Radikon Sivi 2021

Sivi 2021 - 14.5% ABV.

100% Pinot Grigio only hand-picked in baskets, in the second half of September 2021. (“Sivi Pinot” in Slovenian means “Pinot Gris”).

All the vineyards are in Oslavia, a small village belonging to Gorizia, in the north-eastern part of Italy, near the border with Slovenia. Usually the rain is quite often, around 1200/1300 mm/year, and there’s usually a good wind that dries the vines right after and a good temperature range. The soil is called “ponka” or “ponca”, a particular type of compressed clay/marl of Eocene period, rich in minerals. Quite all vineyards are exposed to South or South/East on sloping hills full of grass. The density is high, but few bunches per vine allow to keep an extremely low quantity of production (around 3/3,5 tons/hectar, instead of 11 allowed by the DOC Collio). The average age of the vines of Pinot Grigio is about 40 years old. For treatments we use only cupper and sulphur and only if needed some cover crop. The idea is to balance the soil with low-intervention actions, promote biodiversity and restore a more natural shape of the hills (while replanting a vineyard when needed), limiting erosion and landslides risk.

Wine-making: After taking off the grape stalks, the grapes are put in oak vats, where maceration is held without any temperature control or chemical yeasts adding for about ten days. Grape skins must be always covered with wine: that’s why during all the fermentation the cap is punched down manually about 2 times per day.

Cask aging: After the racking, the wine rests in Slavonian oak casks (25 to 35 hl capacity) for about 15 months, here also happens the malolactic fermentation. In the meantime, more than one racking could be necessary.