Apr 232009

The ancient art of the pruner

pruner

Those who know something about the old rural pruners will be aware that they followed an ancient ritual, which involved stopping in front of every vine, inspecting it carefully, initiating a silent dialogue with it and then intervening to meet its specific needs. Sadly, those master pruners are no more! The vineyards were mechanised to compensate for the lack of manpower. For many years, much of the work in the fields has been done by labourers from other countries – these people are ready and willing to work hard, but often have no experience in dealing with vines and do not speak the language that the pruners know so well. 

Pruning has become invasive, inflicting wounds on the vines that cannot be fully healed, thereby exposing them to trunk diseases. It was against this backdrop that Marco and Pierpaolo launched their laudable project. What was required was to apply the same criteria used for preventive medicine: ageing well affords a better quality of life and also allows enormous social savings to be made (in terms of treatment, medicine and hospitalisation costs). They understood that if the vine is to survive over the long term, it is crucial to intervene when it is still in its “infancy”. At all of the companies they work with in Italy, they run training courses on their pruning method, thus helping to re-evaluate and give dignity back to an ancient art. It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of the vine in the vineyard – and even the ultimate quality of the wine – depends on the skill of the pruner. 

Marco and Pierpaolo were responsible for conceiving and setting up the first courses on pruning in Italy. The first of these was held at the San Felice winery in Castelnuovo Berardenga, in the heart of the Chianti Classico zone. The second has just come to an end at the Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo.

In short, Marco and Pierpaolo have leveraged the wisdom of the past and applied it to the present. Over time, a misguided approach to pruning can limit sap flow and undermine the effectiveness of the work being done, leading to irreparable damage – the quality of the untreated grape is compromised and the vine itself dies when still relatively young. This, in turn, increases the management costs. That’s why their approach is geared squarely towards preventing the onset of disease.

Apr 222009

Let’s get this blog up and running!

Marquises Carlo and Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga and winery director Luigino Tinelli.

So now, at last, after a great deal of work, we are getting our blog on the go in it’s English version, the Italian one was put on-line last year in March. It has been created in partnership with Brescia-based Evoluzione Telematica. This is undoubtedly the most interesting digital experience that we have undertaken since the launch of our site way back in 1999 (a long time ago, at least in terms of the internet in Italy, and especially in the wine sector).

The San Leonardo blog will be a sort of diary, open to all our friends, which we intend to fill up with our day-to-day experiences, enriching it with photos taken and videos filmed on the estate and beyond.

This communicative tool – so concise, informal and dynamic – propels us into a new universe of relationships, enabling us to communicate directly with all those wine lovers who stick with us vintage after vintage. As we develop this channel, we will do our best to make it reflect our way of working, and we will put all our passion into it in order to let you in on life in the vineyards and to tell you about our experiences around the world, allowing you to play your part and have your say. Along with the San Leonardo Gazette – our quarterly newsletter, which is sent to more than 5,000 readers – and our new web site www.sanleonardo.it , we intend to use this blog to strengthen and expand our corporate communications, which have become so important for our winery, bearing in mind that we now distribute our wines to connoisseurs in more than 40 countries across the globe.

We hope that this tool will give you an insight into the workings of our company. That said, we will always be delighted to welcome you here in person, so that we can show you first-hand where San Leonardo is created and let you, too, be transported by the lush perfumes and colours of the Valle Lagarina.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga and

Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga