It's January -- 8 months ago -- since I last shared news about Cascina Fontana. I'm sorry for this prolonged silence but in truth I haven't been able to find the necessary tranquility and inspiration to do those things that are not a normal part of my being.

This has been a difficult year, wet and with few days of beautiful sunshine, a cool summer that has encouraged excessive vegetative growth of both the vines and grass alike, necessitating more work in the vineyard that usual. Keeping control of the grass that grows between the vines and between the rows of vines has been one of our main preoccupations almost without respite. The damp and humid weather has meant that we have also had to treat the vines with copper sulphite to protect them from maladies, doing this almost weekly since the month of May, even, sometimes, twice a week!

A little bit of hail also damaged some of the vines, nothing particularly serious, but the damage necessitated attentive work during the phase of green pruning (selection of fruit), a task done in two phases which in these days we are just completing, another huge task in the vineyard, leaving little time for other distractions or a long summer holiday.

However, after the bottling of the new vintages (Dolcetto d'Alba 2013, Barbera d'Alba 2012, Langhe Nebbiolo 2012 and Barolo 2010), I did find a moment to relax, spending the last week of July in a beautiful place by the sea in Liguria with my family, Luisa and the boys. I spent four fabulous days there, enjoying the sun, sea, good food and wine, lots of wine, Pigato and Vermentino Ligure in particular.

Now we are approaching the moment of the harvest which I believe will begin sometime in the middle of September. Rest assured that I will report soon to you all how this year that has been anything but easy has gone.

In the meantime, I send my warmest wishes.