are selected directly in the vineyard and brought to the cellar quickly, in order to preserve their integrity as much as possible.
From grapes to must, to fermentation.
Once the grapes arrive in the cellar, they are processed to obtain the must: the juice containing water, sugars, acids, mineral salts and many other substances naturally present in the grapes.
For some wines, we also use a percentage of whole bunches and the infusion method. In this case, the grapes are not destemmed: the bunches remain intact in the tank and the must surrounds them, gently extracting colour, aromas and structure. It is a delicate, gradual process that helps preserve the identity of the grapes and guide fermentation without forcing the wine.
Alcoholic fermentation is a biological process. Yeasts use the sugars present in the must and transform them. At Ampeleia, our fermentations are spontaneous. We do not add selected yeasts: we allow the microorganisms naturally present on the grapes and in the cellar environment to initiate the process.
This is a choice that requires attention. Spontaneous fermentation is less standardised and depends on the condition of the grapes, the temperature and the community of microorganisms present.
Why we ferment in concrete.
At Ampeleia, the cellar contains only concrete tanks. We chose this material for fermentation and winemaking because of its neutrality: it does not add its own aromas to the wine. This leaves more space for the characteristics of the grapes and for the differences between one vineyard and another, and between one vintage and the next.
For us, the vessel should not become the protagonist. Our aim is for the wine to express the place it comes from and the character of the vintage.
From the cellar to the bottle.
When fermentation is over, the wine is not yet ready to drink. It needs time to find its balance.
During ageing, the different components of the wine slowly integrate and change. Oxygen also plays an important role: carefully controlled exposure influences the wine’s evolution. The length of bottle ageing varies according to the wine.
Then comes bottling. But closing the bottle does not mean that the process is over: the wine continues to evolve, its different components integrate further and its profile can become more complex.
Finally, the simplest moment of the whole process arrives: the bottle is opened and the wine is poured into the glass.
At that point, there is much more than just grapes inside. There is a harvest spread across four vineyards, a vintage, spontaneous fermentations, months of work in the cellar and a period of ageing. The result is a wine that, as far as possible, tells the story of where it comes from and what happened in that particular year.
