Planting
Pruning
Ploughing
Protection of the vines
Thinnings
Trellising
Ripening
Manure
Harvest
Great wines are always produced from vines that are at least twenty years old. So the main objective of our wine-growing practices is to maintain the old vines in production for as long as possible, but when vines become too old, the best is to replace the plants, one by one.
Pruning, the “potatura secca” is essential to ensure the production quality and the longevity of the plots. Indeed, the number of buds per plant determines the delicate balance of the vigour; pruning that leaves too many buds leads to a harvest that is too abundant and unable to ripen sufficiently.
Donna Olga intentionally keep traditional the work of the land, although a great part of it is carried out by high-clearance tractors and equipment that is of ever-increasing efficiency.
Obtaining grapes that are ripe enough presupposes a perfect control of the phyto-sanitary condition of the vineyard. Mildew, powdery mildew, black-rot, excoriation, almost all fungal diseases, with the notable exception of the wood diseases, mal dell’esca, are now well controlled, after decades of researches of more sustainable methods of cultivation.
We are proud to practise thinning, which consists of removing a certain number of clusters before the start of the ripening period.
The very high density of the plantation in our vineyard (6,600 plants per hectare) would lead very quickly to an impossible tangling of the branches if we didn’t provide a good trellising.
The acquisition of the grapes in a perfect state of ripeness is the precondition for producing a great wine; consequently, all our winegrowing practices are directed toward this objective.
The objective of manure is to bring to the vine the nutrition that it needs, without excess that would increase the vigour to the detriment of the quality and in respect to the environment.
At the end of the year’s work comes, at last, harvest time. Everything is finished, or nearly finished: the ripening is completing “August develops the must”, the great balances are happening, or not, in the grapes. However, a bit of suspense remains, because it’s in these last days that a good vintage still has a chance of becoming great.
