Oratorio di San Lorenzo2020
Colli Berici D.O.C. Carmenere Riserva
Let me introduce myself:
The Oratorio di San Lorenzo area is a small valley immersed in unspoiled nature, a mystical place where monks have lived for centuries. This is where our Carmenere vineyard thrives, and “Oratorio di San Lorenzo” represents its highest expression.
Grapes
Variety and Training System: Carmenere allevato a Guyot
Altitude and Exposure: 50 to 150 meters above sea level – South/Southeast
Soil: Red clay, marine limestone
Vineyard Age: 20 years old
Selection on approximately 4 hectares
Winemaking style
Once the grapes arrive at the winery, they are gently destemmed to avoid breaking the skins, then further hand-sorted on a selection table. A pre-fermentation maceration is carried out, followed by alcoholic fermentation lasting 30-32 days in concrete vats. The wine is aged in French oak barriques, 30% new and 70% second-use, for 6 months. After blending, the wine is returned to the barriques for an additional 6 months of aging.
Tasting notes
“This is transparent and fresh with sliced raspberries, white pepper and dried flowers on the nose and palate. Fresh herbs like basil. Medium-bodied, refined and focused with an orange peel finish”. By James Suckling
Label
The label features the Oratorio di San Lorenzo, the church overlooking the Carmenere vineyard. Projected into the dreamlike dimension, the building takes on a deeper meaning: a dancer balancing on a ball turns her back to the church and faces God, who offers her a heart. It symbolizes the contrast between the sacred and the profane, of which wine is a metaphor. High in the sky, the sun shines upon the Oratorio, symbolizing the quest for perfect ripeness, the key to the Carmenere project.
Vintages
After a winter characterized by temperatures that were not excessively cold and by an almost total absence of precipitation, the period of the vines’ budbreak was regular.
A hard frost at the beginning of April, which hit most of Europe’s crops, only affected our vineyards marginally because the vast majority of them are on hillside sites. There was an average amount of rainfall in the spring, providing sufficient water supplies for the subsequent season.
Higher than average temperatures and drought characterized the period between the end of May and August, giving rise to a vintage of great depth and concentration. Thereafter, some rains at the end of August and the subsequent marked variations between day- and night-time temperatures in September allowed the grapes to attain perfect ripeness and develop intense aromas. The period of the harvest was favorable, giving us the chance to pick the various plots in a selective manner and draw out their finest characteristics during extraction. Our Carmenere was harvested by hand and placed in 15 kg crates, between 18th September and 7th October.