According to the oenologist Valentino Ciarla , consultant to important companies throughout Italy, some answers could also come from rethinking choices , first and foremost agronomic ones .
<< Before even saying no alcohol, we should think about managing alcohol . – Valentino Ciarla states. – To do this, viticulture must be rethought .>>
Thirty years ago we had vineyards set up to “produce”, quantity was one of the primary objectives, and with the climate of the time, the wines often lacked concentration, color, alcohol. So we moved to a totally different viticulture , less vigorous rootstocks, high density, “ferocious” thinning, to have reduced yields, greater concentration and better maturity.
Today , however, drastic climate changes , and also the different sensitivity of consumers , require us to manage things differently, even recovering some solutions from the past.
Managing the vineyard differently allows the vine to express itself more freely and distribute the noble substances such as sugars and polyphenols over a slightly higher quantity of bunches.
<< In Montalbino, in the Montespertoli area, we have experimented with planting a vineyard as it was once done. Intended for the production of red wine, it features some strains of Trebbiano and Malvasia, therefore white grapes, in addition to those of Sangiovese, Colorino and Canaiolo, precisely to balance the acidity .>>
Another solution could be to orient the choice towards more vigorous rootstocks and resistant to water stress, now the subject of increasing experimentation.
<< I believe that the winemaker must be increasingly connected to the vineyard and I personally spend a lot of time in the vineyard. Everything starts from there: if the grapes arrive in the cellar in perfect conditions, the conditions for a great wine are created.>>
The topic is certainly complex and difficult to exhaust with a single solution, but thinking outside the box can help broaden horizons.
