Frank Cornelissen

Abandoned old vines

Just before leaving to Paris for the presentation of Les Vins S.A.I.N.S. (see previous post), I discovered a plot of 70+ year old vines which was not pruned, above our ungrafted Chiusa Spagnolo vineyard. (more…)

Last year we suffered a loss of approximately 20% of crop as well as the dying of some 100 old vines overall, due to an initial mildew attack in all vineyards in the Northern valley of Etna as well as powdery mildew in July in the 2 most ventilated plots, Monte Colla and Barbabecchi soprano. The snow and rainfall early in the season of 2011 created a humidity canopy in the valley when the temperatures suddenly raised in the spring and as a result mildew was handling crop thinning instead of us!

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Hammering in new poles

In order to keep a vineyard productive and the vines cured, one needs to also do maintenance which adds up on top of the annual work. Today we finished putting in new poles in the oldest section of the Monte Colla vineyard. (more…)

our new vineyard in contrada Porcaria

Last night we woke up around 11PM from the sound of hail knocking heavily on our windows at home. We were under an impressive thunderstorm with lightnings illuminating the whole Northern valley of Etna and hail coming down with incredible power and intensity as well as quantity. (more…)