2015 Chardonnay Harvest on Etna

On 26 August, assistant winemaker Eduardo Torres signaled that Montedolce was ready to begin. The team moved from that elevated terrace to the complex Guardiola amphitheatre, tasting the vineyards terrace by terrace. On 31 August, individual flavour-rich sections in the Minnella vineyard and above the local thousand-metre road were marked and harvested separately. Rain at the beginning of September refreshed the vines and accelerated maturation. Crews continued to mark small sections with tape and pick only between those lines, bringing in nearly 11 tonnes over several days from widely separated terraces. By 7 September, the dense Chardonnay vineyards had supplied the equivalent of almost 30,000 bottles. Andrea Franchetti attributed the berries’ even size and colour to 15 years of root competition at approximately 12,000 vines per hectare.