This year, like every September, it’s harvest time. I’ve been involved in the harvest since I was a child. For some reason, my father used to pay me by piecework when I was little, probably as a joke. One time I filled forty buckets. I think he gave me 100 lire per bucket, which comes to 4,000 lire. It probably even seemed to me that I was well paid. Later, I did other harvests, and I believe the first time I was paid normally I was 15 years old. You couldn’t really say that I was doing these things at 15 — so I’m joking.
Anyway, I mainly carried the buckets, which was really tough work, going uphill with the bucket on my shoulders. I was in good shape at the time and saw it as a kind of workout. If I remember correctly, David was with me once — if he’s reading this, hello! If I’m not mistaken, he experienced it in the same way.
Foto della vendemmia 2024
I still remember when, as a child, I harvested grapes with the older people of the village. For them, the harvest was a celebration — they joked all the time and told some pretty wild stories.
Once, an old man from the south, a small, plump, and friendly guy, started a story with the phrase “when I was dead…” I asked, “Salvatore, what do you mean ‘when I was dead’?” After about ten minutes of questions, I finally understood that he had once been in a coma, and for him, that meant “he was dead.”
Then he went on to tell another story about a time it started raining while he was hoeing the corn. To avoid getting his clothes wet, he took them off and continued hoeing naked. In short, some real stories came out of those moments.
Una vendemmia di quando avevo poco più di 20 anni
Vendemmia 2024, raccolta del Sangiovese
The 2024 production will be ready in a few months. As for the store, we’re quite advanced — we’ve already bottled some wine to let friends taste. The feedback has been very positive.