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2008
April - (28th) I was giving a tour of our vineyard to some visitors who came to buy some wine today when and lo and behold we have grapes! Well in fact we have the start of grapes, with the first flowering heads appearing, they are quite literally the baby grapes in the making. Since my last entry any concerns we had about another year of drought conditions have entirely gone away. We have had a sustained period of rain through much of April and the ground is now "fully charged" so if we did not get another drop of rain we would make it to harvest time with no problem - this is a good place to be.
Yesterday (27th) we had to undertake our first spray of the season. The temperatures are now up around the 20's but yesterday saw heavy colud and thus high humidity that was not burned off by sunshine. The younger vines are particularly suceptable to early stage rot so the two younger vineyards (3 year old and 4 year old Barbera d'Asti) each were sprayed with organic copper sulphate.
A few weeks ago we also managed to use the airiating plough on the moscato and barbera vineyards which was perfect timing as the predicted heavy rain then set in, so the opened up clay absorbed a lot more water than otherwise would have been the case. Of course the downside is that the weeds have also shot up with a veangance and literally everything has turned green again, oh and the insect poluation has also woken up!
Cingallo. and trauncher at work in the barbera d'Asti vineyard
April - after what was the driest March on record our stress levels have been rather high worrying about the 400 baby vines we planted over the past weeks. Well the good news is that at last some rain has arrived (9 April) and several more wet days forecast. Although this prevents us from working in the vineyards - we are very relieved - and can spend a little time updating our website!
March - Spring is in full swing now (31st March) and buds are starting to appear on many of the vines. Interesting to see that bud break occurs earlier on the higher slopes. We have been busy planting replacement vines in the established vineyards. We spent a lot of time over the autumn and winter preparing to replace vines that had reached the end of their life or suffered from a mishap of one kind or another. In the established Barber d'Asti vineyard this involved using a mini-excavator to turn the soil to the required 1.4 metres without disturbing the other vines. After some surface preparation and weeding last week we planted 250 baby vines over the past weekend.
Once again we find ourselves in drought conditions with no rain since early March and very little even then. So yesterday I filled the water bowser used for our seasonal spray of the foliage and used it to water in the newly planted baby vines (barbatelli). This is the first time in four years of planting barbatelli that I have done this and I hope it will be sufficient to give these vines a good start.
Also during the week our ageing tractor (cingallo.) decided to casus us a few problems. Given that it is over 20 years old one cannot complain too much as it gives pretty faithful service. Basically two of the three studs holding the exhaust silencer (muffler) to the manifold had disintegrated or dropped off over time, so when the exhaust dropped off I thought I should do something about it. One thing about being a small winery is that you have to be a "jack of all trades" - we don't have the luxury of staff or machine shop and paying a dealer to do anything is the absolute last resort! So a little bit of on the job learning and some handy re-use of parts long ago hoarded in my garage and everything is as good as new. If only every vehicle was as easy to repair....
running repairs to the cingallo.
First weekend of March temperatures were 22 degrees C - almost unheard of and although the temperature is half that now the mild weather may well encourage an early spring. This is a concern for us as a late frost could then cause problems for budding vines.
We are almost finished with the tying down of vines, about half of the Barber d'Asti vineyard below the pool (the 2004 planted vineyard) remains to be completed. Rain arrived yesterday (Saturday 8 March) and so we are taking an enforced break (time to update the diary). Hopefully 1 more day will complete this phase, as we must get the canes finished before the vine comes back to full life and bud break. The mild weather may bring this on sooner than we would like.
We have also been busy clearing some of the scrub woods around the vineyards. The vineyard below the pool is now established (we took our first Barbera d'Asti grape harvest from this vineyard last year) and so we need to ensure light and air can reach all parts. In the area nearest the farmhouse the vines were surrounded on two sides by woods, so we have been clearing these away. As you will see from the photo this is a substantive amount. Aside from allowing more light we really should have at lease 20 feet from last vine to any other growth, this provides separation from insects and possible viral contagion.
Photo's - Clearing woods at the edge of the vineyards
February - Most days start cold (heavy frosts), but the clear skies mean bright sunshine and so we can happily work in the vineyards from about 10 in the morning. Progress has been good and all the vines, new and old are pruned. Most of the stripping off (last years vine growth/canopy) is finished and we have started with the tying down.
Photo - This years growth canes tied down in the Moscato d'Asti vineyard
Tying down involves taking the single long cane we have left on each vine as part of the annual pruning and bending it into a bow like shape down onto the lower wire of the trellis. We then tie the bow in place using a length of sapling cut from our willow trees. This process is part of the guyer training method and the use of natural willow as a tie one of the most traditional wine training techniques. Benefits include an entirely natural and sustainable source which biodegrade and the fact that the soft willow does not cut into the cane of the vine now tied under tension.
photo - cutting willow saplings for use in the vineyard
At the beginning of Feb. we had a little more snow, this is really good for the vineyards as the snow sits and provides a frozen layer which cuts down some of the overwintering weeks as the lose light and air, it also reduces the insect population. The main advantage though is in the slow release of water into the ground as it thaws. Often when we get rain a lot of the "benefit" runs off rather than soaking in, the gradual thaw is a better irrigation.
January - As the pruning in each vineyard is completed I make a concerted effort to strip off the old canopy as soon as possible, this means I can then start with the trellis wires. Each trellis wire has to be re-tensioned, all done by hand and involves unwinding each wine from its end post and pulling as tight as possible before re-binding to the post. As with all jobs in the vineyard this is a repetitive process where practice soon makes one more agile but nonetheless this is a long job which will go on till early March. Its not full time, but I will do each vineyard after pruning and stripping off and before tie down. In the Moscato d'Asti vineyard the trellis is a little different to the Barbera d'Asti - there are 6 trellis wires rather than 4, each has to be untied and tensioned and I repeat this at both end of the row. In the case of the longer rows this is actually four end posts as we have a break in the centre if each row. For those who like statistics this is something in the region of 75 rows in the Moscato d'Asti making it 150 end posts and some 900 individual galvanised wires to unfasten, pull on and rebind. Of course this helps reduce the extra pounds on may have put on at Christmas.
photo - Ingrid strips off last years growth in the Barber d'Asti,
can you spot Edilio behind her cutting new growth willow for the tying down of this years canes.
Early January brings a lot of snow, it takes us about 3 days to dig ourselves out, fortunately we are used to being snowed in so being cut off from the outside world is not a great hardship. Once it has actually stopped snowing we can work in the snow which brightens the landscape to stunning levels.
A winter scene - our Barbera d'Asti vineyard in January
2007
December - Well it's not even Christmas yet and the vast majority of our vines are pruned (all of the moscato and a bit more than half of the barbera). The early start was made possible as the vines hibernated early this year (due the the early harvest).
We have also been busy with housekeeping tasks, so the vines that have died for one reason or another have been pulled out (physically, using tractor and chain) and the soil in that location has been turned/loosened to a depth of 1.4 metres. We will plant replacement baby vines in March in these prepared spots.
This will be the first year we have done replacements in the established vineyards so there is more work than would be usual if we adopt an annual replacement regime in the future. (We wanted to do this last year, but time and resources ran out).
Meanwhile a number of trees have been removed around the border of the newer vineyards. Vineyards need as much light as possible and tree roots compete with vines for the moisture in the soil. We can see a great example of this at the most southerly point in our barbera vineyard where a grand old oak dominates the hill and you can see a visible circle of much weaker and poorer vines for about 30m around it. Of course the Oak stays! (I suspect many Piedmont vineyard owners would have the tree down).
November - Leaving Piedmont behind, we spend November in the UK promoting our wines (which are really rather good actually).
October - Usually a month for harvesting and winemaking. this year it is a much less frenetic month and we have started our vineyard maintenance early. We have ploughed those areas in the vineyard that are still under attack from graminia (couch grass) and have prepared our trenches and run offs for winter weather - it seems strange to be this organised.
September - Again ahead of schedule we find ourselves harvesting the barbera d'Asti grapes. This year for the first time our barbera harvest will exceed our moscato harvest, so we have no real idea how long it will take to pick. We start with the new vineyard below the pool (it is now three years old and is producing for the first time). The grapes here are magnificent! Full bunches of plump ripe grapes that taste quite delectus (usually barbera grapes are a little sour to eat, they are after all intended to make wine). They are also more mature than the older vineyards so we start here. Again I would like to thank all the volunteers for their help with this years harvest - including some very kind guests staying in our B&B and apartments.
We also decide to use a technique, new to us, where we collect the bunches into stackable plastic cassettes rather than the brentoni (hydraulic skip) on the back of the cingallo. Using this technique the bunches are not squashed or bruised and arrive in the cantina intact. Thus we drive up the quality of the source for our wine. We are also lucky enough to be able to borrow a friends truck (our friend and builder - Adriano) capable of transporting these containers to our cantina - believe me there are a lot of containers. In fact we have borrowed the containers as well (from our good friend and winemaking. teacher - Roberto Urscheler) , we have 60 containers, the truck can carry a maximum of 50 and we will fill more than 200 in this vineyard alone, so there is a lot of ferrying, weighting, emptying and then rushing back with the empties. You can see some picture of the barbera d'Asti harvest here.
As this is the first week in September it is still very hot so we limit harvesting to the mornings (not for the benefit of the volunteers - but to avoid grapes becoming too warm after picking and before arrival in the vat.
It takes us three and a half days to complete the harvest, on the last day Ingrid and I find ourselves picking alone in the oldest of our vineyards. These is very little left to pick so the two of us start very early and after about 4 hours the harvest of 2007 is complete - there is something very special about working alone in our own vineyards, the early morning sun, birds singing and the knowledge that your grapes are safely harvested and the winemaking. can begin.
August - exceptional year that this is, instead of taking it easy over the month of August we find ourselves in full swing harvesting the Moscato. It takes us two attempts. The forecast for heavy rain is a day away so we decide to try and get all the moscato d'Asti in on one day (throwing a large number of friends and workers at the vineyard) - unfortunately the rain arrives early so by midday we are rained off by the most torrential of downpours (I can't even get the tractor up the hill due to the quagmire of mud - and resort to parking it in the rear courtyard of the farm). We have to wait a week for the ground to dry sufficiently for it to be safe to use the tractor again.
The second August harvest is quick and efficient again aided by family and friends (thank you all) and our belief that this is a great harvest is confirmed by testing as we process the grapes into the holding vats in the cantina. These are the highest sugar levels we have ever achieved and the quality of the bunches is excellent. You can see some pictures of the Moscato d'Asti harvest here.
July
June - Plenty of rain in the last part of May and early June, so our fears about the draught have receded somewhat. The combination of sun, rain and heat (it reached 25 degrees on the 24th May) have pushed the vines to a lot of foliage growth. In the moscato vineyard we are now working to train the height back down onto the top wire of the trellis (see photo's) at the same time we must strip away some of the leaves to allow light to get to the developing grapes and ensure air circulation.
May - 19 May. Today we had to apply a special treatment to the vines as there was a developing threat of a fungal leaf attack. In fact all our neighbours are treating for the same thing - every year we face some kind of "threat" to our vines.
All the vines are trained onto the trellis - in fact we had to do this exercise twice in the 3 year old barbera vineyard as high winds effectively undid all our work (sob).
6 May -We had some great rain last week and fortunately not too much damage to the young shoots that had not yet been supported or tied up.
We are now working full pelt to clean the excess growth off each vine (see illustration). All shoots that are not on the tied down "cane" or the much shorter "renewal spur" must be stripped off entirely. This is done by hand and each shoot is nipped off with thumb and forefinger. The illustration shows a moscato vine.
Here is the best value tool I have bought so far. It is a specialist staple gun that has a biodegradable tape spool in the handle, the action allows one handed attaching of vines (and anything else you want to train up trellis or canes) and has increased the speed of operations about six fold. Price circa 35 Euro.
(1 May) - At long last some rain. Of course now the fear is that the rainstorms tomorrow will be violent and damage the delicate new growth on the vines. The couple of hours of rain we had last night just disappeared (the ground was bone dry at lunch time). Looks like there may be over an inch of rain tomorrow though.
Strapping up the three year old vines (which have now reached the top wire of the trellis!) is done and we are on the ground again - thinning out and strapping up the two year olds. Ohh my back...
April - (25 April) - Things are very busy in the vineyards now! Consistent sun and temperatures in the late 20's has really brought the vines on (still a good 20 days earlier than previous years).
We now have little baby grapes on all the vines and we are working hard on stripping off surplus growth and tying the fine shoots to the trellis. Meantime the youngest vineyard is being weeded (all by hand with a hoe).
In the moscato vineyard I took advantage of a friends visit to enlist some hard labour to trip off a lot of nut tree canopy, we have about 6 mature nut trees scattered in the vines, which causes the shaded vines to perform quite badly.
Today we have undertaken our first verderame, spraying the vines with copper sulphate (to prevent mould and rot type issues), so that means the working season has begun in earnest - next rest after the harvest!
(16 April) The spring has kept us busy in the vineyards and the vines are shooting strongly. I would say we are about 20 days ahead of the same time last year in terns of growth etc. There have been three good series of rain over the past month and that has somewhat relieved our fears after the drought like conditions of last winter.
Currently working on the three year old and two year old vineyards - in both cases putting bracing posts (concrete) at a 45 degree angle to the end post on each line of vines. This helps prevent post movement and sagging of the trellis. In the two year old vineyard we are wiring the trellis for the first time. Once fixed the wires remain permanently in place.
March - Here are a couple of before and after pics of post replacement in the vineyard. In this case it is an end of line (filare) post, these are much bigger (and heavier) than the other posts in the line. (Picture 1 - broken post removed & hole dug by hand - Picture 2 - new post in place and wires re-tightened)
Inevitably some vines will not survive - especially true of the first year or two after planting. So each year at this time we must prepare the ground and replace the dead ones.
Currently we are replacing stock that was planted last year. Actually not a bad attrition this season - I have replaced about 30 (1%) of last years new vineyard. This compared to 350 (10%) for the vineyard we planted in 2005 - so I guess we are learning.
Picture 1 - shows the "barbatelli" nursery reared Barbera vine ready for planting out. With roots on (right basket) and roots trimmed off for planting with the T-bar fork (left basket).
Picture 2 - Freshly planted barbatelli - only a few centimetres showing above the soil.
The remarkable weather continues with bright sunshine and temperature between 15 and 20 degrees. This means that the early spring is well established now with fruit trees that are blossoming and buds blooming all colouring the landscape once more.
We are still "legare" - tying down the pruned vines, which involves gripping and bending the single long spur and forcing it in a bow like shape and connecting it to the lowest wire of the trellis. In the best local tradition we use fresh growth from our numerous willow trees as the "lashing" for the tie down. This is both cheap and environmentally friendly and avoids any damage that can be caused by wire ties cutting through the vine wood.
Complimentary to this is the ongoing task of post replacement and repair. There are a lot of posts (some wood, mainly concrete) and they can be broken by the tractor or other wear and tear... so taking out broken ones and then digging a (substantial) hole by hand is hard but necessary work. I guess I am becoming quite good at it but still lust after hole making tools that can attach to our tractor.
February - Still no sign of rain in the Piedmont, so yesterday we rolled out the cingallo. (it is a small tracked tractor) and attached the trauncher (grass and brush cutting device). Then we drive the combination along each row of vines to cut and mulch all the removed dead canes stripped off the trellis during pruning.
Our machinery is quite old so we are nursing it through each season hoping that nothing major goes wrong as major repairs or new purchases would be a real problem. Yesterday a retaining pin jumped out of the arm attaching trauncher to cingallo., causing us a 30 minute struggle with large wood levers and brute force to remount the bits. In this game you quickly learn field repairs and new skills.
Despite a forecast for rain this week here in Piedmont none has arrived, so we are continuing to prune. The established vineyards were finished last month so we are now focusing on the newer vines.
The barbera vineyard we planted in 2005 will fruit for the first time this year (we had some grapes last year, but did not harvest them). The pruning for the first few years is very different to established vines - so at the moment it's all new to me. We are pruning for height this year - selecting the most upright (straight) cane from last years growth and cutting it at the level of the first trellis wire (2 feet perhaps). On this single upright we are stripping off any buds with the exception of 3 or four, which will form the basis of 3 or 4 fruiting stems. Next year (I think) we will leave almost all of this years cane to continue to grow into the main trunk of the vine.
One good thing about this is that it means less tying down (more on this another time) - where we lash the 2 year old cane to the trellis in a bow like curve - risking eyes and possible whip injuries to the face!
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vines before pruning showing last years growth
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vines after pruning and stripping off last years growth
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vines "tied down"
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January - There are several ways to prune and train vines. As we are governed by DOC & DOCG rules our zone is obliged to use recognised local methods only - in our case this is the well know Guyot pruning system. Grapes only fruit from 2nd year growth and each year we prune away all growth except for one (currently one year old) "cane" and a smaller "spur" that will ultimately become the following years cane. Having read as much as I could about pruning before we started none of this ever made much sense when just sitting and reading.
This is our 3rd winter of pruning our vines, and is probably the first where I am getting the "eye" for how to prune each vine, I am still very slow compared to Edilio, who can prune about 5 vines to my one. On average maybe 2 minutes per vine (we strip off all the old growth later). So multiply this by our circa 12,000 vines.
When pruning one takes into account the past performance of this vine (yes I know - can you remember 12,000 variables) and other factors to decide how many buds will stay on each cane (a bud will become a fruiting cane during the course of the year) - in most cases we currently aim for 6 or 8 ochi. So 6 to 8 grape bunches per vine.
2006
Almost two years have passed since we first arrived here at Vecchio Podere Sana Cristiana. On one hand we hardly seem to ha ve been here for more than a few months, on the other we feel like seasoned veterans. The truth is somewhere inbetween of course. The challenges of year one were great, an uphill learning curve that at times seemed more like scaling an impossible mountain! Our limited Italian language skills, lack of experience working in vineyards and cantina all compounded together to mean we were always reactive rather than pro-active, and trailing behind the established natural "schedule" for working the land.
2006 brought less surprises - we knew what to expect and were prepared for it. Challenges this year have been more related to scale and hard physical labour. Our expanding footprint of vineyards has created more work and ultimately more grapes to crop and make into wine. It has also kept us very busy and at times totally exhausted, consequently the 2006 diary has been neglected. Our first year diary can be found further down the page but here is a summary of the highlights of this year:
January - Pruning starts in late January. This year I am allowed to prune the "live" vines, strictly under the supervision of Edilio of course. I make some mistakes but after working on over 5,000 well established vines I feel that I have at least an idea of what to look for when pruning a vine for the coming two year cycle. I also realise that it will take many years before I will have the "eye" for getting this artform totally correct.
February - Pruning continues when weather lows. We are distracted this month as it is the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino and the surrounding mountains and we have many guests using us as a base to experience this unique event. The new vineyard planted last year also has to be pruned. This is a simpler job, taking off all but two of the strongest looking spurs from the still small plant at almost ground level. Scale is the issue, with more than 3,500 plants to prune and ground level means a lot of bending!
March - Spring is in the air and we are busy tying down the cane we have left on each vine, this is the guyer pruning method common thought much of Piemonte. Getting the rigid cane to bend as far as the lowest wire on the trellis work is a challenge, spring loaded they can take an eye out if they fly back or (perhaps worse) snap - losing the years crop for that vine. At the edge of our vineyard (and all others in this region) there are willow tree's, these are an invaluable resource which we crop new growth each year - this is a pliable pencil thin branch or tendril that we use like a "tie wrap" to secure the bent cane to the wire trellis.
We take an inventory of the new vineyard, about 10% of the "barbatelli" planted last April have not survived the first year. There can be a number of reasons for this, disease and animal activity (including our dogs sitting on the baby vines whilst we were weeding last year), but also possibly air pockets near the root ball when we first planted stopping the vine from becoming established. A number have also quite clearly lost the battle with weeds and been choked to death. For the next few weeks we will be taking out and replacing these lost vines with new barbatelli. We discover that thrusting a barbatelli into the much firmer ground than a freshly turned new vineyard is very hard indeed.
Now is also the time to plant our second new vineyard. The old vineyard above the house that we spent so much time removing in 2005 is now prepared for planting. This year we rent a very large excavator to turn over the soil by the mandatory 1.4 metres (5 feet). This is a much more satisfactory solution than the giant plough and tractor as all trace of surface weeds are turned over and totally buried - hopefully meaning we will not have the same weed disaster as last year. Unfortunately the solid turning also brings old tree roots to the surface and I spend many long hours wrestling these out of the ground and disposing of them.
Planting the new barbatelli is a pleasure in this freshly prepared ground, most slip in easily and the blister count on our hands is lower than last year (or perhaps hands are becoming more used to hard labour). Some 3,000 vines are hand planted in the old vineyard and above our existing Barbera vineyard in the land that was the old orchard.
April - Both new vineyards (2005 & 2006) are prepared to receive their posts and wire trellis work that they will spend their lives being grown and trained over. For the 2005 vineyard this is essential as this year they will grow substantially and need support, for the new vineyard it not yet necessary but is best to do at the same time for economy of scale reasons. I find this is the best way to increase upper body strength ever known - 1,500 2 metre long concrete posts must be picked up loaded onto cingallo. trailer and then unloaded evenly throughout the vineyards with 5 vines between each post. For the moment we lay each post on the ground parallel to the vines.
May - The vines are all in full growth mode, shoots everywhere, mainly where they shouldn't be all have to be stripped off. Shoots that should be there all have to be trained through the trellis work. A new friend - Pietro arrives with his much larger cingallo. equipped with a special hydraulic ram designed to thrust the concrete posts deep in to the vineyard clay. The process is simple Pietro gets to sit comfortable in the cingallo. whilst Edilio and I lift each post and hold them in place whilst the hydraulics are lined up and thrust the posts downwards. It is rewarding to see the vineyard taking shape and structure but each evening is a revelation of aching muscle groups. We also take the opportunity of Pietro's magnificent machine being here to push down many of the old posts in the established barbera vineyard. Posts all finished we turn our attention to the wire work. Each line of vines and post requires 5 wires stretched along then and secured to each post with a deftly twisted piece of the same gauge wire. It is possible to string the wire directly through holes in the concrete posts and this appears easier to me but Edilio explains that would be fine until the first post is broken (by cingallo. or other passing machinery) when post replacement would be impossible without cutting all 5 wires.
June - New helper Raphael shows his youth, strength and determination by zapping just about all of our new growth vineyards single-handed (Edilio, Ingrid and I help out, but only when we have too). This is a big relief to us as this time last year we were fighting with the weeds single handed (and losing). The new barbera vineyard planted last spring has shot up and is less threatened by the ground weeds. On the upper slope the new vineyard planted this spring is less problematical as the ground contains a lot less weed to start.
July - It is very hot throughout July and we are wondering how we ever survived before we constructed the new swimming pool. After a hard morning working in the vineyard keeping the vines' growth on the trellis rather than over the rows it is great to jump into the pool and cool off! It is also the blast place to float and contemplate the vineyards as it has a great position overlooking them.
August -
September - Later thank last year we start the Moscato harvest. 14 September and for 2 days. We have much more fruit that our first year's harvest. This is a combination of great growing conditions and improved management of the vines during growth (unlike the first year, we knew what to expect and when, and kept on top of all the vineyard tasks better). In fact we have so much fruit that at the end of day two we decide to stop before we have picked all the bunches. This is a complicated issue, but relates to the maximum yield allowed by DOCG laws, after which point the value of picked grapes drops below the cost of picking them. Nonetheless we have had a fantastic harvest and quality and sugar levels are excellent.
October - We start harvesting the Barbera on the 4th. Unfortunately Edilio is ill, so it falls to me to drive the cingallo. with the attached "brentoni", to collect the grapes from the pickers and charge to the waiting trailer and back. The ground is quite soft and muddy and with a full load is it a challenge to control the tractor on some of the steeper rows - and I often find myself sliding sideways.
Due to our expanding footprint of red vines it takes us two days for this harvest. Next year will be much bigger too so there is a lot of logistics we have to plan for over the coming winter. The barbera is safely transported to our cantina in nearby Bazzana, and after some patient queuing to unload the bunches we transfer our precious crop into tanks for the transition into Wine - our second vintage of "Piano Piano".
November - The one time in the year where one does not have to be in the vineyards, but of course there are many maintenance tasks to undertake - hard driven machinery has to be cleaned, maintained and mover into winter storage. Trees and undergrowth around the vineyards can once again be cut back and thinned out. With our ever expanding footprint of land we are now planning some serious ground works to prepare for more vineyards in the future.
December - Monday 4th,with the advent of the full moon we start pruning today. Moon cycles are very much a part of the farming life here as I am learning. It is unseasonably mild and is very pleasant to be working outside again, although the gap between stopping work in the vineyard and starting again seems to have been very short this year! Although I am now capable of pruning my vines, I am still much slower than Edilio. so I work at striping off the old growth after Edilio as made the two crucial cuts.
see more pictures of Our vineyards
2005 (Our first year)
Below is our first year diary where we are slowly learning how to work and tend our vines and terrain. We though we would share our experiences with you, so this page provides a sort of diary of what we are doing on a monthly to daily basis (time and event driven). Picture links will appear over time to allow anyone interested to see exactly what we are referring to. We hope our experiences may help readers who are thinking of buying a vineyard in Italy.....
The diary reads in reverse (latest entry at the top of the page; if you want to start at the beginning of the year click on the month link below.
Welcome to our vineyards. Of our 4 hectares of land we currently have approximately 3 hectares under vine; just under 2 with mature Barbera and Moscato vines; and one with newly planted baby Barbera vines. The terrain varies from steep to mildly sloping, and is surrounded by orchards, nut trees and other vineyards.
October
As we rocket towards our first full year here at Vecchio Podere Santa Cristiana, I can't believe how fast it has gone by. Clearly we have learned and achieved much, and we are very proud of the completion of our first harvest. What is harder to believe is that we are also winemakers! We had thought we would not get to the point where we would be able to make wine until much later. Of course making wine is at least as challenging as growing grapes, and is equally at the mercy of nature to determine the quality of the grape that goes to make the wine. We are pleased to say that after some stressful days (is the acidity too high; is the pH balance correct; surely the sugar content is higher than that....) our grape must has made the transition to a very promising young Barbera di Asti DOC. The challenging growing conditions of 2005 have produced for us a Barbera of great complexity and structure, and we must now watch and wait as it sits quietly during its development period before bottling next year. Our first harvest, our first vintage and in due course, our first bottling—yes, we are very proud!
You will be able to taste our wine from May 2006 when visiting our luxury B&B and apartments.
September
You can see the pictures from the Barbera harvest here.
(30 September) – Early morning fog makes for a cool morning as we start the harvesting of our Barbera grapes. This year, we only have a small crop to harvest as we have taken out the older vines and the new planting are two years away from their first harvest. Only 5 of us for this harvest; it takes us a little more than half a day. Once the early morning mist has risen above us and the sun has broken through, it is a very pleasant temperature to work in, and we do not feel too pressured by other peoples' logistics, as we are going to make our own wine with these grapes, so do not have to rush to someone else's deadlines. We are one of the last in this area to pick our red grapes and Edilio has been pushing me for two weeks to get on with the harvest. On the other hand, my winemaking. mentor and teacher, Roberto Urscheler, has been advising that we leave the harvest as long as possible to maximise the late September sunshine, for higher sugar content and lower acidity. This year has been a difficult growing season as we have had unusually cool weather in August and quite a lot of rain, so every additional day of sun is a plus. Of course if it rains then we will have lost any advantage as the grapes then become diluted by water! Most of our neighbours have erred on the side of caution and harvested before the upcoming threat of rain, and in line with the schedules of which-ever cantina they are selling their grapes to.
We are delighted to find that the bunches are in excellent condition, with very little having to be discarded as we work our way through the rows (when we harvest the Moscato we actually discarded in excess of 20% of the bunches). Picking is a messy business; the grape juice is sweet and sticky, and most of us wear plastic gloves to avoid skin irritation caused by prolonged exposure. It does make us look a little strange, as most of the gloves are press-ganged from the kitchen and are yellow!
All grapes harvested, we then transport them to my good friend and neighbour Roberto, where we will be making our wine this year. Roberto has all the specialised equipment and expertise to use it, and he is teaching us the complex skills of winemaking. Later we will transport the finished product to our own cantina here at Vecchio Podere Santa Cristiana where it will sit quietly whilst it matures prior to commercial release.
Within 24 hours of finishing the harvest, the heavens open and we have almost non-stop rain for a week. Anyone who did not finish harvest before the rain will not fair well: diluted grapes and a vineyard awash with mud. We are very happy to have finished just in time.
You can see pictures of our Moscato harvest here here.
We have finished our first harvest. Two days and seven people, lots of sore backs and other aches and pains but a great experience. From our .9 hectare of Moscato we yielded 7,500 kilos of grapes. As far as I can tell that is a very good yield (although the DOC regulations allow a maximum yield of 9,100 kilos). Complex rules mean that only 70% of the maximum is classed as DOGC. After that, it has to be classed as table wine, with a massive drop in the price we can earn per mirriogramme (10 kilos).
We were very pleased to find our measured sugar content (in liquid) to be 24 degrees and 20 degrees respectively for the two trailer loads of grapes we delivered to the winery. The tractor and trailer (camion) we rented to transport the grapes was excellent, but I did manage to lead the driver to the winery without first stopping at the weight bridge in the village. This resulted in Edilio chasing me in his car sounding the horn and flashing his lights – so once again everyone in the village knew we were there! The tractor and trailer are weighed both before and after dropping off the grapes; this then gives us the weight of grapes for future payment. The token-operated weight bridge (another tale finding where to get the tokens) prints out two duplicate reports, one for the winery agent and one for me, to ensure no one makes any mistakes.
The trailer then deposits our cargo of grapes into a receiving funnel that has an Archimedes screw/pump, in turn attached to the grape press by a massive tube that pumps juice, grapes and all for an immediate pressing. After the pressing the vine stalks and grape skins are pitch forked into a container for other uses – and they look like they have been freeze-dried – not an ounce of liquid remains. More about our Moscato wine making at another stage.
We have been extremely busy once again; the weeding in the new vineyard is now a constant – a little like the painting of the Forth Road Bridge – when we finish one pass it's time to start another! I have bought a new machine to help with the "zapping" – a rotovator of sorts, that fits on the end of a petrol-engined brush cutter – the blades point down (rather than at an angle to the soil) so one can get the rotating blades close to the baby vines without (to much) danger of destroying vine with the weeds. The machine is quite heavy, but even so it is quicker than manual zapping and not quite so sapping of body strength, so more can be done in one session.
At month-end we had a major problem in the Moscato vineyard with signs of a malady on the grapes. For three days we had to strip excess leaves from around the grapes in order to get an appropriate treatment spray onto the grapes before the problem became a disaster. This is just one example of how our lives are now driven by the needs of our land. As this is our first year we cannot predict what is required – and rely upon Edilio to detect such problems first. The three days was an intensive and uncomfortable time – we didn't know how bad the problem was (still can't communicate well with Edilio!) – and the high temperature and blistering sun had to be ignored as we worked from 6 in the morning to 8 in the evening with only a few small breaks in between. Very stressful!
(20th August) – The two areas that are destined for new vines (barbatelli) in the Spring (Prima Vera) have been getting some intensive treatment this week. I have written much about stripping out the old Barbera vineyard and also the old orchard just above it. These areas have now had a major terraforming exercise! A giant (what to call it?) digger (see picture) has spent the week turning the soil to a depth of 1 metre, removing unwanted items (tree roots, broken off concrete post footings and a fine collection of other detritus) and levelling some of the worst sloped areas. This is another of those very expensive operations that we hadn't budgeted for but had to be done. I am assured that the work we are doing now prior to planting in the Spring will help to reduce the weed population between the rows of the new vines. This sounds good to someone whose whole life revolves around weeding a hectare of vines planted this year. Apparently the deep plough we did last November (the month we completed the purchase and moved in) was too late in the year and is a major reason for our weeding problems now!
In the mature vines we have completed our last cutting of grass and rotavating of the aisles prior to harvesting. Of course I have heard this "last time" thing before, so we will see if we make it to harvest without more work in this regard.
August has so far been less than the desert conditions we were expecting. As I type, it is raining heavily and there is a distinctly cool breeze (which is very nice, thank you!). Average temperature is somewhere in the mid to high 20s (degrees centigrade) whereas it could/should be mid to high 30s. We would prefer less rain now as the grapes have to produce sugar - not bloat and dilute themselves on water.
As we arrive in July, temperatures are still in the mid to high 30s (degrees centigrade), with very high humidity. I am told that this is higher than seasonal norms. We are now contemplating watering the baby vines, as they are the most susceptible to the current heat and draught conditions. The established vines have no particular problem coping without rain, they have 1 metre plus root systems that reach deep into the clay where moisture is retained.
We finish trimming the Moscato early on the 4th of July, and immediately undertake another verderama (spray) as we can safely navigate the vines with the cingallo. once again. Much to my dismay, Edilio tells me over a short break that the (rock hard teracotta) west end of the new vineyard needs weeding again.
(5th July) – saved from starting another round of weeding for today – we have had a lot of rain overnight so cannot "get physical" with the vines. Of course the rain is encouraging the weeds to grow; I can see them accelerating skywards as I write this..... Whilst out walking the dogs and inspecting the vineyards a few nights ago, we came across a large melon patch. It's an amazing site for us, as we are not used to melons growing on the ground in the UK – as the owner of the patch is Edilio, we will likely get to taste them too.
Zapping this morning, and I can confirm that the ground is still cement-like in its consistency. The West half of the new vineyard is a "disastro" says Edilio, the soil is certainly causing us many blisters. We also ran a cultivator plough over the entire new vineyard this morning, so at least the weeds have got a headache and the field looks well kept for a while.
We have just had a long weekend of terrific storms! Overnight on Saturday the 8th we were awoken by torrential rain, violent thunder and lightning, and strong winds. At some stage we lost power also, but we were awake long before the beeping of alarms from our "uninterruptable power supply" batteries told us the mains had failed. We were worrying about the vines! This was the direct opposite of our relaxed reaction to a storm a few nights before – then we found out the damage that is possible to a vineyard; only a few miles from us in Fontanile, massive hailstones had devastated vineyards and likely destroyed 30% of this year's crop. Huge amounts of our vineyard soil had also washed down from the hills, blocking roads and causing temporary chaos. So the night of the second storm, we were imagining similar disasters here! Fortunately we were struck by torrential water not hailstones, which did manage to carve deep furrows through the vines, but without any apparent long term defect. It certainly provided much needed water for the new vines.
What was hard and impenetrable clay has become Piemonte mud once again. This is another phenomenon we have not experienced the likes of elsewhere – within seconds one can collect large amounts of mud on feet and tools – so much so that it is almost impossible to walk (or keep shoes attached to feet!) – it is again impossible to work in the vineyards. As the days pass and we regain the clear skies and high heat of the middle of the day, the mud starts to bake its way back to the teracotta slabs I have come to know. I am trying to judge the drying process such that I can get on with the zapping whilst the soil is still workable.
Somewhere over the past two weeks we also found time to finally remove the old vines from the Barbera vineyard that are being replaced. The pile of old vines on the side of the road look elegant and rustic – they will go to make fire wood or woodworking materials in due course.
We have slowed down a little now (20 July); the grapes are maturing nicely and we have a had a couple of "gentle" rain storms. Today we carried out another "venderama" and did a little zapping in the new vineyard, but the non-stop rush to undertake tasks has subsided. Edilio even spend a few minutes washing the cingolo!
The dogs have the knack of finding the foulest smelling substances and rolling in them – today they came rushing up to me covered in horse manure, and wondered why I wasn't stroking them. The hose pipe soon cleaned the worst off but it will be bath time for them later in the day!
For want of a better description, we are now "training" our vines. In the last couple of weeks they have developed embryonic grapes and surged towards the sky. In many cases this surge has taken the growth in an arc across the aisles that we and our cingallo. must tread. All of this growth must now be threaded through the wire trellis in an upwards direction. This becomes our urgent priority as we need to deploy the cingallo. for spraying and ploughing duties.
Now that first stage training has been completed, we have ploughed a single furrow close to and on either side of each row of vines. This turns the soil close to the vine's root system and takes or turns a lot of weeds near to the established vines (something we can't do with the barbatelli).
It's only 7th June but we have a crop already! In this case it's cherries. We have cherry trees scattered around the vineyard – strategically placed for a snack after working a few rows of vines – but we also have a cluster of trees near the cingallo. shed. These all need to be harvested, as they go from almost ready to mush in a couple of days. Ingrid is now busy making jam in large quantities. In the vineyard what will become bunches of grapes are starting their growth.
(10th June) – I was chased out of the vines this morning by Edilio. There had been some rain overnight and the vines were wet – I now know that we must never work on the vines when wet – (danger of contamination or disease – especially when training wet leaves).
There is plenty of vine training to be done; once again we can't get the cingallo. through the Barbera until it is done. This time we are threading the now taller than the trellis vines back down and along the highest wire.
The old orchard that was removed in the winter has now had the remaining tree stumps removed by JCB digger and a large truck. I noticed after they left that they also escaped with a significant part of my cherry harvest!
(13 June) – We are still using the zappa in the new vineyard. Almost done now, thank goodness. The West end of the field is totally clay and has taken on a concrete and diced teracotta consistency now we are in the hotter dryer season.. We even bought a bigger and heavier zappa on Saturday in Asti market – hoping it would make more of a dent in the solid earth. It did! But we have to be careful only to use it in the 1 metre gap between vines – it is too big to manoeuvre safely around the base of the vine. 2 rows to go and then we can at last get our first verderama (spray) onto the new vines; which are now leafing well. There was no point in spraying whilst the small (5–15 cm tall above the ground) vines whilst they were surrounded and choked by tall weeds.
(14 June) – At last finished the weeding. Unfortunately we are now going to have two days of rain that will encourage weed growth afresh, so I expect to be weeding again some time soon! We now spent three days in the Moscato vineyard with hand sickle cutting off the tops of the vines, as they are many feet taller than the wire trellis. Apparently we only do this once and the cut stops the vine from shooting further in that direction. The young grapes are now taking shape and we must also thin out the leaves to allow light to get to the bunches as well as the sulphur when we spray the vines.
We are told by Massimiliano, our technical advisor from the agricultural union, that we must do a provincial government mandated herbicide spray. Doing this also means staying out of the vines for 3 or 4 days until any contamination danger passes. The agricultural union have been very helpful, especially given our still limited Italian – however a visit to their office in Nizza Monferrato is always frustrating. There is no such thing as an appointment or indeed a queue, so it is a free for all in getting attention from the staff, and we have not yet learned the art of pushing in and forcing attention. The union takes care of the reams of paperwork required for DOC status vineyards, completes grant applications (available for replanting vines) and currently they are transferring the legal documents for the cingolo in order that we can then get the papers for our agricultural diesel allowance, which means slightly cheaper than pump prices – every little helps!
(24 June) – the 2nd dry powder coating (spray) of sulphur is applied today. Edilio tried to do this yesterday but there was quite a breeze and the powder was going everywhere except the desired coating on the vines, and the now significant bunches of grapes. Edilio has also removed most of the old Barbera vines that are to be replaced. This involved running down each row of the old vines with a plough, turning the vine and roots out. I am sad to see them go as they looked dignified standing in their rows even as bare vine wood.
It's been another week of early morning weeding with our "zappas" – start about 6.30am finish about 10.30am when it has become far too hot! Each morning I think I will beat Edilio into the vineyard, but each day I am wrong. I don't think he sleeps much so arrives at dawn! We anticipate finishing the 2nd pass of weeding the new vines tomorrow (27th June).
As predicted we finished this pass of weeding early morning on the 27th – not least thanks to Edilio who started this morning at 5am! I joined him at a more reasonable 06.30 and by the time Ingrid arrived at 07.30 we had finished. Next task, thinning out some of the mature nut trees that are growing in the Moscato vineyard. The problem here is that the tree growth becomes so dense that large swathes of vines do not get enough sunlight, so some large scale pruning takes place. Edilio is quite determined to take out a lot of the trees, but the challenge of taking trees from the centre of a vineyard with tight rows of vines all around is currently insurmountable. We are pleased about this as we rather like our nut trees.
The priority this week is now taking off excessive height in the moscato vines (with the hand sickle again) and any stray tying up of vines wondering across the aisles. Edilio tells me this is the last time we will do this – but I remember him saying that last time.
The existing Barbera and Moscato vineyards are filling with new growth and leaf systems. We start our first venderama or spraying using our trusty cingallo. and attached atomiser/bowser. The spray is sulphur-based mix designed to prevent typical vine problems in moist or humid conditions (fungus, mildew and similar).
A small amount of organic fertiliser is also spread throughout the vineyard to replenish soil and vines. We have to be careful with fertiliser.
Rampant vine growth is great but also needs to be controlled. The growth has to stem from the cane and spur we pruned each vine for earlier in the year. By now each vine is sprouting growth from an impossible amount of places – all of which have to be removed. Removal is by hand (no pruning shears this tile) and requires each shoot and bud (other than our precious cane and spur) to be pulled off.
The average day is sunny and very hot. We learn a new routine, starting in the vineyard between 6 and 7 in the morning and stopping when it becomes too hot at around 11. We can venture back into the vines late afternoon or early evening depending upon the temperature.
We are introduced to a new tool – the "zapper" – a hoe actually, for hand weeding on a giant scale! Although we can and do use the cingallo. and various attachments to manage the soil and weeds in each row of the vineyard – the newly planted barbatelli in the "North vineyard" need to be fully weeded along the row of vines themselves, no mechanical solution possible. We learn how to "zap" taking out the now rampant growth of weeds that are attempting to choke our baby vines and turning the soil at the same time. This is hard work and another opportunity to grow blisters.
The North vineyard may be a miss leading title to UK readers. Although it slopes gently facing North, this vineyard gets the sun all day and once again we must start very early to avoid being baked as the sun takes hold on the ever hardening soil and clay. We try working at our "zapping" after sunset with good twilight but rapidly discover this is a mistake due to the interests of the local insect population and their feeding time!
April
Primavere (Spring) has arrived along with an early heat wave that has us taking lunches outside. What was brown and lifeless is becoming green once more.
In the remaining Barbera vineyard and the Moscato we are now working hard to tie down all the previously pruned vines. Each spur is bent and trained to the wire, thus creating a bow like sprung spur that is tied down using a very handy length of flexible new growth tree cane, that grows in early Spring in our vineyard (you can see these trees in every vineyard here in Piemonte as this is a natural resource for this tying down).
Spring is taking off, as are the weeds and grass. A late April wet spell encourages rampant growth and we are kept busy using the cingallo. and its many attachments to mow, plough, rake and scarify the rows between the vines.
We're a little late in the year, but we have only just received permission to plant our new Barbera vineyard (I will talk more about DOC rights, grants and obligations at a later stage). Last November we had prepared 1 hectare of our land that had been lying fallow (it had at one time been planted with Chardonnay - but had been unused for some time). There are some regulatory requirements, one of which is a "deep plough" requiring a massive tractor and very large plough. The plough turns the field completely to a depth of about 4 feet (1.2 metres). A few weeks ago we had to get in another tractor and plough to transform the giant furrows into a more manageable surface in preparation for planting.
Early one morning 7 people descend upon our empty future vineyard, first task is to start removing the satellite root system of the "barbatelli" or young vines. These 18 month old vines have been grown by our neighbour Luigi, who is an expert in such things; they arrive in large bundles looking a little like thin leeks with a large root stem attached. The roots must be trimmed off almost entirely to enable us to use a strange T-shaped fork to thrust the 45cm vine into the ground to almost its full depth. This is another chance to reacquire blisters with our pruning secateurs. Only 3,500 to trim!
It takes two full days to plant our new vineyard, the method is simple but labour and time consuming. A team of two or three people work along a row marked out with string, one person (measurer) holds a measure (another T-bar of sorts) to show where the vine should be thrust into the ground, allowing each vine to be equally and evenly spaced along the rows. This person also holds a large basket filled with the barbatelli, the one or two persons with the planting forks take a vine and thrust the fork with vine attached into the spot indicated by the measurer. Only 3,500 to go....
Early March – Pruning continues a pace in the Moscato vineyard. Meantime I'm coiling wire in the old Barbera vineyard. What starts off enthusiastically slows down to a swaying heave-ho as the coil gets larger and heavier – and the somewhat mis-shaped wire collects more and more of the vine clippings as it is dragged towards me. Only 144 coils to go......
Late Mar – I forgot to mention the plastic canes that are stuck in the ground at each vine, used to secure the top of the old vine wood and the new spur before it's bent/trained to the wire. So there are 5 vines between each concrete post – so about 1,320 of these have to be removed, collected and bundled in the old vineyard. Its easy at first, but once you have more than 20 of these together they get heavy and unwieldy – time to strap them together with some of my favourite finger-piercing galvanised wire.
Post wobbling becomes a new sport. The concrete posts are stuck firmly into the ground by 45cm or so, impossible to pull out until the sucking and damp clay they are married to is worked loose by gentle swaying in many directions. Another art to be learnt with several snapped posts in the process. Now its time to pull them out, 30lbs a piece, and its all done by hand/back and raw effort. New muscle pains are introduced to my portfolio of experiences.
Playtime – I am at last taught how to drive my cingallo. (a small tracked tractor specifically designed for vineyards and steep gradients). Of course my Italian is terrible, and Edilio speaks no English – the first few minutes are a disaster – I suspect I will be banned from the cingallo. for life! It gets better; I finally realise what the levers do (track brakes) and get the hang of floor pedals and hand lever clutch.
The cingallo. is our essential vineyard workhorse – right now it is the means to shift the concrete posts from the old vineyard, so we attach the trailer and drive up each row pulling out and stacking the posts - only 288 posts to go.....
In the vines we are replacing old wire wraps (a bit like giant freezer bag ties) throughout. These wires connect the previously mentioned plastic poles to the lower wire of the trellis rows at each vine, thus adding support for the vine and future "tying down".
I had better mention, in case you think I am sounding at all negative about this work, that it is an absolute pleasure to be in the vineyard each day. Almost without fail there are blue skies and bright sunshine and it's warm despite the month. Coupled to this I have an outstanding view of the Alps as far as Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc) as the early Spring air is fresh and clear for the 90 miles or so that separate us. I have also been learning Italian with my mp3 player and headphones attached when possible.
Pruning continues into the Moscato vines, except that I am still working on the old Barbera – which takes a long time due to my inexperience (Edilio can do three rows to my one) – I also get frequent lessons to show me where I am going wrong.
Following pruning and clearing debris from the old Barbera vineyard we now have to methodically remove all the galvanised wire trellis and then the supporting concrete posts. Sounds easy as I type this – it takes me the best part of two months!
There are on average 8 wires per row of vines, supported along the rows by cast concrete posts, each wire being secured to each post by a 10cm twist of the same heavy duty wire. Per row there are about 24 posts – there are 18 rows to dismantle. Step 1 – snip or untwist each wire twist. Heavy duty wire tool required, only 3,436 twists to go.....
January
Early January – Snow on the ground and very little happening! The vines are dormant and look to be dead – (I have just been reading about all the diseases and predators that may effect the vines).
Late January – Despite the cold we make a start on pruning. The previous year's growth have been left intact until now. Everything must now be cut back and removed from the wire trellis. Pruning vines is an art form we have to learn. Our mentor for this is Edilio, who actually does most of the pruning while we learn. Each vine must be left with a long cane and a young spur. The cane will sprout this years growth, the spur is for the following years cane and spur.
Edilio tells me I am trusted to prune half of the Barbera vineyard – it transpires the reason for this honour is that the vines here are too old, and are to be replaced this year – so pruning here is no risk to our valuable vines and involves total removal of all annual growth down to the old vine wood. I learn quickly that this is hard work and that a quality pair of pruning secateurs is essential; it takes less than half a day for the first blisters to appear!
I am despatched to the nearby hardware store to buy a set of Felco No. 2 secateurs. I actually return with a set of Felco No 4s – there is little difference, just a slightly larger grip on the No 4 model, which I find more comfortable and imagine (hope) will give me more leverage for the thicker vines.
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