Adventure

Wine making

We grow and cultivate our grapes in Ronco sopra Ascona. Every year we harvest about 100 kg “uva americana” which is very common in southern Switzerland (Ticino) and 100 kg white grapes called “viogner”.

Since 2018 we then process the grapes into 90 to 100 bottles of sparkling wine every year. Due to swiss law we cannot sell our wine, but if you happen to come visit us in Ronco you might be invited to share some with us. SANTE! (= cheers)

To create sparkling wine:

  1. Obtain grapes (when planting new little roots which you can find nowadays online, you will have to cure them for 3 years before you will have enough grapes to make some bottles… one plant usually can produce 10 kg or less per year… if all goes well!).
  2. Harvest the grapes and press the juice (depending which type of grape and which type of wine you want, you might have to leave the crushed grapes with or without their stems macerating for several days before pressing them). We usually separate the stems from the berries and press right away to obtain the nice rosé colour; otherwise we would obtain red sparkling wine!
  3. After fermentation with yeast addition the base wine will be ready by december.
  4. On a cold and dry december day we transfer the still (non sparkling) wine into the bottles which can stand 7-12 atm (103-176 PSI) pressure.
  5. Adding again yeast and sugar (22 g/l) we obtain the second fermentation with CO2 gas (the bubbles) entrapped. We leave the bottles untouched for at least 18 months and up to 3 years maturate on the lees.
  6. Once our sparkling treasure is ready we move the bottles so as to concentrate the deposit (the lees) in the crown and it’s bidulle. Freezing the extremitiy of the bottle we can now expulse the solid deposit from every single bottle (“disgorge”) and after adding the “liqueur d’expedition” we insert the definitive cork.
  7. Enjoy!

Destemming-separating-crushing

Rosé 2019

The press

Disgorge

More Adventure

humanitarian activities

As I have a broad surgical knowledge: vascular surgery, abdominal and general surgery besides traumathology and osteosynthesis techniques (plates, nails, screws, …), I can be a usefull member in many teams. I participated and I am engaged in several humanitarian activities. (CURRICULUM)

other passions

Cognitive Psycology / Fencing / sailing /photography / travel

I feel immense gratitude to have the opportunity to explore more aspects of life.