A great introduction to San Polino and their farming practices . . .

Just a little video of San Polino with lots of great shots of the vineyards and the people.

 https://vimeo.com/69792895
The password: sanpolino

Brief but gives you a great sense of where the wine comes from . . .

Helichrysum from San Polino . . .

San Polino also has a cuvee by the same name from the highest part of their estate vineyard.

Helichrysum is an herb that one finds all over the hills of Montalcino and it is in particular abundance at San Polino.  The smell of the countryside is the smell of Helichrysum among others.

2005 San Polino Brunello di Montalcino "Helichrysum"

Tasting great with steak off the barbie!

Around Italy in 6 days . . . can I make it?

Brunello dinner at Osteria Mozza with San Polino!

BRUNELLO DINNER

Katia Nussbaum

of

Osteria Mozza’s Primo Ministro Room

Wednesday, April 24th 2013

7:00 pm

$145 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity

In 1990, Luigi Fabbro and Katia Nussbaum bought the stunningly beautiful, overgrown property of San Polino, a 500 year-old farmhouse just outside of Montalcino. They immediately set about reinvigorating the land, replanting and refurbishing the vineyards and, beginning in 2001, producing delicious Brunello.

They are conscientious stewards of their terrain, maintaining the pristine beauty of the property by practicing strict biodynamic viticulture on their south-facing slopes. Winemaking is similarly holistic, which is to say that San Polino’s wines reveal more about soil than winemaking. These wines are soulful, layered expressions of Sangiovese grown in the Montalcino zone, and we have been fans of long-standing.

We are very excited to welcome Katia to the Osteria for a special winemaker dinner. Along with a 5-course Tuscan feast prepared by Chef Matt Molina, we’ll be sampling eight different San Polino wines, including their inaugural 2001 Brunello Riserva. For the Sangiovese lover or the neophyte, this is sure to be a night of great wines, delicious food and stimulating conversation. 

Please join us!!!

For more information, or to reserve your place at the table, please contact our 

Special Events Director, Nicole White, at

nwhite@mozza-la.com OR 323.866.5290

Pruning at San Polino in Montalcino with Katia Nussbaum . . .

Pruning time at San Polino (and other thoughts):

In viticulture there should be a good reason behind whatever you do in your vineyards. We make organic grapes and organic wines and with our approach to farming we do not ever want to leave things to chance; we wish to be the chief protagonists in deciding how our grapes will turn out in any particular year.

Just a few weeks ago in Montalcino - brrrrrr, cold!

The preparation for our next harvest, our future Brunello 2013, started last October when we ploughed the land in between the rows of vines so that the winter rains could penetrate the soils and feed the vines. In November we seeded the fields with plants such as beans and sweet peas which would enrich the soil with nitrogen to feed the organisms that would feed the other organisms which would ultimately feed the vines. We also seeded wild flowers to encourage as many insects, fungi, bacteria and yeasts as possible into the vineyards, to make for a greater biodiversity of living species in the environment around the vines.

Then over winter everything was quiet in the vineyards, until we started the yearly pruning.

Each year the vines must be pruned so that they will produce the right amount of grapes (1kg per plant) at the right height from the ground (80cm ) with the right amount of foliage (1 square metre of leaves for every kilo of grapes). These measurements work for us, growing Sangiovese grapes for the production of the Brunello di Montalcino. They give us a medium yield of grapes with good concentration, tannins, acidity and without too much alcohol.

The advantage of having a small farm is that you can do all the necessary work at the right time.

The part of the vineyard to be pruned this week.

Farms that have large extensions of vineyards have to start their pruning process often as early as December in order to have it all finished before the first spring growth starts. This can create problems for the plants for three main reasons. Firstly, any large cuts made during the pruning process can traumatise the plant during icy weather. Secondly, early pruning can lead to early budding. This can be disastrous in the case of a late frost. Lastly, large farms will have to rely on the work of many people, so the pruning work will not always be of a consistent quality. Any lack of skill and proficiency in the pruning process can damage the production of healthy grapes in the summer.

Avni's hand leaving a grape producing bud and a lower leaf only producing bud/branch

Luckily, with only 5 hectares, we can do the pruning at the best time. This is the period just before plants begin to wake up from their winter slumber. The lymph is not yet moving and the climate is on our side, with the hard winter frosts already passed. We like to prune with a waning moon which keeps the lymph from rising and helps the plant stay dormant. You may disbelieve this, but it’s so, I’ve seen it. As the February/March moon starts to rise the plants start to drip as you cut them. The higher the moon, the more liquid they lose. It would be anthropomorphic to say that they’re crying, but it certainly feels that way when you see it!

Showing the shape and use of the cutters

We began to prune the vines this last week immediately after the full moon.

We use hand cutters, with long handles and tough sharp blades. They’re easy to manipulate and make neat, net cuts. We make only small cuts, in order to protect the plants from damage and so that they can easily seal the wounds.

We leave four spurs with two buds on each vine, making for not more than eight branches per plant as the growth starts. Most of these buds will grow into grape-producing branches but sometimes we leave lower buds that will only produce leaves, and not grapes. We do this on purpose to keep down the quantity of grapes while allowing the plant greater capacity for photosynthesis.

Katia pruning.

It takes one person 16 full time working days to prune 5 hectares of vineyard. Two people, just over a week. Long hours flat-out. While pruning we select and put aside cuttings from vines that we know produce the best grapes. We’ll use these cuttings next month for grafting onto plants that we wish to change or invigorate.

Katia's trained professional help

That’s enough for now, I’d say. Better get some sleep because there’s pruning to be got on with tomorrow!!

Katia Nussbaum – San Polino

San Polino Harvest 2012 update . . .

2012 Vendemmia at San Polino from Katia

Well here we are again, four days into the harvest...incredible to think that another year has passed.

We’re a good team this year, all with our different roles:

Matt and Luigi (Gigi)

Luigi, my husband, noting the characteristics of the different grape batches, organising the selections and deciding into which of the big wood vats they should be put to best bring out their potential for the making of fine wines.

Matt and Avni

Alberto, our right-hand-man and close colleague, managing the work in the fields, the picking schedules, the crushing of the clusters, back and forth on the tractor, coming in with full to bursting boxes and leaving with freshly washed ones to lay out again along the vineyard rows.

Paolo, a great guy from Montalcino, and Matt, our young, lovely Californian helper, lifting the full boxes in and out of the tractor and gently dropping the grapes, cluster by cluster into the de-stemmer.

Bianca and Susanna with the others in the fields picking while teasing and joking.

Altin, Alberto’s younger brother, filling in wherever necessary, on the tractor, smiling and generally being merry.

Katia, myself, in the winery, connecting the pumps, washing down the vats, sitting on top of them as the grapes come in to see that the consistency is right and that the vats don’t overflow, pumping the new wines over morning and evening……..and, of course, making sure that no-one goes hungry…..

The harvest has been surprising this year. The grapes are extraordinarily good, considering the rough ride they have had. Earlier in the summer we had come to expect a difficult harvest due to the dry winter and terrific heat from early June into late August, but, thank god, or whoever, it rained at the end of August/early September and the grapes were saved along with us.

We’re going to make some very wonderful wines, with great colour and an alcohol that will range from 13.5 to 14.7, just right. Early days, but that’s our prognosis. Watch out for San Polino Brunello di Montalcino 2012!!!!

I have my first morning off (semi, as I’m being called back work). With my hands blackened by the colour  and tannins of the grapes I’m clacking away on my laptop at the kitchen table. I can hear the pump working in the winery under the living room. We still have 2.5 hectares (6 acres) to pick. We’ll start on the fields in front of the house this afternoon. I wish our kids were here, three of them plus a grandchild, but university terms unobligingly start before the harvest – a very inconsiderate decision on the part of the school authorities, don’t they know any better??

Paolo got his head stuck in a vat

The grapes in the vats will start to ferment in a day or two, we don’t add in shop bought ferments, just allow the natural yeasts on the clusters to do the job, which ultimately makes for a far more authentic San Polino terroir wine.

The vats will explode into action one by one, and we’ll be taking turns at night duty for the next ten days or so making sure the bubbling grapes are kept control.

Katia and Matt

Gigi (husband) bought me a small loudspeaker for my laptop so I’ll have my music and audiobooks….long and wonderful nights.

We are right bang in the middle of our 2012 harvest!!!!

Q & A with Katia of San Polino: new wood in the winery?

Tino made of Slavonion wood

JG (Justin Gallen): Looks like you got some new oak barrels for fermentation and aging. Can you tell me more about them?

KN (Katia Nussbaum): The round ones are called botti, singular, botte, and the tall ones are tini (tino). They hold from 25hectoliters (660 gallons) for the botte to 38hectoliters (1,000 gallons) for the tini. in our case.

We use the tini for fermenting the wines, you can see that they have large stainless steel openings and doors on the top and at the side, the top one for taking in the grapes at harvest and doing the pumping over and the bottom doors for taking out the skins later on in the process and then the sediments. The tini then double up as ageing tanks.

JG: Do you prefer tini, barrique or botte for aging the wines?

KN: We prefer though to use the botti for ageing the wines. They're good and have a much higher ratio of wood to wine as there is no stainless steel. They can be harder to clean though, because you can just jump into a tino to clean it out. (I say "just" but it actually takes around 4 hours with water and a sandpaper block and loads of muscle) whereas you'd have to have a shrinking pill to get into a botte, so we clean them with the high pressure water thing, idropulitrice, (pressure washer) I don't know its name in English as I never used them in London.

getting the new tino through the cellar door in the ancient building can be sometimes difficult

moving the new botte into position

JG: What kind of oak is it and where does it come from and how do you treat it?  Is it Slavonian?

KN: Yes, Slavonian oak. They're not burnt, like barrique, and give a soft spicy taste to the wines, vanilla, butter, cinamon etc. We do use some new or semi-new barrique on the brunello, or at least on 10% or so of the brunello. After fermentation and in around early January, when the malolactic fermentation is finished we take the lees and divide it up between our barriques (about 25/30 litres of lees per our newish/new barriques). We then fill the barriques with our best wines from the vintage and roll the barriques around with vigorous spins (they're on a contraption with wheels) every day for 4 months. This really does give the wines a sense of greater body.  They become a little yeasty, in a nice way, thicker and richer as the alchemy of yeast proteins mixing with wine and wood tannins occurs. In all the wine stays in the barriques for 6/9 months, more or less. Right now we are moving all the wines in the cantina around according to what we consider as appropriate to the wines. The real aim, apart from cleaning all the containers and making sure that the wines don't get too wooded, or not wooded enough, is to free up the fermentation tanks for the new grapes.

Next:  a harvest update from San Polino . . .

A little rain in Montalcino goes a long way to saving the harvest . . .

SAN POLINO 8/26/12

Happy vines! Happy us!!!

It rained this morning after three months of drought: 90+ days of intense heat, sun  and baked earth followed by restless hot, hot nights. The drought was taking its toll on the vines and we could see signs that they were suffering as they struggled to find water as regulation states that we are not allowed to irrigate  We knew that with less than half a day’s rain our vines would survive and carry  our grapes to the maturation we need to make an exceptional Brunello.

And this morning the weather finally broke.

By 10 am clouds were glowering in the south west and a storm was gathering; then with claps of thunder, lightening, a wind blew up and it arrived.

At first the odd enormous splashing drop and we thought: “Oh, no, it’s passed us by”. Then the clouds opened, pelting down huge and very wet. Beautiful.

We hurriedly closed doors and windows and I rushed outside to take photos, unfortunately with only my Blackberry to hand. The hens sheltered under the lilac trees, the dogs ran wild and I got soaked within seconds. The vines dripped, dripped, dripped and we knew that the harvest was being saved.

A wonderful sight and a very happy Sunday morning.

Two hours later and the sun is back, the cicadas are chirping. We’re doing some wine tastings for an imminent bottling.

We’re deciding where to go this afternoon, it being Sunday. I opt for the sea and a late afternoon swim whereas my husband wants to visit my brother on the mountain and go to a local town fair to listen to the music and watch the fireworks.

The vines will be happy whichever we choose.

Katia - San Polino

The vineyards of San Polino in May . . .

Great video of Luigi Fabbro of San Polino in Montalcino talking about how he farms his grapes and makes wine . . .

Terroir and Vineyards

South-east of Montalcino, near Castelnuovo dell’Abate, between Montalcino and Monte Amiata, in the Val d’Orcia. South-facing over the valley of the Ribusuoli river. Height above sea level 400-450 metros. The soils of San Polino range in their texture from sandy-loam to clay-loam with a rich scheleton presence. Interspersed throughout the fields are large areas of galestro (shale) and red earth. The soil is well drained and has a good water permeability and, at the same time, good water retention. A satisfactory natural presence of the essential nutrients necessary for healthy vine growth means that only a minimal quantity of fertilizers are ever used. In many years they are not used at all. The vineyards face south and slope downhill at a gradient of 22%.

Sun all day due to its south-facing slopes. An almost constant southern breeze coming from Monte Amiata maintains a fresh and healthy climate where the need for fungicide spray is reduced. San Polino is surrounded by shrubland and woods. 25% of its area comprises a maintained wilderness in order to promote the rich presence of indigenous biodiversity, maintain a self-regulating balance in its environment and reduce the need for anti-fungicides

San Polino Historic records . . . from 1581

In 1581, the farmstead of San Polino was registered as one of the properties belonging to the Montalcino Hospital “Santa Maria della Croce” and it is here that we find the first explicit mention of the vineyard: 

“…the farmstead of San Polino , with its house, its worked fields and woodlands, has a vineyard and there are on this farmstead six olive trees…..”

 “Idem possiede in detta Corte il Podere di Santo Polino co’ sua Casa, co’ terreni lavorativi e machiosi, ha la vignia e vi sono in detto podere sei piedi di olivo...”

The medieval hospital functioned as a charitable institution which provided for pilgrims and gave assistance to the poor. It owned 30 farmsteads, houses and shops in the town, mills, olive presses, a furnace where bricks, vases and calcina were made.

From the 18th century ownership of San Polino changed hands when the noble Piccolomini family from Siena took possession of the farmhouse and its lands.

In 1991 the farmstead was bought by its present owners, Luigi and Katia, who renovated it and planted the new vineyards in 1998.

The six olive trees mentioned in the hospital registers in 1581 are still producing olives.

More harvest photos from San Polino in Montalcino in Tuscany

Look at that view!

Katia, the owner, working the cellar . . .

"Sangiovese grosso" grapes, just harvested . . .

Gigi, winemaker and owner . . .

Daniel, their son, out harvesting the grapes.

Some harvest notes from Katia of San Polino in Montalcino . . .

VENDEMMIA 2011 AT SAN POLINO

A couple of weeks before harvest a journalist who writes for the English wine specialist Jancis Robinson asked me how I thought this year’s harvest would be. I replied that my impressions were mixed. August and September were overly hot and dry, but that I believed that we should expect many surprises.

He entitled his article “Montalcino’s surprising 2011 vintage” and quoted my letters

(http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20110924.html )

But, indeed, the 2011 vintage certainly brought many unexpected results....

We have around 10 acres of vineyard, all 100% Sangiovese, from which we make the Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montalcino and Sant’Antimo.

Most of our land is situated around our 500 year-old farmhouse where we live above a winery which we converted from the old stables after planting the vineyards in 1998/9.

We have a small, family-run winery which we farm organically/biodynamically. In the winery we like to say that our wines are just fermented grapes that have had nothing added and nothing subtracted. So we’re particularly sensitive to the characteristics of the grape clusters we bring in from the fields.

On a hot year like this you could expect to find small, concentrated grapes which would very likely produce wines with overly high alcohol and low acidity levels. Yet a Brunello depends heavily on a high acidity to give its kick and longevity, so you can imagine that we were very anxious.

And here came our big surprise: we knew that the grapes were healthy but we had never seen them healthier and juicier, with gorgeous tannins and a great acidity. Even better than expected.

Perhaps because we had left enough grapes on the vines, so they didn’t concentrate too much, perhaps because we had managed the foliage in the canopy well this year, who knows, but we’re certainly not complaining.

Each morning of harvest you shoot out of bed at dawn filled with excitement. Its hard to describe a more exhilarating sensation. You have everything ready; the ripe grapes hanging on the vines, the empty vats, the pickers and the cutting scissors, and you just wait for the them all to get together.

We started harvest on an overcast but warm Sunday, September 25^th. All our family and friends came to help gather in the first selection of best grapes from the fields in front of our house.

I cooked mammoth quantities of “penne con salsciccia e pomodoro” for lunch which we ate outside in the shade of the olive trees. The mood was happy and by that evening we had filled the first of our 35 hl slavonian oak vats.

What an emotion!

We stayed up working till around 1am washing out the picking crates, cleaning the de-stemming machine and pumping over the grapes in their juice. The marathon had started.

Over the following seven days we slept less and less while doing rigorous selections in all the fields; first passing through and picking the perfect clusters and only then the rest.

Each selection passes into its own vat, so we’ve ended up with ten different vats with ten different selections!

Fermentation started in the first vat around three days after it was filled, and slowly the other vats kicked in.

Of course we are not adding any artificial yeasts; we like the grapes to ferment on the yeasts that sit with them in the vineyard. It makes for more unique wines.

We now have our ten fermenting vats bubbling away under our bedroom. They range in alcohol content from 13.5% to 14.70%, the colour is intense and the aromas are good.

We have to get up at least three or four times in the night to check on them, to see that the temperatures haven’t rocketed or that no vat is overflowing.

Our youngest son just left for college and we’ve become “empty-nesters”. So the full vats are our new fledglings and while I miss him madly they help ease the way.

We’re now thinking about the 2012 harvest in San Polino. Does anybody want to come and do the nights?