Producer
The name ‘Isole e Olena’ came about in the 1950s when two adjoining estates, ‘Isole’ and ‘Olena’, were purchased by the De Marchi family and combined to form one. The history of both estates dates back many hundreds of years, and the earliest documentation of the village of Olena goes as far back as the 12th century. During the 1950s, the De Marchi family planted specialised vineyards and expanded the cellars. Today, the estate is run by Paolo De Marchi and his wife Marta. Paolo comes from a family with three generations of winemaking experience in the northern part of Piemonte and his older son, Luca, now runs the family estate there, Proprietà Sperino.
Vineyards
The grapes are grown on the Isole e Olena estate which covers 49 hectares, five of which are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards are approximately 400m above sea level and face south and south-west. The oldest vines on the estate were planted in 1958 and the youngest in 2007.
Vinification
After crushing, the must macerated on the skins for four weeks. During this time, delestage and pumping over took place twice a day. Delestage is a method of extraction during fermentation which gives wines of good colour and soft tannins. The maceration tank is emptied of the fermenting must, the cap allowed to dry out for two to three hours and then the must is poured back over the cap. De Marchi first experimented with this method in 1996 and subsequently began using it for all red wines from the 1997 vintage. Fermentation took place at temperatures over 30ºC. After the malolactic fermentation was complete, the wine was racked into barrel. The Cabernet is 100% barrel aged of which half is new oak (80% French and 20% American) for 24 months. The wine was aged a further two years in bottle before release.