San Polo Montalcino - Diario della Vendemmia 2017

DIARIO DELLA VENDEMMIA 2017 HARVEST DIARY It’s a beautiful sunny day! We brought some brioche with us and within a few minutes we have all had breakfast together: it’s important to build team spirit , as it helps us to work in a relaxed and pleasant way and therefore to be better coordinated. We are in the part of the Montluc vineyard that is dedicated to the production of Brunello, Rosso di Montalcino and Rubio. This is an area of more than 11 hectares where we put into practice our conviction that the vine must be at the centre of all our agronomic practices. We focus our efforts on achieving vines in excellent health, stimulating the plant’s own self-defence rather than intervening in the vineyard with products that combat pathogens. The research we have carried out over the years, the application of the outcomes obtained, and the role of the altitude of San Polo’s vineyards – which guarantee perfect exposure and ventilation – have enabled us to adopt organic viticultural methods and completely eliminate the use of chemical products. But our attention to the environment also extends to the winery, which we like to call the ‘winery of aesthetes and environmentalists’. And it also includes the materials used and the good practices of natural resource management. We are very proud to have embarkedon this journeywhich has led us to being one of the companies in Montalcino with organic certification. Today Riccardo is dedicating himself to the organoleptic analysis of the must : the bright, vibrant colour is wonderful and very different from what the finished wine will look like, just as the evaluations to be made at this stage are different, while the fermenting mass produces carbon dioxide. Tasting the wine now means one must carefully monitor the process of fermentation, understand how long to macerate, whether to work in reduction or in oxygenation, and how many pumping-overs to carry out each day. Grape ripening is, however, essential to ensure good concentration and give the right texture to the finished wine, factors that can be evaluated from the future wine’s earliest days. Passeggiando nel vigneto per raggiungere il luogo di raccolta, Raffaello ci anticipa le lavo- razioni del terreno che dovranno essere svolte a San Polo a vendemmia ultimata. In primo luogo ci concentreremo sull’ arieggiamento del suolo , pratica estremamente importante, quanto gli interventi sulla pianta. Quest’anno, per esempio, abbiamo mantenuto i terreni ben lavorati in superficie, di modo che lo strato su- perficiale potesse essere pronto ad assorbire acqua in caso di pioggia. Infatti quando la su- perficie è irregolare, mossa e non compatta, l’acqua penetra in profondità, recando grande beneficio alla radice della pianta. Questo ha fatto sì che le precipitazioni di inizio settem- bre avessero, nonostante la siccità estiva, un effetto benefico sulle piante in primis e poi sulle uve stesse. While we are walking through the vineyard on our way to the harvesting area, Raffaello tells us about the work that will have to be carried out on the soil in San Polo at the end of the harvest. First, we will focus on aerating the soil , a practice that is as important as working on the vines themselves. This year, for example, we have kept the soil under the vine row well tilled-over so that the surface layer would be ready to absorb water in case of rain. In fact, when the surface is irregular, has been tilled and is not compact, water penetrates deeply, greatly benefitting the root of the vine. This means that the rain in early September had a beneficial effect firstly on the vines and then on the grapes, despite the summer drought. LAVORAZIONI DEL SUOLO WORKING THE SOIL 26 27