On Saturday 2nd August, at 10.40 am, a powerful rainstorm occured above the hills of Gambellara and Soave. Hail, wind and intense rain caused bad damage: just imagine that 70 ml of rain fell in only 20 minutes! Unfortunately, our vineyards have been strongly damaged as well. In some areas the vines lost even their leaves, in other areas there are still some grape bunches, but not more than 20% of the entire season.
We immediately have tried to help the vines, as much as possible, with natural products to help them cicatrize the damage. During the last days the plants were inactive, they’re beginning to work again now and soon we’ll understand what we’ll manage to save.
For those who produce wine without buying grapes from others, such as us, the problem is important when this kind of events happen. Although we have an insurance, our value is in the final product: the wine. Insurance only pays you “the amount” of grape you have lost, so in our specific case it’s just a minimum part of the final product.
This extreme event – not so infrequent in the last few years – reminds us that our work, strictly connected to nature, is not easy at all and being able to harvest the fruits of an entire season is not predictable. Sometimes conditions are good and the satisfaction is well repaid, some other times you need to be more careful, patient and do your best to produce the best wine you can. We’re strongly motivated and, as usual, we’ll do our best.