In between the Toscan grapes in September; onces it will be my first time...

When you are a wine lecturer, you should have several competences. Knowledge about all grapes, characteristics of all wine producing areas, wine production processes, selling, serving and storing the product of wine. This whole blend should come with lots of enthusiasm and teaching skills.

So far so good. There was, until last week, one thing missing; as a ‘ wijnjuf’ , I never has been in a vineyard during the harvesting time in order to select the grapes and to help with the harvest and the first steps of wine production.

Now I have!

The last week I have been in a little village called Nocchi, nearby the mountains above Pisa. A small winery offered the possibility to experience the life of a wine maker and on top of it; some gastronomic cooking classes to learn how to cook specialties of the dishes from this beautiful area.

When arriving in the vineyard, the Sangiovese bunches were smiling at me, waited to be picked! It was remarkable to taste the difference of the sweetness of a grape from one row compared from the other. The white grapes; chardonnay and vermentino were already harvested and pressed. That cloudy yellow two weeks old young wine was very sweet and the alcohol level still low. Reminds me of the Heuriger; a young white wine from Austria.

The whole year through it is hard working in the vineyard, but especially during the harvest the wine maker needs more hands. The grapes should be harvested very early in the morning while the sun is not warming up the grapes; this ruins your fresh aroma’s in the wine later one. Also, the selection of the grapes should be done very seriously.  Only the whole bunches of good grapes should be selected, but all grapes should come off. Bad quality bunches should be thrown on the ground. 

I helped with making the traditional red Sangiovese wine and we have been made a Novello. The last wine is an equivalent of the well-known Beaujolais Primeur; a young purple wine from the gamay grapes. This wine will be sold from the third Thursday in November.

So, for a glass of wine harvested partly by me, we have to wait at least 2 months for the Novello, or more than half a year until the malolactic fermentation has been finished around march of April coming year.