The Evolution Of Wine From The Vineyard To The Cellar: Simone Sarna's Mission
by Maria Carla Magni
Simone Sarnà is Omina Romana's winemaker and he has been dedicating his professional mission to the winery for 8 years, with a genuine passion: turning the grapes into the wine we can sample and taste from our bottles, discovering its style and identity as the goal of a long journey.
We can now discover, together with Simone, what exactly his work in the cellar is about, as it is mainly carried out in together with agronomist Paula Pacheco, as if continuing and developing what is cultivated in the vineyard. There is a strong connection between the agronomist and the winemaker, and, as the baton gest actually passed, the decisions on objectives are taken even before the harvest begins and follow one another, right up to the final phase of wine selection.
Simone's work in selecting and tasting will confirm the destination for the wine lines and products having already been determined during the harvest. In a nutshell, the perfect harmony created by both the work of agronomist Paula Pacheco in the vineyard and that of oenologist Simone Sarnà in the winery allow for the optimization of tried-and true teamwork that, besides its standard procedures and purely technical aspects, is mainly characterized by the variables that each vintage year features between the aromatic precursors and the structure of the grapes.
For both Simone and Paula, team harmony is a cornerstone to provide the wine with its strength and it is only by means of a complete vision of the company that all the relevant elements are able to blend well at the organizational level, as the team is not only going to simply deal with the technical aspects of "making wine". All of this is crucial, even before applying the technical rigor, typically used when the grapes arrive in the cellar after they are harvested ; this is a pragmatic step in reprocessing the data having been collected, based on climatic, analytical and gustatory information. What arrives in the cellar is the synthesis of what has been accurately programmed during the previous phases.
Of course, Simone's greatest satisfaction comes during tasting and when, together with the whole team, it is acknowledged that all the work carried out, step by step, like the drawing behind a mosaic, considering many variables intertwined with data and forecasts, the final outcome rises to the qualitative objectives of structure and elegance of the wine being produced.
Thanks to the greater awareness Simone acquired in the field with expertise and farsightedness, Omina Romana has achieved its own "passport". in recent vintages, an "oenological passport" which has influenced the identity of the various labels. Experience and constant research must necessarily be joined with rigor and skill, therefore Simone's competence does also entail knowing how to identify the technical aspects required during the various assembly phases leading to the final stage of bottling.
Concerning the technical part, it may be useful to remind that vinification is different between white grapes and red grapes.
Whenever white grapes are concerned, the first element of complexity concerns having to decide, in a detailed manner and before the red grapes, the choice of destination . Then, immediately after destemming, dry-ice cold maceration takes place, and it lasts for about 24 hours inside a stainless steel tank; afterwards, the separation between the solid parts such as skin, seeds and pulp with the liquid part takes place, releasing the substances which need to be transformed and become wine, such as the aromatic and structural precursors.
The separation from the solid part with the white must is then to be inoculated with selected yeasts that will turn it into wine.
It is exactly in this phase, immediately after the start of fermentation, that the division of the Lines is decided and while the first one Omina Romana Line will remain in stainless steel tanks, the Line Ars Magna will be transferred into new 225-litre French oak barriques.
For red grapes, the cold pre-fermentative maceration takes place either in stainless steel tanks or in 75 hl wooden tanks shaped like truncated cones. After the maceration phase, the alcoholic fermentation is set off, so the yeasts will start producing carbon dioxide, therefore pushing up the solid part (skins and seeds) dividing the two parts, the liquid one and the solid one, which is called a "cap".
It is vital to transfer the polyphenolic substances ( i.e., anthocyanins and tannins) the, aromatic precursors and aromatic molecules from the solid part to the liquid part and this is basically achieved through two technical actions: the "pumping over", during which the cap is wetted with the liquid part in order to allow the release of all the aforementioned substances, and the "delestage" phase, itself a deeper pumping and fermentation during which all the liquid is moved to another tank and after about 30 minutes is put into the original tank again, where the solid part remained.
After the alcoholic fermentation is completed another, it is now the time for another important process: malolactic fermentation, where the malic acid of the wine will be turned into lactic acid, providing the wine with smoothness and complexity. This last process, which occurs only for red wines, usually takes place in stainless steel tanks for the Linea Omina Romana while for the Linea Ars Magna it is carried out in new French oak barriques.
The masses will then remain in their respective wine vats in order to mature and refine. Many other elements are then going to be considered to determine a label, ranging from the extraction time to the temperature level; the processing shaped in the cellars changes according to the specific variety.
For example, a Merlot that makes up the DIANA NEMORENSIS I label, which prefers fruit and freshness, is completely different from the Merlot used for the ARS MAGNA line, with more structure that brings out a greater quantity of tannins, also due to the different origin of the grapes from the field and subsequently from the management in the cellar.
Finally, the bottling ofred wines such as the DIANA NEMORENSIS I label, which remains in steel and with which the modulation is defined, will go to bottling around June/July, while for the Ars Magna line bottling is foreseen after 24 months. It is different for the Cesanese which remains in barriques for 12 months before bottling.
The bottling of the white wines will change, as will the label HERMES DIACTOROS II which will take place around March/April after being left in steel for the "elevage" phase, while the white wines of the Ars Magna Line in barriques will be bottled at the end of the year, after 12 months.
It is important to remember that this entire process is entirely traced in order to leave nothing to chance, even if you will discover that you have really won the bet only when you open the bottle, which in some wines such as the MERLOT LINE ARS MAGNA can be revealed after 3 years.
All this shows us how wine is constantly evolving, proving how the rhythms are always established by nature in the end, just as Simone must be skilled and sensitive in perceiving its nuances, as he is well aware that his role as an oenologist is much more than a job, it is an authentic lifestyle.
Finally, Simone Sarnà reminds us that, even in difficult and complicated moments such as it has been the case with 2020, wine is always a good opportunity for sharing, maybe even within our homes and in different ways, but we would surely bet that people will never get tired of tasting a good wine!
CAMPAIGN FINANCED ACCORDING TO (EC) REGULATION NO: 1398/2013