A spectacular harvest

A spectacular harvest
Magazine: October 2007

Among the harvest events that have attracted media attention, there is the yearly “Night time harvest” at the Donnafugata winery near Contessa Entellina between the Agrigento and Trapani provinces. Here the Chardonnay vines are stripped of their precious wares in the middle of the night when temperatures drop below 30° and the grapes are less susceptible to degeneration. Another event in Sicily not to be missed happens along the terraced terrain of the volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Trapani province. Here, harvesters gather Zibibbo grapes by hand stooping down into the holes where the vines steal only centimetres of precious earth. In the vineyards of the Valtellina (Lombardy). of the Cinque Terre (Liguria), and of Ischia and the Amalfi Coast (Campania), the harvest now runs on the monorail line. The first mass transports were purchased from the Swiss forces, and were soon adopted anywhere it was too hard to transport the grapes with traditional baskets. From the first harvest, in Franciacorta, in Lombardy, breaking a thirty year record this year with gathering begun during the last days of July, to the last harvest, in the highest terrains of Italy, that will probably wind down during the end of November or beginning of December.