Letters from a 300-year-old Italian farmhouse. September 10
"We will pick no wine before it's time."
How do we know the optimum time to pick our grapes??
Just yesterday, we were having coffee in the piazza in Monforte when a tractor came rushing noisily into town, rumbling over the cobblestones, piled high with grapes. The first tractor, I thought, with a little thrill. The 2024 harvest is starting!
La Vendemmia, it’s called here. It is when Monforte, Roddino and the Langhe all come to life. It is what we work for all year long, and what carries us into the future.
The vintners, after catching their collective breath during the August vacations, are now bustling about the region, back in full warrior mode, up early, picking, loading, and crushing the beautiful fruit. Everywhere you look, throughout the fields, the grapes hang low and heavy, purplish black, fat and sweet, and just begging to be plucked.
Any winemaker will tell you, the single most important decision they make each year, is when to pick. But it is trickier than you would think. My husband will tell you that in three vintages, he has yet to nail it.
The growers here start with the Chardonnay and Pinot Nero grapes, and will move on to Dolcetto grapes next, with Barbera and Nebbiolo grapes last. It is what everyone is talking about. Will it be a great harvest? One for the ages? Or have the strange spring rains and searing summer heat upset the balance in the grape juices?
Bacchus only knows.
My husband is gearing up for his little vineyard of Barbera grapes, too, although his harvest is still a few weeks away.
He has been thinning the bunches, and trimming back the top leaves a bit, but not too much, since the leaves are what feed the fruit. And he has now begun taking the juice into the local wine lab each Monday, to monitor it.
Winemaking is something of a chemistry course, but for deciding when to pick, all that matters is the sugar. Sugar is critical since it is what will become the alcohol. He is shooting for 14.5% alcohol for his Barbera wine. So several times each week he also checks the grape juice at home with a gizmo called a refractometer, which is what the vintners use in California
It is like a hand-held mini-microscope, which will instantly show you the number of grams of dissolved sugar per liter of liquid. The lab then confirms this each week. With one eye on the weather, wary of hail or heavy rains, which could damage the fruit or dilute the sugar, or too much sun, which could burn or dry out the fruit, he will wait to pick until the sugar measures 250 or 260 parts per million, which should translate into the ideal 14.5% alcohol. But there is always the fear of waiting too long, when mold can set in. That is when experience and intuition come in to play. Oh, and a little luck wouldn’t hurt, either.
With just 70 plants, our vineyard yields about 100 bottles, enough for us for the year, to drink and to give to friends. And each year, the vintage has been better than the last. What began in 2019 as a little project, almost an homage to the great winemakers around us, has turned into a really satisfying endeavor. I am quite proud of him, and his wine, and still can’t get over the fact that he named his wine Barbera di Barbara. The highest honor I have ever received.
Yesterday afternoon, to take it all in, we took a drive through the hills of the Langhe, and marveled at the bounty of grapes around the area. At one point, we pulled over, and I set foot on one verdant field slanting west towards the sun. The beckoning fruit was easily within my reach and I was sorely tempted to snatch a few grapes, near to bursting, just to taste the warm sweetness. But somehow I couldn’t. I felt like I would be violating someone’s trust.
They are so precious, each one nurtured by hand, to be a living, growing sphere of possibility. No, I left them for the grape picker to harvest and send them on their way to their ultimate destiny.
Maybe, someday, we would meet again.
What projects are you working on, now that summer is waning? Are you into the harvest where you are? Or is it all about getting ready for football season? Back to school? Or maybe getting out the vote?? Let me know what is exciting you!
Tell me what is going on now in your neighborhood. September is a great month for taking stock, and starting a new project of your own. I love hearing from you about what you are doing. Let me know.
Keep looking for my posts. I’ll be right here.
This is how I stay close to everyone far away. I will be writing letters once a week, with stories of Piemonte, recipes that I have fallen in love with, tales of people I meet, places I discover and anything else that I think you might find amusing, curious or worthwhile. It’s a way to look at the world from a different window, and hopefully let a little Italian sunshine into your day.
Thank you Barbara for transporting me to your world! Those luscious grapes on the vine ~ your husband honoring you the way he has, wonderful!
How luscious, those plump beauties! Yum.