producers visit

<p><strong><em>This visit with Luciano Saetti took place in November, 2013.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>Words by Jules Dressner, photos by Eben Lillie.</em></strong></p> <p>Luciano Saetti doesn&#39;t like&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="993">sulfites</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> In fact, he owns a<strong>&nbsp;Suflur Free Mobile&trade;!</strong></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//d3/ac/d3acff7b4c1cc5578eacf4e08a0ca559.jpg" /><br /> <br /> That translates to:&nbsp;<em>&quot;Wine Without Conservatives. </em><glossary title="993"><em>Sulfur</em></glossary><em>? No thanks.&quot;&nbsp;</em><br /> <br /> Luciano bought his vineyards and house in 1988, after a successful first career as an egg distributor in the city of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="668">Modena</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> He made a good amount of money and originally planned on buying a nice apartment in the city. But the reality of spending the rest of his life there quickly lost its appeal.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> We began our visit with a tour of the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> where the wines <glossary title="441">ferment</glossary> and get&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="185">bottled</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//56/39/563942885333596f03706e90ca4d69aa.jpg" /></p> <p>This is Luciano&#39;s completely home-made <glossary title="393">disgorgement</glossary> station.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//d8/40/d840e8a6a786493f17fbf695fe3ebaa6.jpg" /></p> <p>To give us a demonstration of the <glossary title="393">disgorging</glossary> process (more on that later), Luciano grabbed some bottles and put them in this <glossary title="1140">vat</glossary> of ice cold water, which freezes the <glossary title="590">lees</glossary> on the top.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//c0/5c/c05ccf818f8cdb4c467b1d886a1ee5b5.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//a2/00/a200ba8b8b7bce24bf385554bfa5eb48.jpg" /></p> <p>As those bottle tops started to freeze, Luciano showed us the rest of the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//db/11/db11e5d3f306de82ee9769ff4bee2797.jpg" /></p> <p>At this point, he only works with&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="986">stainless steel</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Originally, everything was <glossary title="441">fermented</glossary> and <glossary title="74">aged</glossary> in <glossary title="325">cement</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1140">tanks</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but Luciano shifted to <glossary title="986">stainless</glossary> after realizing that it was better for <glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary> free winemaking, since&nbsp;it drastically reduces&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="754">oxydation</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Since the vines are 10 km from the the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> Luciano brings the mini <glossary title="378">destemmer</glossary> you can see below with him to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="521">harvest</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> This way, they can work as quickly and efficiently as possible.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//af/5d/af5d781e02e30bf9296239b9cb26e4a8.jpg" /></p> <p>He also brings three&nbsp;of those little <glossary title="986">stainless</glossary> <glossary title="1140">vats</glossary> to hold the grapes so they don&#39;t get too hot on their way to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span><br /> <br /> <em>&quot;I came up with this simply because three&nbsp;</em><glossary title="1140"><em>vats</em></glossary><em> is a day&#39;s work&quot;.</em><br /> <br /> These smaller <glossary title="1140">tanks</glossary> are also used for&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="441">fermentation</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> a full <glossary title="236">carbonic maceration</glossary> that lasts 4 to 5 days. Luciano usually leaves 13 or so grams of <glossary title="853">RS</glossary> before&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="843">racking</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> The wine then stays minimum 3 months in bottle before&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="393">disgorgment</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> though it only takes about a month for the re<span class="zalup"><span><span>-</span><glossary title="441">fermentation</glossary> </span></span>in bottle to occur.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Following our little chat on&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1104">vinification</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> Luciano beckoned us over to the <glossary title="393">disgorgement</glossary> station, where he showed us how he manually <glossary title="393">disgorges</glossary> each bottle of his production ONE BY ONE.&#39;</p> <p><br /> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="640" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JM_fqfcoUAg" width="640"></iframe><br /> <br /> In those two minutes, Luciano explains how he usually puts some wine in a separate <glossary title="1160">vessel</glossary> to top off the other bottles after they are&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="393">disgorged</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> that you have to avoid the frozen bits from when the wine sprays out and&nbsp;that the machine gives a blast of air which doesn&#39;t go in the bottle but rather&nbsp;dusts&nbsp;off any <glossary title="">cork</glossary> particles. He also points out that these bottles haven&#39;t frozen enough yet, and therefore won&#39;t <glossary title="393">disgorge</glossary> correctly.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Because manually <glossary title="393">disgorging</glossary> bottles one by one quickly becomes a tedious task, Luciano has built this sweet homemade work chair from a horse saddle. I decided to check its comfort to make sure he wasn&#39;t putting too much strain on himself.</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//4e/91/4e919ca7b683da406878bb17aa5aacb6.jpg" /><br /> <br /> That chair is <strong>JULES APPROVED&trade;</strong>.<br /> <br /> After our <glossary title="254">cellar</glossary> time, we drove to Luciano&#39;s only vineyard,&nbsp;three <glossary title="523">hectares</glossary> planted in the local Salamino&nbsp;<glossary title="1169">strain</glossary> of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="577">Lambrusco</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//d9/30/d9307a2a363cbd1e9bc712ce43e7b725.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//d1/4a/d14a02bb4ad3977be48a5bb94c9b1580.jpg" /></p> <p>The oldest vines here are 50+ and planted every other row; Luciano replanted the rest in 1997. The soils are <glossary title="596">limestone</glossary> with a <glossary title="301">clay</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="991">subsoil</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> As you may have noticed, the vineyard is set up with an <glossary title="549">irrigation</glossary> system, which Luciano uses three&nbsp;to five&nbsp;times a year, and only on the younger vines (usually with a very light 30 liter&nbsp;dose each time).&nbsp; He doesn&#39;t use any&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="442">fertilizers</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary title="323">composts</glossary> or&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="279">chemicals</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> just the remains of cut grass.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> There is always the danger of <glossary title="1135">frost</glossary> in the Spring, but Salamino is a late ripening&nbsp;variety, so this is rarely a problem.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> The <glossary title="1039">training system</glossary> is called&nbsp;<em>Spalliere</em>, which is more typically used for fruit trees.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//a9/af/a9af0bc4fcbcbf6c4171c7c2d216d2f7.jpg" /><br /> <br /> Here&#39;s some shriveled up <glossary title="937">second growth</glossary> grapes to give you an idea what Salamino looks like.</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//2a/37/2a37619fc94e951e82f0e2745fbf7d3c.jpg" /></p> <p>Here&#39;s the church you can see on Luciano&#39;s&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="573">labels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//ac/65/ac6540c4ef811bf428a6c644075e0eeb.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_07//e3/48/e34890c01c23f20702141056c75d699e.jpg" /></p> <p>Speaking of Luciano&#39;s&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="573">labels</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> if you&#39;ve ever seen or felt them, then you know they are made from a very cool fabric. Here again, the story is simple: his friend has a factory that adds patched fabric to clothing for a few major brands. Luciano asked him if he could make a&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="573">wine label</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and he said it wouldn&#39;t be a problem. These are made to order based on Luciano&#39;s periodic <glossary title="393">disgorgements</glossary> over the year.</p>

harvest report

<p><em><strong>Photos sent by Sara Saetti.&nbsp;</strong></em></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//6a/f3/6af399accb7e2ca48f5f568fb9dbe449.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//76/20/76206c7bdf939d40b18db0b4a309b3e3.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//18/58/185833b4f5f272c7e1d51bf320ce9e9f.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//2d/ad/2dad488d63accc2aeee5ec0eae79091b.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//05/f1/05f13e0827d06c5eb73270c3a25bdd24.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//cd/cd/cdcd50175d4a9554d8ec53f1a4904c17.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//eb/0d/eb0deb0c75c9916e6725bcf9051c878a.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//8b/e4/8be445cf7aca5bb33bd55720cdf906ab.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//5e/7a/5e7a23e95be3c111ffb8858ce8a308b6.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//b7/9f/b79f67ce770e481057585bb1ee593a3e.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//0f/3e/0f3e0372e6cb4350b40a6ccd9da8e0f1.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//de/fc/defcfcce1b156e73764bdc8cc9df6626.jpg" /><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Apr_27//b9/f2/b9f29235772b122082ca65e8af8c28a9.jpg" /></p>