The days that decide a vintage
Matteo on the harvest between late September and October, when the breezes from the sea make the difference.
Every year the harvest begins in the head before it begins in the vineyard. From mid-September I walk the rows twice a week, then every day: I taste the berries, look at the pips, feel the skin between my fingers. The lab tells me sugars and acidity; the mouth tells me whether the tannin is ready. When the pips are brown and crunchy, and the pulp comes away from the skin without leaving any green behind, it is time.
The order of things
Nothing is picked all at once. First the grapes for Pergliamici, which want freshness and will not wait. Then the Sangiovese of the lower plots for Chianti Classico, and only later the vines around the house, the old ones that give Riserva and Gran Selezione and ripen more slowly. The Cabernet and Merlot of Montarsiccio close the season, often in the first week of October. Each plot has its day, and each plot ferments on its own.
Hands
We pick by hand, in twenty-kilo crates, early in the morning while the grapes are cold: they reach the cellar whole and ferment better. The crew has been the same for years, local people and friends who come back on purpose. Mid-morning there is breakfast between the rows, bread and last year's oil; at the end of the day we count what came in and decide tomorrow.
The sea breeze
Our part of Chianti, the westernmost, is open towards the sea. The breezes keep temperatures steady and stretch ripening: that is why we harvest at the end of September and in the first two weeks of October, a few days after our neighbours. Waiting is the hardest decision, because the October sky promises nothing. But a Sangiovese picked one day too early is something you taste for ten years.
What is left
When the last crate is in the cellar, the vineyard looks emptied and the cellar is full of noise: pumps, crushers, the smell of must fermenting with its own yeasts. It is the moment the vintage stops being a hypothesis. Everything else, wood, time, bottle, is patience. If you want to see it up close, the cellar visit in the harvest weeks goes right through here.