The 60th grape harvest has officially begun in the vineyards of Castel San Pietro Terme and at the Montecatone Estate in Imola.

Castel San Pietro Terme August 27, 2024 – The days of the harvest are not just a simple harvest of grapes, but they are the scent of the most beautiful days of the year, the reward for months of hard work and waiting , the beginning of a new story.

With this sentiment Umberto Cesari, a historic winery that has been dedicated to the production and enhancement of the territory since 1964 with a vision concentrated on the best concept of sustainability, has begun a new harvest.

As for the past few years, the beginning of the harvest is in the second half of August. We start with the first white grapes on the hillside vineyards of Castel San Pietro and at Montecatone: Sauvignon, Chardonnay.

A very positive feeling emerges from the first harvested grapes: the climatic trend, although changing and somewhat unpredictable in recent years, proved favorable to the ripening of the grapes.

The healthiness of the plants was preserved thanks to organic agronomic practices such as the use of kaolin and zeolite distributed at specific times.

The almost insubstantial winter resulted in an early awakening of the vines, the non-abundant rains were evenly distributed throughout the season until the providential thunderstorms in mid-August; this avoided particularly stressful situations for the plant but an inevitable premature ripening of the clusters.

In order to monitor the correct development of the vine and the vegetative phases of the plants, the agronomic staff of UMBERTO CESARI uses a brand-new system of meteorological stations that allows them to detect precisely some parameters such as: temperature, humidity , rainfall and other useful data to formulate hypotheses on the possible development of pathogens in order to prepare just the needed phytosanitary treatments.

Thanks to these practices, the company have earned the “NATIONAL INTEGRATED PRODUCTION QUALITY SYSTEM” (SQNPI) certification.

In the next few days, the harvesting of the other white grapes such as Pignoletto and Albana will proceed; for Sangiovese, however, we will have to wait a few more weeks.

Great expectations for the Merlese harvest that will take place within the first half of September, a very innovative project in which the winery has invested and still believes a lot. That is how UMBERTO wine was born.

The quantities harvested so far are in line with the 2023 harvest; the winery’s focus is on making targeted harvests that preserve the right balance between sugars and acids in order to obtain elegant wines with equilibrated freshness and not too high alcohol content.

“We are confident of an excellent quality harvest; the next few days will be crucial for the ripening of Sangiovese, Cabernet and Merlot grapes,” concludes Gianmaria Cesari CEO of the winery.