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LETTER FROM TUSCANY Autumn 2003
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THIS PAST SUMMER I asked Gino, the oldest man in the village, if he had ever experienced a drought like the one we were having. " No," said Gino, "I have never seen the land as dry as this in my whole life". He's 92. It was a bit like being in Australia: trees dying and the land cracking open, all the fields yellowed and wilted. The wheat just didn't mature and the grains were hollow, fields of corn stood dry and brown. Even the ever-optimistic sunflowers turned away from the sun. The locals were devastated. All that work for what! The difference of course is that in Australia a drought can last three years not just three months while in Tuscany three months without any rain at all is unheard of. Things became so bad that we had to cart water to all the young grape vines and the new olive grove we had planted in Spring. (I guess we couldn't have chosen a worse year to plant olive trees.) We survived the experience and managed to keep most things alive, including our vegie garden. Not a drop of water was wasted. Some young grapevines and some old ones didn't make it, but all the new olive trees managed to grow well and now look very healthy. They have centuries of life ahead of them now. Luckily the grape harvest was the best 'vendemmia' we've ever had. The grapes just loved all that sun so this year we should produce an exceptionally good wine. I think 2003 will be remembered for a long time as a most difficult year for farmers in general. But the winegrowers producing Brunello, Vino Nobile, Vino d'Orcia, Vernaccia plus all the other wines of Tuscany and Umbria will bear witness to a unique year. Certainly it will be remembered as a year which produced an interesting number of "Reserve" wines which are produced only in very restricted years and marketed as such. This year the grapes were ready for picking a month ahead of schedule. Usually the vendemmia is a bit of a community thing with locals giving a hand in the picking but they were all busy. Grapes everywhere! But with the good help of visiting Aussies and Yankees the picking was well done. More importantly they helped us in protecting the precious grapes. |
Our farm is part of a game reserve. While this spares us from the invading army of fanatical hunters, their cars, dogs and most of all their dangerous guns it leaves us vulnerable to the hungry raids of local wild fauna. The area is used for re-population of species such as hares, pheasants, wild pigeons, a type of porcupine called 'istricce', ferrets, wild boar and deer all of which roam around at night feeding on our corn, wheat and of course our lovely sweet bunches of grapes. The previous year they managed to wipe out a significant part of our vineyard. Our neighbours had set up electric fences, but as it turned out they weren't high enough and our visitors watched deer jumping over them. The wild boar just crashed through. An animal version of military tanks. We were going to set up an electric fence as well but instead we all decided to make good use of the dogs: Billy, the older of the two is our Aussie Border Collie who flew Qantas from Sydney; MerryMoon was one of those dogs that just happen. We decided to tie arthritic Billy to the farm car, an old Citroen 4 HP, and leave the frenetic Merry free. The idea was he would bark and she would come into action, chasing the intruders away. Well it worked. We've just recently pumped the new wine into clean containers and got rid of all the deposit the wines, both red & white, have produced during this few weeks. A little patience and "here's cheers". Ugo |
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