There are two schools of thought regarding the validity of the old vines: there are those who believe there is absolutely no reason to keep them on and think they should be replaced with new plants and, on the other hand, those that are convinced they still have something important to give us.
We belong to the second group. In fact, 11 of our 15 hectares of vines were planted in 1970. They are all varieties that are part of the Tuscan tradition and which were included in the “recipe” of the original Chianti: Sangiovese, Colorino, Canaiolo and Trebbiano.
We decided to invest in improving them, trying to bring the existing plants back to good health and putting in new plants where necessary, both because some had died and to increase the number of plants per hectare.
After much consultation and with a little courage, we decided to graft Vermentino on a portion of the old Trebbiano. Such an operation is not easy with 40-year-old plants, but thanks to the expert work of a grafting genius the number of plants that took was amazing.
Undoubtedly an old vine is less productive on average than a young one, but since we are not interested in quality but quality we are quite happy with the choice we made.
This does not mean, however, that we don’t recognize the value of innovation. Actually, we also love our almost 4 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, which were planted in 2005 with a high density of plants of a high-quality clone from French nurseries.
The farming systems we use are the spurred cordon and Guyot.
For us, another essential element was to farm the land organically. Luckily the weather in our area makes this possible as the winds that continuously sweep the area enable us to keep the worst enemies of the vines at bay.