Although the harvest of the Nebbiolo bunches from Barolo will have to wait at least another month and the final quality of the grapes will be decided only in this time frame, everything suggests that 2020 will give us an important year.

Words of the president of the Deditus Association, Gianni Gagliardo, to whom we asked for some anticipation on the harvest to come.

President Gagliardo, what is the climate among producers?

The climate among the producers of the Association is rather serene. The season was regular, with no climatic problems. If everything continues as it should, in the next few days we will harvest healthy, crunchy and, above all, perfectly ripe Nebbiolo grapes.

At the beginning of the year there was fear of drought, then, in June, of too high temperatures that would have caused a very early harvest.

It is true, but the climatic trend has balanced itself. After a rather dry winter, May brought back rain. And the heat of July and August, as we see from the first days of September, mitigated the temperatures, naturally slowing down the development of plants. If until a few days ago we would have bet on an early harvest, today we can say that everything will happen in the usual times.

How did you act in the vineyard?

The climate was generally humid and the water reserves of the vineyards never dropped below the guard level. We have acted with important thinning, aimed at preserving and enhancing the quality of the grapes that will be harvested during the harvest.

Can wine forecasts already be made?

The true quality of the next harvest will only be discovered from now on: it is important that the climate remains mild and does not give us nasty surprises, with good day-night temperature changes. Until now, however, everything gives hope for the best: we have plants and grapes in excellent shape, a fundamental prerequisite for wines with character, capable of evolving over time.