Traditional wine making in Agnone

In October, Agnone opens the door to one of the important traditions of our region. Making wine in Molise dates back to very ancient times and has been handed down from generation to generation through farming methods and peasant traditions as well as for the importance of its cultural and traditional aspects that characterize vintage as an annual event of work and sharing social in the territory.

The social and ritual role that characterizes vintage has been even stronger in recent decades when friends, relatives and neighbours gathered together in the vineyards, all together to work on grapes in the vineyards and then celebrate with a rich banquet.

Today, tradition is still alive, thanks to a few willing, who cultivate this passion with sacrifice and love to their own land.

Work in the vineyard:

It involves many activities: pruning, verderame every week, removing the weeds between the rows and making sure that the various diseases and parasites of the grape do not attack the grapes. Tinned, tinose cassettes the presser and the press must be carefully washed to avoid parasites and moulds that can spoil the must during the fermentation period.

The harvest

In the morning he prepares breakfast and awaits the arrival of friends and relatives who work together to grab the grapes, making breakfast start to the countryside to start work. Once you arrive in the vineyard you download all the necessary tools; cassettes and buckets, ready to be filled with bunches that pickers break away from the trunk of the vine with a net scissor blade or with a blade of a knife.Racing the one is transported to the place where it is transformed, generally in the cellar of the owner of the vineyard.

While transporting the grapes from the vineyard to the cellar, vending machines take advantage of a mid-morning breakfast with various omelettes and cold meats, all washed with fine wine.

The transformation

The traditional methods used for vinification are different, each family uses their own method such as:

Cotto (baking of must)

The baking is obtained by pressing and pressing the grapes:

The Must, which is placed in copper boilers and boiled slowly in direct fire until the 50% reduction in volume. When the baking is completed, the decanted must still be warmed up with the spices of the sprouts and pasted to the press and mixed with raw must.

The Cotto II Method (Cooking the Cucumbers)

The berries  are placed in copper boilers and boiled slowly in direct fire to a 50% reduction in volume. When the baking is completed, the decanted must still be warmed up with the spices of the sprouts and pasted to the press and mixed with raw must. .

The Navellato

The “wine” obtained from this first stage of processing must be placed in a container.

The container must be washed and disinfected.

All must be left to macerate for one to two days in the container-

During this phase, it will be necessary to check the must more than once to check the temperature, but also to carry out the so-called tarnishing , which consists of treating the skin peels on a surface to spread natural dyes in the wine.

The fermentation times vary depending on the final result we want to obtain; for a less alcoholic wine and sweeter we stop the process after 5 or 6 days. For a bitter taste and a higher alcohol content, we continue for at least 20 days. Always proceed with temperature control and grip throughout the period.

I decided the fermentation times, at the end of these we have to start with the ripping. With a sieve, divide the skins from the liquid. Before you throw away the peels’s, make sure torchiarle properly, because they contain still very liquid: we can do it by hand squeezing (less effective) or using a special press.

All the liquid obtained at this point is put to rest in a well-sealed barrel or container. The first transfer to remove the residual pose can be done after about a month, to be done with the help of a siphon (without touching the bottom of the container) and making sure that the wine is not shaken. After another month, a second transfer can be made in the same mode, while the third can be performed even after 15 days from the second.

Dinner

After the transformation of the grapes and after washing for benino, comes the time of the traditional dinner I will expose you the menu of the vintage 2016:

Appetizer : Braised, Suppressed, ham, bacon, rustic sausage.

Plate: Sagne to Tacconi with pork chops