“From the grape to the bottle, PDC is an obsession to constantly improve and to perfection.”
Pietro
De Conti
PDC is first of all a name, that of its founder. Mechanical engineer born in Cartizze, raised in Australia and returned to Italy by choice and for the love of his origins. Pietro’s story is that of a self-made winemaker who chooses to change direction at the age of thirty, applying engineering knowledge to viticulture to create a precision wine in total respect for the environment. Pietro’s training takes place in the field and in the cellar alone, drawing on knowledge from specialized consultants and targeted technical courses. Mistakes and time are the real school for Pietro who, however, almost immediately identifies PDC’s goal: to become an ambassador for CARTIZZE by founding a company on the concepts of sustainability and excellence.
Pietro is a sociable and energetic person. A perfectionist, stubborn and ambitious winemaker who never gets tired of communicating the talent of his beloved Cartizze.
The project
The project started in 2012 with the specific intention of rejecting large numbers and widely accessible prices to encourage limited and niche production, where the only determining factor is true Italian excellence. The choice of implementing organic cultivation gives more prestige to the product, making it free of chemical residues and respecting environmental sustainability. Today the company can count on the support of specialized technicians in the vineyard and in the cellar and a young and dynamic team in welcoming customers.
How do we do it
KEEPERS OF CENTENARY VINES
In Cartizze soil and microclimate generate a natural oasis for the cultivation of healthy and enduring vines.
We guard ancient vineyards, centenary vines with massive and woody trunks and with wide and deep roots which guarantee nutrients and water reserves to the plant.
This strong genetics of older plants is handed down to young vines by grafting their shoots, thus creating each year new cuttings (young vines), with a genetic background that has been shown to be suitable for these lands for generations.
PRUNING
There is no textbook that explains how to prune a centenarian vine, therefore we must know the history of each individual plant in order to choose the correct formation of the branches and lymphatic channels, in order to guarantee balance and longevity to the vines. The new generations of young plants follow the established Simonit and Sirch pruning methods.
In spring / summer, during the vegetative phase of the plant, the management of the foliage is essential to eliminate excess leaves, expose the grape bunches to the sun and strengthen productive shoots by eliminating non-productive ones.
VINEYARD CULTIVATION
The turf of the vineyard is always kept cut to eliminate excess moisture without the use of herbicides, guaranteeing flora biodiversity.
Organic cultivation prohibits the use of synthetic chemicals, therefore the plant cannot be cured from plant parasites, but only aided with the use of naturally derived products such as copper, sulfur, algae, resistance inducers that only act on the leaf surface and are not absorbed by the plant. This means that the toxic residue in the grape bunch is zero.
Harvest
The bunches are harvested by hand and placed in small boxes in order to guarantee the perfect sanitary state of the berries avoiding pulp and juice leakage before pressing.
The soft pressing of the grapes takes place no later than two hours after harvesting the bunch. It is carried out at low pressures to avoid tearing the skin and stalk which could release negative substances, the result is a first-flower must of the highest quality.
A separate harvest is made of the older plants with which we produce our ORGANIC certified selections: BIO Extra Brut and BIO Extra Dry.
CEMENT: VINIFICATION AND AGING
Vinification process is carried out in TULIPE NicoVelo cement tanks, an Italian patent of the latest enological technology. Totally refrigerated and thermally isolated by 12 cm thick concrete, guarantee perfect temperature regulation throughout the whole mass of wine. Absence of Stainless Steel eliminates electrostatic fields which may cause partial side effects to the fermentation process.
Concave based and conical shaped walls induce stable fermentation inside the tank, creating natural swirls of fermenting wine. The wines will undergo a controlled aging in concrete tanks in contact with their noble yeasts for times ranging from 30 to 90 days, to guarantee greater complexity of structure.
The second fermentation is carried out in an autoclave, we choose to leave the wine on the lees for longer times, guaranteeing greater fineness and creaminess of the bubble.
The result is a boutique wine that faithfully represents the talent of our Cartizze vineyard and of every single vintage with as little external manipulation as possible.
“The art of making wine is not a simple cellar recipe, but places in the winemaker’s hands the task of enhancing the talent and uniqueness of his vineyard.”