Antique gold.

Intriguing scent of chestnut honey and amaretto, butter, coffee and quince jelly, sea sensors and glazed notes.

Articulate, moderately sweet and fresh, almost a liqueur. It ends with a lingering bitter almond note.

It is the year that marked the last vinification by the Silvio Carta company in the historic headquarters located in Via Dante at Baratili San Pietro. But also the year of the last harvest carried out in three phases.

The first harvest was dedicated to the most mature and healthy grapes. Ten to 15 days after the first harvest, the second one was reserved to the most sugary clusters, reinvigorated by a lightened – and therefore, naturally more generous – vine. Finally, the third and final harvest was for the production of San Martino wine, the lightest and ready-to-drink wine.

This was the tradition for the harvest of Vernaccia grapes, until then. It was 1968.

In 1968, I was only 17. I was enrolled at the Scuola Enologica di Conegliano, forged by spending my life away from home, spurred on by those who have always been an example and a strength to me: Silvio and Anna Maria. With their sacrifices, my father and my mother allowed me to study and open up to the world, while never neglecting the value of work and the value of the land. This Vernaccia is dedicated to them.

And it is in memory of that time, of that particular year – that not only marked our company but the whole world – that I wanted to bottle what I consider the ultimate, unique and unrepeatable Vernaccia, dressing it with a label that graphically led to that year of 1968.

50 years have passed by and still today, Vernaccia is a family matter. My family.

Elio Carta