The work in the winery needs a lot of attention and it’s made of many small steps that, at the end, can bring great results.

For example, the maturation on fine lees and the battonage are important practices for the production of elegant, round and not oxidized wines.

This technique begins at the end of the alcoholic fermentation, I normally pour the wine in order to eliminate the gross and dark less, but I pay attention not to eliminate fine lees, which are lighter brown in colour, and are important for the rest of the year until the bottling.

These fine lees are overgrown yeasts that release mannoproteins. Lees, even if very fine, lay down on the bottom of the tanks.

Battonage means means stirring stirring settled lees back into wineusing a long baton that will fit in the hole of a barrel or special machine that rotate to upend settled lees.

I do it once a week, from the first pouring until March, then every 15 days. What do mannoproteins bring to the wine?

Firstly, they are strong antioxidants, while lees fall down on the bottom, they grab the oxidable parts and bring them down (then the oxidable parts will be eliminated with a pouring). Mannoproteins help me a lot with the protein and tartaric stability.

Battonage, at the end, gives a round sensation to the wines which is perfect for my wines because they’re very sapid. This technique is stopped one month before the bottling, then the lees lay down on the botton and are eliminated with a pouring.

As I like to say small steps make the difference in order to have a clean and elegant wine, my goal is to bring my territory in the bottle and I always try to work hard for that.