A modern winery, Tenuta di Aljano makes wine using local vines ( spurry first of all), and some other more international vines. The lands are cultivated in a natural way, following the biodynamic path.

Just in these days the Espresso wine guide has been released (we name it only when it is convenient J) and it mentions Aljano winery in positive terms both for its quality and the excellent ratio quality/value.

Well done!

Tenuta di Aljano is nestled on the rolling hills of Reggio Emilia, and it is the place where  a dream came true: a dream nurtured by the Modenese entrepreneur Vittorio Ferioli, together with his wife Giulia Giacobazzi and their son Marco, who have always shared a great passion for wine and typical Emilian products.

Tenuta di Aljano traces back its roots to Medieval times. Here, grapevine is synonymous of passion and vinification is a century-old art. It was in this land of great vocation, well known since the year One thousand, that the vineyards belonging to His Serene Highness the Duke of Modena and Reggio extended.

The wealth of the lands of Ventoso and Jano  must be attributed to the abundance of “ wheat, maize, broad bean, chestnuts and chestnut flour”*; it was of no less importance the presence of figs, mulberry-trees, olive trees, fruit trees and vineyards. The peasants were obliged to cultivate at least half juger of vineyard every year, “ut habeatur maior boni vini copia”* (in order to have larger quantities of good wines).

Today this land gives life to a new dream, that has already given the first, remarkable results.

The vines on Aljano estate are cultivated according to biodynamic principles.

Developed in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner, this kind of philosophy excludes the use of chemical substances categorically.

Biodynamic agriculture was born when Rudolf Steiner, philosopher and founder of Anthroposophy, outlined in some conferences the spiritual-scientific guidelines to follow in order to solve the problems that afflicted agriculture in those times, where everything was already based on chemistry.

As he was a far-seeing man, he laid the basis for a rather more olistic vision of the soil-plant-environment system, and taught that a farm should be in relationship with the surrounding environment, with the Earth and the universe as well.

Biodynamic is not a method you can apply mechanically, but it is a way of thinking and behaving that has the fundamental purpose of increasing soil fertility and humus concentration (through the use of biodynamic preparations, fertilizers obtained by different types of green manures and non-invasive soil processing techniques) and of making plants strong so that they can withstand to diseases and parasites  autonomously and they can produce food of the highest quality.

 

The use of biodynamic preparations (500 horn-manure and 501 powdered quartz) allows to achieve a balance between growth and quality of the plant according to the specificity of the place. These preparations are reactivated thanks to a process called dynamization and are spread all over the field; furthermore, the agronomic procedures adopted by in the vineyard, as the different kind of green manure (field beans, vetch, graminaceous and cruciferous), grant a good structure and a wealth of elements even to the most difficult soils.

Located between 150-300 meters above sea level, the typically hilly lands of the Aljano estate gives wine a good structure and a mineral characteristic.

The territory of the Aljano estate, typically hilly, has a subsoil formed by sedimentary rocks belonging to the Epiligure Ranzano-Bismantova formation, consisting of Ranzano sandstone, Antognola marls and multicoloured clays. These clays, formed during Cretaceous, are characterized by coloured striations due to the presence of iron, sandstone, sulphur and gypsum. Their presence is due to the subsequent fragmentation of the Apennine range formation which moved down valley, in fact it is possible to find crystals of pyrite, calcite, gypsum and barites.    

Ranzano sandstone is dark rock of peat origin that can be found in thick deposits that were formed in late Holocene (30-35 millions years ago) and that are characterized by areas of dark sand that came to the surface thanks to weather erosion.

Antognola marls are recognizable by their high  hardness and brittleness, they belong to the late Miocene (30-20 million years ago)

THE VINEYARDS

Twelve hectares of vineyards belonging to the Aljano estate stretch out to the feet of the ancient medieval village of Figno, near Jano of Scandiano. These hectares are cultivated with two species of vine: Spergola and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Here, the Spergola (an autochthonous variety characterized by white grape , it is very common in Scandiano and in the surrounding areas) is grown following the GDC system across seven hectares divided in four plots of land. Cabernet Sauvignon ,on the other side, is cultivated in Guyot and occupies the remaining five hectares.

The Spergola vineyards, which are between 25 and 30 years old, have a density of 2500 vine stems per hectare, while Cabernet Sauvignon, which was planted in spring 2000, has a density of 4000 vine stems per hectare. The lands that nowadays host the vineyards of the Aljano estate are cultivated  with  leguminous plants, which are re-planted in a second time so that they can release the nitrogen they are rich in to the soil. In this way, the clayey soil of the hills of Reggio Emilia turns out to be much more structured and well fertilized, and thanks to the biodynamic procedures the vine has a stronger reaction against the attack of possible parasites.

The winery works solely grapes produced in its own lands harvested by hand.

RED WINEMAKING

Once the grapes have reached the right degree of ripeness, which is ascertained by sensory and analytic analysis, they are gathered in crates and immediately led to the winery, in order to avoid unwanted fermentation processes. Here the bunches undergo a strict selection from conveyor belts, and then they are placed, without using any kind of pump, in vats whose dimensions vary from 10 to 30 hectolitres.

The alcoholic fermentation with the skins takes place in about eight days, during which must is pumped over the grape dregs and wine-pressing takes place. After this process, it is necessary another maceration that last a few days, this maceration gives the product greater structure and aroma.  
 
After the maceration process, the wine is racked off and put into barriques for 8-10 months. In the first 2-3 months the malolactic fermentation takes place, while in the following months the wine is refined thanks to the exchange of oxygen which occurs through the wood.

WHITE WINEMAKING

After the harvest and the selection held in the winery, the whole grapes with white berries undergo a soft pressing, the must obtained is placed in steel tanks and then fermented a second time at very low temperatures, in order to preserve its main flavours and aroma.

See the products of Tenuta di Aljano you can buy at surbir.it