He is there, straight in front of me, planted in front of a row of others like him. I watch. I smile. I take a few steps to get closer. Yes, that’s him, that’s what I adopted. It bears my name, written on a tag. I know, it will seem trivial, even exaggerated, but this adoption fills the heart. Even if it is “only” the row of a Merlot vine in the Sommiano Farm, 47 hectares of crops (13 per vineyard) in the countryside of Cerreto Guidi, about forty kilometers from Florence. In Italy, various companies have already approached this type of economic-naturalistic-cultural promotion. Like the «begreentelligent», which organized the meeting with the winemaker in less than 24 hours. “To the good”, was the premise. How it should be, in the countryside.
Photo by Claudio Laugeri
This adoption is a birthday present, a surprise. Successful. Also because, it allows you to open the window on a world away from office squabbles, paperwork, discussions about parking or the petty trappings produced by the arrival of people built on the trampling of other people’s backs. In the midst of those rows there is real life, that which does not grow on desks and does not feed on chatter. Welcome to agriculture, that world that many (like myself) have always encountered only when they went to the supermarket to buy fruit and vegetables.
Photo by Claudio Laugeri
Wake up at dawn and retire in the evening, a lot of effort and results not always up to the profuse energies. «But I like it» declares Simone Stefanelli, 37, accustomed to that life since childhood. “I used to come here as a child, with my grandfather,” he says. Together with the vineyards, over time his family has also run a tannery business. More “office” hours, but Simone “liked” the vineyards. «Of course, there is work to be done, you have no timetables and moments of calm are few. But that is the passion », he explains in the Tuscan dialect.
Photo by Claudio Laugeri
Occasionally, the topic comes up in chats with friends. “Let’s talk about work, everyone thinks about staying in the office. Nobody wants to sweat. I understand, but that’s okay with me », Simone cuts short, continuing to make his way along the furrow in the tall grass left by some animal in the night. Proudly display those cleaned rows with a patience that can be defined as love. And he lets himself go to a motion of concern: «In April there was a frost. The old people in the area say it hadn’t happened for a hundred years at the time. It “burned” 70 percent of the grapes, a big problem ». That means 70 percent less revenue. As if someone were getting three quarters of their salary. Sure, the state usually offers some subsidies. But until they arrive, Simone’s words remain: «Let’s hope they think about it. The situation is really heavy ». The frost mainly affected the Sangiovese vines, grapes at the base of Chianti, one of the symbolic wines of Tuscany. For those, no harvest. «We will think about it for next year», Simone spreads his arms.
Photo by Claudio Laugeri
Working in the vineyards is also this. Maybe we don’t think about it when we go to buy a bottle in a wine shop or (why not) in the supermarket. Perhaps, we do not think that every year the miracle of a harvest (as well as a harvest) occurs. Nature is perhaps the only employer who returns what it has received. Maybe it takes a while, maybe we find it hard to connect causes and effects, but that’s the way it is. Without discounts. Always leaving a hope. As Simone confirms: «This frost has brought us to our knees, but it has still left something». It is exactly that half dozen rows at the beginning of the field. The “adoptive godson” is the first in line, but there are a dozen like him. Simone slips between the stumps with the sinuosity of a magician and with a play of his fingers he detaches the dried shoots to clean the plant, then stretches the vine leaves with his finger and thumb, before sliding with a caress on the clusters of Merlot grapes. He weighs them and proudly shows them to his “adoptive father”: “Do you see? He is lucky, a good wine will come from these. And a few bottles will also be for her ».
At this point, the tasting is a must. But it is also an opportunity to discover the other part of the work: filtration, fermentation, racking and gradually until bottling. Guess who’s got that job? Simone smiles: «Always us, of course». The wine ends up in glass bottles, but also in vacuum-sealed tetrapak containers, which are sent “even to Poland, where we have a good customer”.
With 70 percent fewer grapes, Simone will not call on the teams he had employed the year before. “I have a couple of guys working with me, we’ll do it ourselves,” he says regretfully. And a spirit of acceptance that only women and men accustomed to working the land can have. No enemy, no government maneuver, no demo-pluto-judaic-masonic conspiracy. Paraphrasing Humphrey Bogart in «The Last Threat», this «is Nature, beauty!». It is part of us. And we are part of her. And the adoption of a remote row is welcome if it serves to remind us.