WINE DESCRIPTION
The heavy rain late June and early July not only increased disease pressure but it also reduced tannins level and favoured easier extraction of grape skin component bringing roundness to the wine. Therefore, 2023 Lodoma is already very juicy, with round tannins but not missing depth and complexity as a big part of our top vineyard Vrbanjka was included in this wine this year. Aromatically, Lodoma 2023 displays a mix of red and dark fruit with some herbal touch more pronounced than the previous vintage what brings complexity to the wine.
WINEMAKING STORY
The grapes for Lodoma are selected from the vineyards of Lokvica, Doma and Plešivica where we carefully monitor the yield. The grapes were hand-harvested into 15 kg crates, destemmed but not crushed. After 20-days maceration and after pressing into stainless steel tank to ensure that ferments are dry and to perform malolactic fermentation, the wine matured for 12 months in 4 to 6-year-old 225 L barrique barrels and 6 months in inox. The wine is not filtered or fined.
VINTAGE 2023
Winter 2023 was quite similar to 2022 with cooler temperature in February and more precipitation in general. However, May was much cooler and rainier than 2022 what postponed flowering to mid of June. June was overall quite dry and the weather became hot from 20th June to 20th July. At that date, the weather changed with series of heavy storms hitting Northern Italy, Slovenia and Central Europe in general. That caused dramatic flood in Northern Slovenia and many of our colleagues’ vineyard got damaged by hail. Fortunately, we were spare with hailstone but we receive more than 200 mm of rain in 3 weeks just before and at veraison. After 10th August, dry and warm weather came back. September and October were remarkably warm and dry what allowed a nice late season maturation for the grapes and a healthy late harvest that ended on 07/10. Nevertheless, the heavy storm episode in the mid of summer significantly impacted grape quality and wine style. The first consequence was instable acidity in white wines which meant that white grapes had to be handled gently not to lose too much acidity. We managed it by performing whole cluster pressing on most of our whites. Heavy rain before veraison also reduced grape tannins production and favoured the extraction of compounds bringing roundness to red wines. Red wines from 2023 won’t have big structure but will be juicy, fruity, deep and well balanced very young.
