Terra della Luna

It’s ten o’clock and it’s a beautiful day… the sparkling air that caught us while we were climbing the small external staircase, that led us to the breakfast room, it’s already a nice warmth, the sun gives us good hopes that we will not need any jacket once we arrive to the vineyard. We get into the car, Alessandro is waiting for usa round 11 … in the meantime, we enjoy the view, we can see houses, things, greenery and sights that in the darkness, we didn’t notice the night before.

Simona: Alessandro, where are we?

Alessandro: We are in Lunigiana, in Ortonovo near Carrara, now named Town of Luni, taking up the ancient name of the Roman city… the port where the marbles left for Rome. Here we have land that borders Tuscany, in fact over there is the hill of Monteverde which is part of Tuscany and that one is Nicola’s hill which is part of Liguria.

Terra della Luna Vineyard consists of three hectares arranged in a single body.

In my vineyards there is gray clay 50 cm from the surface, there’s only here… We also have a particular microclimate, in fact there are really imprtant thermal changes between the night and the day that, if on one hand in viticulture is a positive factor, on the other hand it causes humidity and therefore diseases such as downy mildew, funguslike organisms, affecting the vine, with which I’ve always fought and sometimes made me lose vintages, I mean I have not harvested, In fact, since 2009 I have lost three years.

Currently not to use chemicals against peronospora, I’m trying an all-natural sweet orange essence, which is also pleasantly scented together with minimal amounts of copper and sulfur. Unfortunately, mildew can attack the bunches in early times, before or during flowering, resulting in the loss of a whole harvest.

In the vineyard I make the green manure for the oxygenation of the soil, I do not use chemical fertilizers not to destroy the vitality of the soil.

My idea of respect for the environment starts already in the cellar, here there is no gas but just heat pumps.

The cultivation system of my plants is in Guyot, I do non-invasive pruning, I mean I do not trim the old part to dry and then I cut the new part, but I always cut the fresh part. When you cut the old wood this suffers and can die, so if you let it dry it could give a bad appearance to the vineyard and my purpose is to protect the entire vineyard.