A grape harvest in Tuscany inside the autumn… sounds fairly romantic, right? I assumed so, too, till each single specific specific particular person I talked to about it acknowledged one issue alongside the strains of ‘You know it’s really onerous work, right?!’ However, pondering sturdy ideas, I packed up my backpack and headed to Poppiano, Tuscany for 2 weeks of harvesting at Podere Gualandi by a WWOOF numerous.
Now, I’m not going to say that harvesting isn’t onerous work. Due to it’s. It’s furthermore very purple and sticky work. Correct proper right here’s some {{photograph}} proof:
What I’ll say is that my two weeks at Guido Gualandi’s winery had been two of my favourite weeks in Italy. I might gush all day about how fortunate I truly actually really feel to be positively one amongst 12 WWOOFers chosen to assist in 2015 out of 1,500+ candidates. Or about how the meals was only a few of the most effective I’ve ever eaten in my life.
And the wine paired with it turned me correct proper right into a crimson wine drinker. (Until we had been having glowing rosé… all through which case, I used to be positively a glowing rosé drinker.)
Podere Gualandi
First, significantly background on Guido: His household has roots contained in the Tuscany space for over 1,000 years. The Gualandi title was even talked about in Dante’s Inferno.
As a proficient archaeologist, Guido has labored on excavations contained in the Center East and on the Louvre in Paris. He was furthermore a world reporter. In the mean time, he’s a professor of meals and wine at Gonzaga School in Florence. And most significantly (due to it’s the explanation I obtained to satisfy him and his unbelievable household), he acquired land in Tuscany which contained vines planted contained in the 1970’s (some even older than that) and has cultivated it to yield a tremendous harvest for making wine. However yet one more expertise? He’s an artist whose work is featured on each bottle of wine and olive oil he makes.
One among many factors I acknowledge most about Guido’s methodology of harvesting and wine-making is that he makes use of strategies which is more likely to be a complete lot of years earlier. He’s studied historic texts by Columella (born 4 A.D. and an very important author on agriculture) and others, and tries to stay as intently to the strategies they describe as doable. Which suggests hoeing the fields by hand, caring for the vines all 12 months extended, deciding on the grapes by hand, urgent by hand, and ageing… all with out the utilization of equipment.
Even the bottling and labeling is accomplished one-by-one, by hand.
The work is further strenuous, takes further time, and the strategy of urgent yields loads a lot much less liquid… nonetheless the top consequence’s a better fine quality wine.
Have you ever learnt that a lot of the wine that you simply simply drink has chemical compounds in it?
These chemical compounds set off wine to age further shortly, so it might be bottled further shortly, which permits for lots a lot much less space for storing to be required. And the craziest half is… these wineries are usually not required by regulation to report chemical use! Prior to now, a lot of these wineries used egg to assist with the tactic, nonetheless the FDA does require allergens to be reported on labels. And so… out with the eggs and in with the chemical compounds.
In case your palate is decrease than sommelier requirements, it’s attainable you’ll not uncover a chemical trend in quite a few wines… so aside from the truth that chemical compounds aren’t good for you, it is doable you may be questioning if Guido’s no-chemicals-added methodology is certainly properly price the issue. How’s this for proof? Podere Gualandi’s wine was voted thirteenth largest in Europe… in its first 12 months of manufacturing!
Throughout the event you’d wish to attempt this type of archaeological wine in your self, head on over to the Podere Gualandi internet web page and order a case.
Salute!
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