In the cellar, the vinification must follow only the spontaneous and natural development of the fermentation and aging processes in large oak barrels. Until arriving in the bottle without any addition of selected yeasts, lactic bacteria and other substances used in conventional winemaking to accelerate the evolution of the wine.
Finally without any filtration, so that the wine retains all its structure and the personality of great wines, capable of expressing their history made up of the territory and the spirit of those who produce them to the fullest.
This means that the alcoholic fermentation must be spontaneous and take place only with yeasts present in the grapes and in the cellar. For this reason the working method must be very rigorous, the rooms and all the cellar equipment must be perfectly and rigorously and systematically cleaned.
So that harmful bacteria that would inevitably pollute the flavors of the wine during vinification and refinement can never take the upper hand in the cellar environment; the same goes for the second important fermentation of wine, malolactic, which always takes place spontaneously, without any inoculation of lactic bacteria.
By operating in this way, the fermentations and refinement of the wine are certainly longer (often the fermentations resume the spring following the harvest) but, I am convinced, that this is the only way to extract all its potential and the its complexity.
A certainly more demanding and risky choice, compared to conventional winemaking, which is also an expression of excellent wines, in which, however, all the processes are induced and accelerated in order to make the wine immediately stable, standardizing its characteristics and trivializing the aromas often suffocating the real and great potential of the grapes used by the producer.
A longer, more tortuous road, certainly more risky but, due to the experience gained over the years, the only way to hope to obtain a truly great wine, capable of expressing uniqueness and authentic personality and not just trivially told.
The great challenge consists in accompanying the wine, after the grapes have been pressed, in its long refinement process, preserving its complex structure and aromas, preventing olfactory alterations from taking over.
This is essentially the difference between conventional vinification which pursues the immediate stabilization of the wine to keep it safe from possible bacterial alterations, and spontaneous vinification (today called natural) which seeks to make the wine express all its complexity and longevity, an objective which carried out with seriousness and honesty involves greater risks of failure, but a harbinger of great satisfaction.
As always done for all the great red wines of the past, the refinement of the Maiolo takes place in large 50 hl oak barrels for at least four years during which the wine, in addition to maturing its complexity, cleans itself naturally allowing it to bottling without any filtration.
This is followed by at least a year of permanence in the bottle before being marketed.
Finally, a separate consideration on the added sulphites, in the maiolo red wines 2 g per hl of potassium metabisulphite are added at bottling, with a total sulfur dioxide of about 25 mg per litre.
Natural winemakers, here's the information we need to register you on Raisin.
DESCRIPTION OF YOUR DOMAINE
Please provide the information about your estate including location, size, treatments used,
horses, tractors, harvests, etc. within 300-500 characters. This description will be added to your profile.
CERTIFICATIONS (ORGANIC, BIODYNAMIC) :
Please send us all certifications (organic, biodynamic, etc.). If your estate is not certified,
please explain why and describe your farming practices.
INFORMATION ON EACH OF THE WINES YOU PRODUCE:
wine name
color
grape variety(ies) by year(s)
appellation
sparkling
label photo (.pdf format - printer's proof)
volume of free and total sulfur
analysis of each vintage
Is your wine from Négociant activities?
PHOTOS :
a photo of you (the winemaker)
photos of the winery and cellar (between 6 and 12)