The 2024 harvest has also begun on the Franciacorta hills. Guido Berlucchi is at the forefront, having started harvesting grapes on Friday, August 16. A meteorologically challenging and complex year, the one left behind, but one that could give great satisfaction in the bottle. Here’s how it’s going and the first considerations on the 2024 harvest of the winery that created the first Franciacorta.
The 2024 harvest for Guido Berlucchi begins on Friday 16 August
The 2024 harvest began on Friday, August 16th for Guido Berlucchi, the winery that created the first Franciacorta, a “symbol” and “thermometer” of an entire territory, with over 550 hectares of land, including those owned and those involved through partner winemakers.
In a scenario – which has now made climate “unpredictability” one of the leitmotifs of recent years – the company now led by the Ziliani family can make the most of its advanced technical, agronomic and oenological heritage, thanks to the study and in-depth work that has always characterized it as an innovative company since its origins in the 1960s, to best bring to fruition the harvest of challenging years, just like the current one.
The 2024 harvest year was characterized by numerous rainy days in the spring period that led to a significant drop in production – estimated between 20 and 25% – also accompanied by low temperatures below the norm, which slowed down the development of the bunches.
The last phase of grape ripening, in July, saw the arrival of high temperatures, but with a fair temperature range.
From these first days of the 2024 harvest, a good level of quality of the grapes is expected in general, with some peaks of excellence.
Franciacorta announces a vintage with peaks of excellence
“For several years now, due to climate change, the challenge in the vineyard has been constant: it requires continuous research, significant investments in technology – with new means – and great commitment from the agricultural department team”, explains oenologist Arturo Ziliani, CEO and production manager. “Our experience is also made available to all partner winemakers, with the Berlucchi Protocol for Sustainable Viticulture, the result of over 20 years of research and which, together with other projects such as Biopass, Life Vitisom and F.A.Re.Su.BIO, is aimed at countering the loss of biodiversity in the soil and improving the resulting quality of our Franciacorta, also thanks to a strict selection not only of the vineyards but also of the grapes harvested”.
As “tradition”, the first grapes harvested for Guido Berlucchi were those of Pinot Noir from the Brolo vineyards, near to Palazzo Lana Berlucchi, and Quindicipiò, destined together with the Riserva Palazzo Lana Extrême, which can only be tasted after having spent 10 years on the lees, to enhance to the maximum the organoleptic characteristics that these two particular vineyards give to the grapes: minerality, flavor and freshness from the Brolo vineyard; body, structure and acidity from the Quindicipiò vineyard.
We are proceeding with the other Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards, with the harvest strictly by hand, in small 16/18 kilo boxes, which allow the bunches to remain intact until the pressing cellar.
The Erbamat vine, which entered the Berlucchi vineyard park over five years ago (a late vineyard that could be one of the answers to climate change), is still in the initial phase of maturation and only at the end of August will it be possible to predict the harvest period, which generally takes place in the second half of September.
“The entire winemaking team – concludes Arturo Ziliani – also uses experience and research to obtain fragrant, clean and clear musts, also obtained thanks to the use of modern special presses that guarantee a soft and gradual pressing. This technique allows us to avoid the extraction of solid parts that in the wine can produce unpleasant and often bitter sensations to the taste, totally absent in all Berlucchi Franciacortas, whose stylistic recognisability is precisely elegance”.
“Furthermore, for several years we have based our production philosophy on the fractionation of the musts (30% of cuvée A and 15% of cuvée B, both from the first pressing, another 15% from the second pressing and the last 5% which is discarded) which allows us not only to enhance the quality of the vineyard parcels, but also to have different organoleptic characteristics in each individual Franciacorta we produce”.
“The work and sacrifice of an entire year and of many people who share experiences, research, failures and successes with us are concentrated in these few weeks. And it is thanks to all of them that the Franciacorta Berlucchi obtain evaluations and criticisms of the highest level both in Italy and around the world”.
