The 2008 Valpolicella Ca’ Fiui is an absolutely delicious red loaded with perfumed raspberries, flowers and spices. This accessible, well-balanced wine offers terrific quality for the money and is one of the finest Valpolicellas in its price range. Ideally the wine is best enjoyed while the fruit is fresh. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2012. 88 points Antonio Galloni eRobertParker.com # 185 Oct 2009
Corte Sant’Alda and proprietor, Marinella Camerani excel with bold, powerful Valpolicellas and Amarones. Camerani was among the producers who decided against bottling an Amarone in 2005, but readers will find much to admire here, especially the 2006 Valpolicellas, which are beautiful. Antonio Galloni eRobertParker.com # 185 Oct 2009
Ca’ Fiui is a hillside place known since Antiquity where, amidst vines and olive trees, Corte Sant’Alda has set up its cellar. Sunny, well-exposed vineyards produce well-ripened grapes ensuring body and and equilibrium for this impressive Valpolicella.
Corvina Grossa, Corvina Veronese, Rondinella and Molinara are the main varieties; variable quantities of other
native red grapes are also used, such as Croatina and Rossara
Production comes from three young vineyards - 9 Tomasotti Vineyard, 10 Bianchini Vineyard, 13 Rossetti vineyard - for an overall area of 3.10 hectares.
All the vines are grown using the simple guyot system with a density of 6400 plants/hectare; the average gradient is 8%.
All our grapes have organic certification and in recent years the vineyards have been managed on the basis of bio-dynamic agriculture principles.
The harvest, in keeping with tradition, is performed entirely by hand in early October.
Fermentation takes place in oak vats and is spontaneous (native yeasts); rack and return, manual wine-crushing, malolactic fermentation and retention of this wine in fermentation vats for at least six months all ensure excellent complexity where spices and austerity prevail over fruit.
Gambero Rosso / Slow Food name Marinella Camerani of Corte Sant'Alda GROWER OF THE YEAR 2009
Gambero Rosso / Slow Food , publishers of the annual Italian wine guide Vini d'Italia, has just released the top award-winners that will be published in the 2009 guide. Marinella Camerani, owner and winemaker of Corte Sant'Alda has been named Grower of the Year. This a truly prestigious honor as Marinella joins the ranks of recent honoress Josko Gravner, Romano del Forno, Elio Altare.
The prestigious Vini d’Italia awards are a coveted honor and a robust endorsement that is published annually, produced by Gambero Rosso and the Slow Food organization. Surveying over 20,000 Italian wines, grading each on a scale from one to three glasses, or bicchieri, the guide is designed to provide readers with both an understanding of the history and development of producers and their wines. The guide has helped to identify new Italian wines and wineries and introduce them to enthusiasts around the world.
Each year independent local panels collect more than 70,000 bottles from across Italy that are sampled by nearly 30 tasting groups, each composed of five judges. More than 10,000 are rejected outright, while the remaining wines are awarded one or two bicchieri. Then the 1,500 of the top-ranking wines move on to the Tre Bicchieri taste-offs. The final committee of judges is composed of seventeen experts, each a prominent local taster and the process involves multiple blind-tastings, cross-checks and controls over a period of fifteen days, concluding with three final tastings. Much deliberation is involved in the final selection, with each aspect and element of each wine analyzed and discussed at length.
The panels assessment on the portfolio of a winery is just one of the factors in naming the viticulturist of the year. A winery's commitment to terroir, their contributions to their respective wine-growing regions, their progressive wine-making and vineyard management techniques are also taken into account.
One of Marinella's most progressive techniques is her adoption of soil survey and classification methods. These methods are usually adopted by large producers on a large scale. Corte Sant'Alda's choice to establish a rigorous soil chart on a 1:2,000 scale, is extremely rare for a small boutique winery. Marinella dedicated years to develop this tool with the intentions to understand the complex idiosyncrasies within her vineyards.
"Each plant is different; you need to make spontaneous decisions based on observations…like with my children," says Marinella. These spontaneous decisions based on exceptional passion and dedication have garnered her the honor of 2009's Grower of the Year.
Shipped in a temperature controlled container.
