San Leonardo’s Blog

Over recent weeks, we have carried out numerous tests in the vineyard with a view to finding machinery that is suitable for working the under-vine soil without removing the weed control.

It is not easy to find specific machines that respect the various types of soil, and having tried a great number of every type, we opted for yet another unit from French manufacturer Boisselet. This “equipment-holder” – i.e. a machine that can use a plethora of different tools – has just about satisfied us. We think that the use of these “daisies” – as we call the rotors with numerous “petals” that till the earth – is not the ideal solution for our type of soil, because there are too many stones and so you run the risk of ending up with a vineyard that has nothing but pits, which is then nigh-on impossible to work with. The device you can see in the photos is a simple blade that cuts the surface of the plot, with the blade tilling the under-vine soil at a depth of just a few centimetres, chopping the roots and therefore drying out the field.

Of course, it is essential to find the right period, because if it rains the day after the work has been done, you’ve wasted your time…Let’s see if we can use it on all of our plots. We are studying the results very carefully in order to safeguard our vineyards – I’ll keep you posted on the choices we make.

This year, the pruning got under way a bit later than usual due to the cold spell that we’ve had over the past few months. As we do every year, we started by looking after the vineyards, and I have to say that this is a wonderful time because just the thought of the spring’s imminent arrival makes the winter less arduous.

So far this year, we haven’t had much snow, and this is a something of a pity, because snow has a lot of positive qualities: it is an extraordinary heat insulator, it keeps the soil damp and, as a result, the roots of the vines do not suffer as badly as they do when the winters are less cold, which is when you get an ice barrier forming that no water can get past. Snow functions as a disinfectant and, indeed, it is almost always the case that after winters with heavy snowfalls we end up with good vintages. As we say round these parts, “Sopra la neve fame, sotto la neve pane”, meaning “Hunger above the snow, bread below”.

The hard work done in the vineyards last year with the help of Simonit and Sirch is beginning to bear fruit, and the time required for pruning has been reduced by 30%, which is no mean feat! Moreover, the vines are starting to create the typical chandelier shape, with the vegetative tips already rising up from the plant –a process that will continue in the near future. We’re really very happy with the way things are going and I think we’ll have some pleasant surprises during the vegetative phase of the vines.

The young vineyards will be laid out immediately with the method prescribed by our pruners, and there’s no doubt that in these vineyards, over years to come, we will see some major differences through which we will be able to observe the correct development of the vine.

Here are a few photos of a recently planted Cabernet vineyard being prepared for the bending and binding of the shoots in the spring.