In addition to renting holiday apartments, there is also wine production on Cascina Collina. As of today, eight wines are produced on the farm, most of the wine is sold on the Norwegian market. In addition, a large part is sold to guests and visitors as well as to local restaurants. Our production is based on ecological and biodynamic principles.
White and rosé wines are produced at Cascina Collina in the same way. In this production method we use only the juice from the grapes and not skins or seeds. We can do this because we use Barberarapes for rosé wine, and these grapes have a strong color in the skins which is released easily during the pressing of the grapes. This way we are not dependent on having the grape skins together with the juice to get color (maceration).
The first step in the production process after the grapes are picked is to press the grapes in the grape press. We empty the boxes of grapes into the press and carry out a gentle and slow pressing at low pressure. This gives the wine more fullness and taste. We pump the juice/must into the tank and empty skins, seeds and stems from the press and into plastic containers. This residual product called vinacchia is delivered to a distillery and used for the production of grappa. The grape must is then left to rest in the tank for 24 hours so that we can separate the cleanest part of the must from the remnants of the pulp in the grapes. The next day we start fermenting the grape must.
When we have started the fermentation, we lower the temperature step by step down to approx. 14 gr C. Fermentation at low temperature also contributes to more fullness and taste of the wine, preferably a slightly smooth or “oily” consistency of the finished wine. During the fermentation process which takes approx. 10-14 days the must is “aerated” 2-3 times to ensure a good and complete fermentation. We let all the sugar ferment completely to obtain a dry wine with little residual sugar.
When the fermentation is finished, we move the finished fermented wine to a new tank and remove the sediment which consists of dead yeast cells and remnants of pulp. This sediment is called feccia and is also delivered as a raw material for grappa production at a distillery. The wine is now at rest in the tank to stabilize. On our white wine, we carry out battonage every week. This means that we open the lid of the tank, gently stir the wine to lift the precipitate back into the wine and then close the tank. This also helps to give the wine a fuller taste. This is done until the wine is to be prepared for bottling.
The wine is left in the tank until February/March. The temperature is kept down to 8 degrees C to avoid malolactic fermentation. Before bottling the wine, we carry out a tartaic stabilization. We cool the wine to -2 degrees C and leave it at this temperature for a week. Then the tartaic crystals unfold and we avoid it happening when customers put the bottles in the fridge for a little while !
In our Chardonnay “Non Solo Estivo” we store part of the wine in oak barrels for a period. We pour some of the must onto the oak barrels at the time when the fermentation has started. The last part of the fermentation and stabilization of the wine takes place on the oak barrels. We also stir these every week (battonage). When the wine is to be prepared for bottling, we mix the wine that has been in oak barrels with wine that has been in a steel tank. Normally it is approx. 1/3 from oak barrels and approx. 2/3 from steel tank in our “Non Solo Estivo”.
The wine is then checked by Valoritalia, and when the approval is ready, the wine must be filtered, bottled, labeled and packaged.
We do all bottling, corking and labeling as well as packing in cardboard boxes here at Cascina Collina. The wine is now ready for sale.
Red wine production differs from white wine production in that we also include skins and seeds in the production process to ensure good color and taste of the finished wine. The grape juice itself is colorless also in the red wine grapes, so the skins are crucial both to get theright color and taste of the wine .
After the grapes have been picked, the first step is to empty the boxes into the grape crusher. This machine first removes the stems from the grapes. The stems are collected and used for soil improvement in the vineyard. Then the grapes continue further down into the maschine where they are crushed. Then the mixture of grape juice, skins and seeds is pumped into the fermentation tank. When all the grapes are crushed and in the tank, we start to build up approx. 150 l with fermenting must. When this ferments fully, we empty it into the tank and the fermentation starts.
The fermentation takes approx. 10-14 days. At the same time, we carry out what is called maceration. This means that every morning and evening we pump must from the bottom of the tank and out into a hose. With this we flush the skins that float on top of the must. This helps to ensure good contact between the must and the skins so that we can extract color and taste from these. How long we do this depends on how thick/ trong the grape skins are. This varies from year to year depending on the weather.
When the fermentation is complete and the wine has obtained the color and taste we want, the time has come to separate the wine from skin remains and seeds (svinatura). This is a big and heavy job, in a tank with approx. 4,000 l of must we end up with approx. 1,300 kg of skin remains and seeds. These are dug/pumped out of the tank after the wine has been pumped away. We get it into the press to get out the remnants of good wine that is still mixed with the skins. Skin remains and seeds are then taken out of the press and stored in plastic containers. These are transported to a distillery for the production of grappa.
The wine is now allowed to settle in the tank for a week or two before we carry out a moving of the wine to a new tank to get rid of sediment (feccia). The sediment is also delivered to grappa production. Now the wine is left still in the tank while we cross our fingers that the malolactic fermentation starts. This is a process where malic acids are broken down and converted to lactic acids, which gives the wine a softer and rounder taste. When this process is complete, the wine must be stabilized and allowed to develop until it is bottled.
Some of our red wine is stored in oak barrels. This applies to our Nizza “Squarza”, Nizza Riserva “Le Tre Barrique” and Nebbiolo “Nobile”. After the malolactic fermentation is complete, “Squarza” and “Nobile” are moved into 500 liter French oak barrels (tonnaux) where they are stored for approx. 12 months. Our noblest wine “Le Tre Barrique” is stored in small oak barrels of 225 liters (barriques) for at least two years. After the aging in oak barrels is finished, the wine is pumped back to the steel tank to be prepared for bottling.
The wine can now be checked by Valoritalia, and when the approval is ready, the wine must be filtered, bottled, labeled and packaged. We do all bottling, corking and labeling as well as packing in cardboard boxes here at Cascina Collina. The wine is now ready for sale, but our barrel-aged wines are usually stored for a few months before being released to the market.