The life of a blogger could be hard! In fact, I have never thought about being a blogger, my aim was to write a small diary to remember and share all of the splendid moments, or not, that my work gave me.I had promised myself to write, even only a few words for every relevant moment of my life as wine producer on Mount Etna. But I couldn’t manage to keep the promise.
I see that the last article I wrote on this virtual diary, dates back to October 2016, a lovely wine-tasting with Andrea Formigli and the great Mastro, two real experts of the famous Vinoteca del Chianti. I’m not sorry for having left this article on the head of the article’s pile for almost four years, because, I really do like both Andrea Formigli and the Mastro, and I smile every time that I see the picture of the three of us that I put in the article.
I don’t want to justify myself, but these years have been extremely intense, beautiful, but intense: and they flew away!
During these months, apart from the four harvests, I have been very committed to the renovation of the vineyard on Mount Ilice, the bulk is now done, although there’s still a lot to do. Fixing an ancient vineyard is a titanic work, but also very delicate. We had to lift numerous ancient plants, risking breaking the old roots; we had to transplant others, for the sake of giving them a better collocation and save them. In all of this, I have also accomplished the re-piling of the vineyard, with Etnean chestnut posts. I have spent many hours in this vineyard, during different seasons, to know the vines, and to understand the different varieties that the Ancient had planted.
Some of them are basically extinct. I have selected some endangered species and I have reproduced them; I don’t know yet what the results will be, but I’m still getting to know them. I have also reproduced different vines from the most ancient pre-phylloxera vines, and I have planted them as was done before phylloxera: ungrafted. It’s a risk, but the volcanic soil gives me comfort that the plants are going to be protected. And also, the vineyard of Casa Decima in Contrada Nave has been sunject to important works.
We continued to substitute the failed vines with new ungrafted plants, created with the off-shoot method, we cleaned and partially fenced the edges of the property and now there’s a lot of work for the redevelopment of some abandoned batches that we managed to acquire to clean them up and rescue them from carelessness. Always in this period, we have bottled up two vintages of our metodo classico Tempesta. I have already talked about it on the website, but I am going to write about it ad hoc, in the future. Tempesta has been produced only in 2015 and 2016, very few bottles, but I hope to do it in the future, maybe next harvest…
During the 2019 vintage, I have started working on a new white wine based on Carricante, but which contains more than 10 local white wine grape varieties. I will dedicate this wine to Don Alfio, my mentor, my friend, my adoptive grandfather, who, unfortunately, left us two years ago. He saved the vines of Mount Ilice, with his perseverance, his hard head, and his love. Again, I rewrote my website, making it more coherent with the soul of Santa Maria La Nave. I travelled a lot, telling what I do, with passion and pride, and making taste the fruit of my work. Still, I am now the mom of the little Diego, who now is 2 years old and never stops to surprise me.
Therefore, I couldn’t manage to write! In the future, I will seek for more constancy in this diary of mine, and I will try to recount the new updates, also the past ones that I couldn’t manage to tell. It’s true, I haven’t kept the promise to myself, but these have been extremely intense years, with lots of smiles, sweat, and a some tears… these have been months of life, but a life lived with deserved happiness. And now..I am back.