Page 14 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - nr 6

the harVest millennial rituals

ine is one of the greatest signs of civilization in
«Wthe world», said Hernest Hemingway. Already
Omero tells us about the wine, symbol of social pre-
stige, that the Greeks drank for breakfast, lunch and din-
ner; present in banquets as in oaths, in funeral rites as in
religious ceremonies. Drinking wine for the Greeks also
represented the seal of the collective rite and of the com-
munity dimension to which they were very sensitive,
handed down to the present day. Even in ancient Rome
there was a similar diffusion and importance: the edict
of the emperor Domitian, in 90 AD, imposed on the
peasants to uproot half the vines due to overproduction
present throughout the Italian peninsula. The harvest
is all this: nature, charm, history, rituality, work, care of
the territory. There is no doubt that today it is rare to see
that collective work in the vineyards where relatives and
friends once gathered, and which ended celebrating
with a rich banquet. That magnificent rural dimension of
fatigue and satisfaction can be found in a few small reali-
ties. On the other hand, where the surfaces are very large,
dedicated to an “industrial” production, it is clear that the
harvest is made almost exclusively mechanically, but this
does not remove results from quality. Three are essential-
ly the right periods for the harvest: August-September,
September-October, and October-November for late-ripe-
ning grapes.
There are also three main stages of processing: harvesting,
nazionalità, tradizioni e colori diversi, unite nella fati- crushing and fermentation. The grapes must be harve-
ca e nell’impegno ma sostenute da modalità e sistemi sted at the precise moment, before they dry up and ruin the
nuovi e moderni. E d’altro canto saper utilizzare bene vineyard. As we said before, the difference between “indus-
trial” crops and very limited crops is evident: in the former
le tecniche e la tecnologia attualmente disponibili non there is a series of on-the-spot checks to decide when the
può che restituire valore aggiunto ad un’arte bucolica harvest should begin, while in small vineyards the calcu-
dal fascino inestinguibile. Si pensi alle modificazioni lations are based on experience or on the combination of
climatiche e ambientali che inducono i moderni con- hypotheses, perhaps also through a comparison of opin-
tadini-imprenditori a dover necessariamente innova- ions between family and friends. However, what can be

La Tenuta Lento, nel comune di Amato (CZ), fra il mar Jonio e il mar Tirreno

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