The weather pattern in Chianti for 2011 has been characterized by a very cold and rainy winter. Winter was followed by a wet April with many downpours and some hailstorms , especially in area of Castellina and Radda , but afterwards rain has been very rare especially in the area of Greve in Chianti. The vines for the first part of the season have not suffered too much this lack of water because of the reserves that were accumulated during the winter. The fruit set has been good and the plants have produced a good amount of grapes. The weather in June and July has stayed relatively cool and the vines continued developing rather steadily until mid August. After that Tuscany and most of Italy has been hit by a very strong heatwave that combined with the lack of water has started to take its toll on the vines . Areas like Montalcino, Maremma and Southern Chianti (Gaiole and Castelnuovo Berardenga) and soils with an high content of clay were the most affected by the strong heat and the hot Scirocco winds. Merlot as a grape was the one which created more problems due to its early ripening whilst with Sangiovese it really depended on the nature of the soil and of the position of the vineyard. Fortunately the night temperatures in September cooled down and the vines benefited from the strong thermical excursion between day and night. Merlot picking in my estate was the earliest I ever did (30th of August; in 2003 1st of September) and it implied losing a 30% of the crop due to dehydration. Sangiovese instead has resisted much better and although there were some younger vines that had to be picked a little earlier than usual all the selections were picked few days after the rain when they had reached full maturation. The musts in general are characterized by a strong sugar content due to the dehydration bur they maintain still high acidity due probably to the cold winter and the cool weather during spring and the early summer. How to find a balance between the hot elements like alcool and the fresh elements like acidity will be the winemaker’s main task in a year like this.