Stories of maturation:
20 years of a journey
Giovanna Tantini and his Bardolino
An 8-year vertical tasting of Bardolino, crowned by the Bardolino subzone “La Rocca” 2020, selection of selections. A path of constant growth of both wines and Giovanna, who believed in this denomination 20 years ago, when many producers decided to leave, and created a united working group “because in wine we read the earth, the microclimate, but also the people and their collective growth”. To drive the determination to make a great bardolino, elegant and long-lived, trusting who, outside the territory, could look at this wine with new eyes.
A journey achieved thanks to the meeting with the winemakers Attilio Pagli and Laura Zuddas and the agronomist Roberto Abate, together with the commitment in the vineyard, sustainable practices when nobody was talking about it yet, the experiences with different grapes until the choice of 90% of Corvina, the strong participation in the activities of the Consortium for the valorization of the wines of the territory that brought us to 2022.
Today is the time for Giovanna to speak first-hand and talk about herself not only with her wines, in which, not by chance, she literally decided to “put her face”
2013-2020 BARDOLINO VERTICAL TASTING
“Each vintage is unique and unrepeatable, it is the expression of the difficult harvesting choices that determine the right time for the harvest. There were years when I risked a lot to make the Bardolino I wanted. I remember two in the past decade. The 2014 – a summer without sun, appeared only in October – and the need to postpone the harvest to ripen the grapes. 2017 at the opposite extreme – a very hot year, with very little rain – and the work in the vineyard to protect the grapes from sunburn and drying. And both of them were worth the risk. It is precisely the particular vintages that stimulate the creativity of us winemakers, those who put us in front of extreme choices to give an identity to our wines”.
2013
Slow bud with low temperatures and cold and rainy spring. Complex green management. Very hot July and August pushed the vines to reach the harvest in canonical times between mid and late September. It came with a good body already in motion.
2014
A cool and rainy year, with little sunshine if not in October. When we decided to risk leaving the grapes to mature to harvest only at the end of the month. It is in difficult vintages that you can have great wines. 2014 is a unique vintage.
2015
A normal year for temperatures and precipitation, which prevented the onset of water stress. Warm from mid-June to mid-August with rains in early October, which did not affect the phytosanitary status of the grapes at harvest. Good acidity and body.
2016
Hot summer with some rain. Selection of bunches demanding for the inhomogeneity in size and ripeness. Harvest without any particular problems. A long-lived year that respects the characteristics of the wine.
2017
Short flowering and very hot summer. The protection of the bunch with the leaves to avoid burns, especially on Corvina, allowed to collect grapes with good acidity. Very full-bodied and fresh wine, of great longevity.
2018
Good flowering lasted about 15 days. Summer with good temperatures, hot, harvest in mid-September. The particularly sparse bunches selected in this vintage helped to make a wine with good structure.
2019
Hot summer, no particular difficulty to arrive in the harvest to select the grapes, which were healthy and allowed to make an elegant and long-lived Bardolino.
2020
A good year, without major climatic complications. Harvest in mid-September for Corvina, with a stronger selection of grapes in the vineyards for the first year of production of the cru “La Rocca”
