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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
This morning we woke up to see the mountain under a beautiful layer of snow. As we finished planting the new vines in the Porcaria, Marchesa soprano and Barbabecchi vineyards, I was extremely happy as this snow cover is gold to nourish the vines in a slow and constant way with melting water.
Driving up early morning with family to the Magma vineyard in contrada Barbabecchi, we found the roads with 30cm snow!
Arriving at our vineyard I was struck with the architectural beauty of the stone walls, the poles and alberello vines, covered with a blanket of snow.
By complete coincidence we have been able to lease a new vineyard which I was looking for to increase the volume of our Rosso del Contadino. Rocky surroundings, 610 m. elevation, 80+ year old alberello vines with approximately 6.000 vines remaining.
Having a natural attraction for “desperate” vineyards, we obviously couldn’t really walk through the vineyard as the grass was higher than the vines when we first discovered it! Cleaning the plot and re-pruning the vines for lowering crop and re-setting the vines for quality production, I felt the wood had a different density and feel while cutting the shoots. After checking the vines, this complete plot appeared to be ungrafted!!! Well worth all the effort to clean it and put it back into shape.
As this is a unique vineyard, I decided it will not be used for our Rosso del Contadino but instead it will become a new MunJebel Rosso called “CS” which stands for the contrada Chiusa Spagnolo with 2012 being the first vintage. I will now need to find another new plot for the Contadino…
