It seems like I just need to ask for it and the cooler weather comes! We basically had dry tropical weather till last Sunday, then suddenly from Monday rain rain rain…A little bit of rain is fine, but when it starts pouring down, well, that’s not too good.
Luckily we did a very serious green harvest in July/ August so the grapes are quite healthy and strong. I’m sure there will be problems for those that didn’t work properly this summer!
We were basically running to the vineyards as soon as it stopped raining, trying to work as fast as we could and trying not slip on the mud! At some point, in one vineyard the tractor got stuck and we had to pull it with the caterpillar. We picked a bit more barbera last week and, afraid of the bad forecast, we started picking nebbiolo from the Arborina vineyard on Friday.
This is probably the earliest ever in Altare’s history, but it's better having the grapes in the cellar than hanging on the vines under the rain. While picking in the afternoon, it started raining. Since we work under Elio’s slavery we even had to pick under the rain for about an hour, but then our 60-80 year old pickers revolted and we had to stop...we cant afford to lose them right now!
No picking during the weekend, just lots of cellar work, pressing, racking, moving stuff around, preparing shipping and deliveries. There are lots of tourists around as well - Piedmont is very appealing and attractive this time of the year, the landscape starts changing colour and the air smells like sweet must, its addictive!
