Cellar - Fattoria Quercia al Poggio

A wine producer is first and foremost a fruit grower: perfect vinification and quality wine is only possible with good grapes…

There is a place in the Val d’Elsa where the rhythms of Nature meet the expertise of man and science embraces flavour. That place is Quercia al Poggio Farm.

The picking of the grapes in the autumn, when the polyphenols and sugars have reached full maturity, marks the start of a ritual that has become almost sacred: the harvest!
A magical moment during which the hills of the valley fill with song. We don’t use machines to pick the grapes and we don’t choose them only on the basis of our analyses:we taste, we scrutinise and we handpick the fruit, but it is with our hearts that we select the best grapes.

The sensations of wonderment and respect that accompany the emotion of picking the various grapes produced by our vineyards continues during the precious process of vinification in which we keep the fruits apart in all transformation phases, taking account of type, exposure, altitude and selection on the basis of the characteristics of the vintage so that the fermentation processes are suitable for the wines we love to produce.

The cellar is a hive of activity: the constant murmur and aroma of must are signs that an age-old chemical process has begun. For us, it is time to take care of the fermentation process, to monitor its progress and adjust its course. The controlled temperature makes it possible to influence the fermentation processes that we facilitate in stainless steel vats, for alcoholic fermentation, and glass-lined concrete vats for malolactic fermentation, but in the right conditions we also like to leave the must to ferment directly in the wooden barrels, following more natural and gradual rhythms which repay us with impeccable wines. The maceration process, also free of strict rules, varies from 20 to 35 days.

Ageing, a time for patience: never rush things! This is the only strict rule imposed by Nature. When the vines are planted, when the grapes grow and bask in the sun, when the days get shorter and the colours of nature become more vivid, announcing the arrival of harvest time, and also when the wine is transferred into the barrels to rest and age, patience is a precious virtue. Our wine ages in durmast, surrounded by old and new woods to create a perfect equilibrium that delicately balances the aromas of fruit and wood.

Bottling is the final stage in a long and arduous process, carried out with love and passion, our hard work finally coming to fruition as we pour the wine out of the barrels and come to the end of our journey. Here, too, we try to follow the rhythms of Nature as far as possible, respecting the phases of the Moon, like our ancestors, when decanting and bottling the fruits of our labour. It is spring or autumn when by gravity the wine, unfiltered or slightly purged of the opaqueness that can cloud its brilliance, concludes its adventure and begins its patient wait to captivate the senses of the lucky few who will get to drink it.