Tuscan harvest updates: 2011-12
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Marco of Capitoni, Val d’Orcia, 2 February 2012
It is the first of February and we are under a thick blanket of snow. It has really
snowed properly, almost 40 centimetres.
Our plants, our fields sown with grain, really needed even more. We did not have a single day of rain during December and January with temperatures above the average and so this snow is absolutely essential.
During the past weeks we have been busy with the pruning of the vines. Because of the beautiful days we had, we finished this work in good time. I continue to find the winter pruning really interesting and I genuinely enjoyable: each vine apparently similar to the next but never exactly the same and every cut to be made a new intervention. I much prefer this to the summer pruning – all the operations we do repeatedly on the vine in leaf from May to September – when the working days are very long and incredibly hot. We use the spurred cordon system of pruning.
In the vineyard planted in 1999, with a density of 5,000 vines per hectare, the cordon is one sided, that is the trunk of the vine is curved to one side only. By contrast, in the older vineyard, now 40 years old, where the planting density is thinner, the cordon is two sided, thus at 80cm the trunk divides going in two directions.
The prunings are shredded in situ, using the appropriate machinery, which produces organic material which is useful for the maintenance of the soil structure. It is only the parts of the vine which are not perfectly healthy that are removed from the vineyard. There are some diseases for which there are currently no effective treatments. We can only contain the spread of these diseases by ensuring that the wood which has been attacked does not remain on the soil infecting the other vines. With the same aim in mind we ensure that we sterilise the tools which have been used for pruning the diseased vines.
In the winery there is activity:
- ‘Capitoni’, Orcia DOC, 2010, after 12 months in barriques, is being prepared to be bottled, where it will remain for another 12 months before being put on the market
- ‘Frasi’, Orcia DOC, 2010, having spent 24 months in large oak barrels, is also ready to be bottled. It also will have another 12 months of ageing.
In this way we are freeing up the casks so that we can transfer the wine of the most recent vintage. Until now this has been in stainless steel but is ready for ageing in wood.
Paola of I Veroni, Chianti Rufina, 23 December
The Vinsanto grapes are still on the drying mats but this year we will bring the pressing of the grapes forward considerably as they are already showing high concentrations of sugar levels. A Christmas spirit pervades the entire countryside creating a magical silence. I Veroni wishes Happy Christmas to all and a happy New Year to all! Cheers! We will be in touch again in the new year…. Paola
Carla of Sassotondo, Pitigliano, 15 December
Everything is fine here, even if it continues to be very warm with little rain – there are no wild mushrooms this year!
An excellent and abundant vintage, and high sugar levels but the wines have fermented out without problems. We are just waiting for some of the malolactic to finish so that we can complete the racking off of this year’s wine. We will then start on the winter pruning. After the harvest, the sowing of the green manure, application of the biodynamic preparation 500P [manure in cow horn: see account here], cultivation of the compacted rows (not everywhere), sowing of barley and beans for foraging in the fields, harvesting of the olives.
Sometimes I would have begun the pruning by the end of December, but this year I expect to start later since the vines are still ‘drawing’, even though they don’t have leaves, and it seems that the Merlot is in bud. What a strange and unusual year. Those who drink our wine (and the producers who make wines in a traditional way) will say: but last year was different!
If I have time I will send you a picture of the Merlot buds.
Francesca di Massa Vecchia, Massa Marittima, 5 December
We are now at the end of the final racking off of the new wine. Even though the season has been difficult because of the great heat and the high sugar levels of some of the wines, they are finishing their fermentations. Overall they will tend towards higher alcohol levels, but we are pretty satisfied because the outcomes are good despite the difficulties.
Autumn has not yet given way to winter and the temperatures continue to be mild, in fact many plants have not yet lost their leaves. There is a lots of humidity and the scirocco wind, but there has been little rain. The forecast is that the cold will arrive in the next few days. Let’s hope so!
Marco of Capitoni, Val d’Orcia, 4 December
We left off the reports at the beginning of October with the completed harvest and grapes which were in the process of becoming wine. In order to complete the picture we should add that because of the high sugar levels, we laboured to complete the fermentation. However, after three weeks of maceration on the skins, we ran off the liquid and put the wine (still in the form of must) in the stainless steel vats. The racking off followed, to separate the coarse lees from the liquid, which by this point was wine. Shortly we will transfer the wine into wood where it will remain for 12 or 24 months, depending on whether it is due to be aged in barriques or in large barrels respectively.
In addition to the work in the winery, these months have seen a great deal of activity in other parts of the farm.
We have been busy with the feeding of the vines: we have fed them with pelleted manure, the quantities being distributed being in proportion to the level of fertility of the various parts of the vineyard. The trick is to enhance the natural vegetative and productive equilibrium of the plant. In addition, by means of ploughing, the soil which has been trampled down by usage and the passage of tractors etc. in spring and summer has been broken up. This mechanical work allows the clods of earth to receive and store the rains of the coming months and to be in a condition in which the winter frosts will break up the soil again. Finally, steps have been taken by means of furrows and sluices to control rain water, thus avoiding the spontaneous streams and erosion of the soil which would lead to leaching of the land.
In addition to the vineyards, our farms has woods, olive groves and fields were we produce durum wheat.
In our arable fields where we grow cereals, we have adopted the practice of alternating cultivation: wheat and foraging crops are grown in alternate years which maintains the structure and fertility of the land. First of all meadow seed is sown in the parts which this year are due be rested from agriculture; following that wheat is sown. The variety we use is adapted for the making of pasta. We have signed up for a cultivation protocol produced by the Region of Tuscany, called ‘AGRIQUALITA’. We are part of a process of production which is completely traceable and certified. At the end of process ‘La Tosca’ pasta is produced.
The first days of November were also the correct time for the olive harvest. We started by picking the Leccino variety on account of its advanced state of maturation. Pressed separately it produces a single cultivar oil. In the following days the other varieties were cropped: Frantoio, Moraiolo and Olivastro, all of which were pressed together given the smaller quantities.
The days and the work continue and while it is already December, the temperatures continue to be mild. What is of more concern is that the rain which is necessary for the good germination of the wheat has not really arrived.
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