Petro Vaselo, young & organic
Petro Vaselo is a young but internationally awarded winery, founded in 2002, by the Italian family Dal Tio, who wanted to give an Italian interpretation to an antique, 2500-year-old, terroir, located in the village of Petrovaselo in Romania (DOC Recaș). Petrovaselo is an organic winery with a young, dynamic and determined team which focused on producing unique and recognizable quality wines.
The company owns a total area of 172 ha, most with a southern exposure, of which 42 ha are planted to vineyards. The hills are shaped in an amphitheatre, thus creating a micro-climate where the weather conditions favor the development of wine growing.
The soil is mainly clayey, with limestone veins in a few well delimited areas. The height varies between 170 and 22 meters above sea level.
The preparation of the soil on which the vineyards are planted lasts for about three years, during which the team aims to recreate suitable conditions for the proper development of young vines.
Soil management is based on harrowing and the use of manure; no herbicides are used in the vineyards.
The different herbaceous plants enrich the soil with organic matter and help to combat the weeds.
The land works performed are aimed at the structuring of the soils to create an environment as favorable as possible for the grape vines.
The Pedro Vaselo team pays great attention to the in-depth works in the vineyards to ensure the proper development of the roots.
No machine can equal the quality of work, the care and skills of the well-trained hands. That is why, the management of the vines is performed by hand. It is laborious, but it absolutely worth it. The treatments used for the prevention of the diseases are reduced to a minimum and products suited for ecological viticulture are especially used. The prevention of vine diseases is made especially through a particular attention during the phases of trimming and maintenance. Grape cluster thinning is also performed to optimize the quality of the harvest.
Completely underground, our winery was projected to continue the winemaking process with the same approach as the vineyards.
The grapes reach the cellar by gravity and once there, they undergo two manual selections to further remove any bunches deemed unfit.
The mechanical work is minimized and, as in the vineyard, the dexterity of the operators plays a fundamental role in the evolution of fermentation and refining.
Throughout the production process the must and then the wine are handled in the absence of any contact with oxygen; this allows the completion of fermentation without adding any kind of antioxidants, such as sulphur, and their minimum use during aging and bottling
The winemaking can take place in steel containers or French oak barrels, all of them small, in order to gather small quantities of grapes, normally all coming from the same plot of land with a certain type of soil. This way, the wines become the pure expression of the terroir.
After fermentation, all our wines undergo a period of refining, which lasts, depending on the type of the product, from a few months to over one year
Maturation on yeasts increases the wine’s longevity. The solid sediments produced through the fermenting of yeasts give structure to the wine, as well as enrich its bouquet and taste profile.
The ageing is handled both in small containers (225-liter barrels) and in larger, wooden vats (up to 7500 liters). The ageing time varies depending on the grape variety, the age of the vineyards and according to the climatic conditions of the year.
To the Petro Vaselo team, it is important to presenve the bouquet and taste of the wine, which explains why they don’t use philtering..
That is why, the Petro Vaselo labels are marked “unfiltered,” which contributes to the complexity and genuineness of the products.