In early spring this year I visited Podere Concori, the beautiful vineyard and winery of Gabriele da Prato. Gabriele has turned the family vineyard into a biodynamic success story. He began in 1999 and within 5 years was producing excellent wine.
The very first buds were beginning to appear when we were there in March.
After walking around the vineyard with Gabriele, where he explained the biodynamic method to us, we tried his very successful Melograno Rosso, which is a blend of Syrah, ciliegiolo, Carrara and Pinot noir.
The Italian wine bible, Gambero Rosso, described the Melograno Rosso as “A seductive wine with aromas of red fruits, medicinal herbs and green pepper, it has a lovely balsamic vein and the easy-drinking palate oozes finesse and flavour.” We found it delicious.
The white wine is a blend of Pinot blanc, chanin blanc and gewurtzraminer……also excellent.
Gabriele’s delightful son was on hand to help.
We went back last week for the first day of vendemmia, the picking and the processing of the grapes……lucky us.
Refreshments were required.
Everyone was there to help, including this very cute Dalmatian, Spinone cross.
Short breaks were needed.
The freshly picked grapes were taken to the winery where they were destemmed.
The grapes were then tipped into vats to be stomped on.
There were lots of helpers.
The grapes begin to ferment quite quickly.
And the grapes keep coming.
The vineyard certainly looked different from my March visit.
The highlight of the day was joining the family for dinner, where we ate produce from the farm as well as sampling the wines.
We had a wonderful afternoon at Podere Concori……..thank you Gabriele and family……and also Heather Jarman from Sapori e Saperi, who made it possible.
