In direction of the sky“It is the vineyard that responds, with its appearance, its form, and its vegetation. The branches spread out better, the leaves turn yellow later, the vineyard appears a living element that is only part of a natural environment made up of grass, insects and animals. Walking through in the springtime is a marvel. Imagine the roots, in the darkness of the earth, sensitive, looking for water and humus and minerals. The branches begin to push upwards, towards the light, climbing in the direction of the sky. And in the middle, the leaves breathe. They create energy. They change water and carbon dioxide and light into nutrients, something extraordinary that man has not yet been able to approach doing.
The observation of nature becomes then something exciting, transcending science. Man is no longer split from nature, no longer the scientist that intervenes and manipulates. No. He is man in nature, and part of nature, freed from his obsessions with quantities. How beautiful is a grape leaf. How beautiful is a bright red ladybug on a phosphorescent green fava leaf. It is something ancestral that calls us, to put back into question our certainty of advanced man.” |
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A living ecosystem
For years we have been working in the vineyards, seeking to safeguard and allow biodiversity to express itself fully, sowing between rows fava, vetch, peas, alfalfa and allowing wild plants to flourish.
We respect the physiology of the vine: we do not hedge, we prune respecting the natural propensity to ramification, we do not defoliate, we do not work the soil under the vines other than squashing with our feet or cutting back manually weeds in excess. We do not fertilize, we spray only with sulfur and small doses of copper. We use tea preparations of nettles and horsetail (equisetum); in autumn and in spring we spray the biodynamic preparation 500 (cow horn manure) and Fladen (Maria Thun of the Foundation Le Madri).
On our estate there is never monoculture: woods, hedges, trees, reeds, grass alternating with arable crops (where the right rotation and light processing maintain fertility), olive groves (that are never treated) and vineyards.
We view agriculture as a living ecosystem, balanced between the energy of the wild and the force of man.
We respect the physiology of the vine: we do not hedge, we prune respecting the natural propensity to ramification, we do not defoliate, we do not work the soil under the vines other than squashing with our feet or cutting back manually weeds in excess. We do not fertilize, we spray only with sulfur and small doses of copper. We use tea preparations of nettles and horsetail (equisetum); in autumn and in spring we spray the biodynamic preparation 500 (cow horn manure) and Fladen (Maria Thun of the Foundation Le Madri).
On our estate there is never monoculture: woods, hedges, trees, reeds, grass alternating with arable crops (where the right rotation and light processing maintain fertility), olive groves (that are never treated) and vineyards.
We view agriculture as a living ecosystem, balanced between the energy of the wild and the force of man.