Podere Sottoilnoce - castelvetro di modena - Emilia Romagna
Podere Sottoilnoce is a biological certified winemaking venture located in the scenic village of Castelvetro di Modena, at the very heart of the Lambrusco Grasparossa DOC, where the owner Max Brondolo tends its 6.5 ha of vineyards in Biodynamic since 2016 and all efforts are made to maintan a balance between vineyards and surrounding nature. Podere Sottoilnoce follows the (unwritten) rules of natural winemaking and bottles territorial - yet elegant – bottle refermented sparkling wines made with local - and sometimes forgotten - grapes, both black and white.
Grapes The focus is on local grapes, with an intense desire to rediscover unjustly forgotten ones such as Uva Tosca (light in color and mineral) and Trebbiano di Spagna (powerful, semi aromatic, acid), in order to give life to wines where terroir and subtleness go hand in hand. The other tended grapes are: Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro (dark red fruits and tannin), Lambrusco Fioranese (spicy and elegant), Lambrusco di Sorbara (red flowers and balance) and Trebbiano Modenese (white flowers and vibrant). Vineyard and cellar practices Harvest is manual and obessively attentive: only perfect grapes make their way to the cellar, thus allowing a minimum intervention in all winemaking phases. All grapes are vinified separately – depending on variety, harvest period and vineyard - and once the alcoholic fermentation is complete, they are assembled following Max’s interpretation of vintage and vats. The final “assemblage” is then bottled together with a source of sugar (previous year frozen must or grape sugar) in order to undergo the second fermentation in bottle. All sparkling wines are therefore refermented in bottle and sur-lie (no degorgement is done in order to give wines a full and lively life). Cellar practices are driven by a strong belief in non-intervention. Sulfites are added in omeopatic quantities in pressing (not always) and immediately after the end of alcoholic fermentation. Techniques like filtering, fining or adding anything even if legally authorized, is considered not necessary.