Spring has come to Tuscany, and we're so excited to share the news of our vineyard with you!
As you know if you've followed our newsletters last year, Pierre and I lucked out and purchased a small farmhouse with just one hectare of land. It's called Camposasso, Italian for "field of stones".
It was never really the intention to make wine. But I have to admit that I wasn't surprised at all when Pierre announced that he was going to plant a few vines in the already existing olive grove! Sounded like no big deal...
But in reality, and little did I know, Pierre was orchestrating the vineyard project of his dreams. He sketched out his ideas and contacted faraway nurseries from Greece, Germany, France, Sicily. It turned out it wasn't that easy to get things done on a small scale and Pierre had to cross his fingers that his baby vines would all arrive as planned.
Finally, a few weeks ago, materials started arriving. Wonderworking manure from France, the very best of its kind, apparently. Special, beautiful chestnut wood sticks from France. And just last week we got the 4 grape varieties that are raising the locals' eyebrows:
From the south of us: Zibibbo from Pantelleria island in Sicily
From the east: Assyrtiko from Santorini island in Greece
From the north: Riesling from Germany
From the west: Petit Manseng from France
Their common ground is that they are all white grape varietals, and they are all famous for local dessert wines. And now they are planted side by side in our tiny vineyard in Tuscany!
I've put together a short video so you can get a sense of this unconventional mixed vine vineyard that Pierre is planting between the olives and fruit trees. The idea is to grow the vines into small trees, co-planting as the Etruscans did it two thousand years ago, to ensure biodiversity and make our vineyard more naturally resistant. A sustainable kind of agriculture where each element helps the other...
Out of 500, 497 vines have been planted by hand in the Camposasso vineyard, waiting for spring. 2 broke (it wasn't me!) and one was extra and we'll plant it somewhere close to the house.
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