Preserving, protecting, treasuring Ancient vineyards
How the project came about...
When you set out to make a wine with a clear picture in mind of what it will taste-like, sourcing grapes from the right vineyard is quintessential. It is also very hard to constantly find the same consistency being that you're sourcing and don't really have a say on how to manage vineyard practices. Often we don't have the same level of experience as that of the vineyard owner to tell them what they should or shouldn't do... Because we do not know how the vines would react to such sudden change in practices. Plants are living beings and although it's hard to immagine or believe, they (or rather we...) create a symbiotic relationship that is likely to affect, in good and bad, the life and balance of a plant every time we interact with them with our presence and choice of practices. It goes without saying that a winemaker would rather have total control on the crops instead of having to "adjust" the aim, every harvest, due to the unpredictable nature of the relationship with the grower. So the next step is to own a vineyard!
Every time we are in Sardinia, while driving the rural areas of the place I was born and raised (Central-South of the Island) it is heartbreaking to see how many vineyards are abandoned, some of which are right in the vicinity of the vineyards we now own. I decided to trace back my steps to when I was a child and used to hear the elders talk about the peculiarity of certain Crùs that for countless generations made memorable wines. Unfortunately, as time went by, many of these vineyards are being abandoned due to generational gaps in families and/or scarse interest in keeping family traditions. For that reason, rather than planting a new vineyard, I decided to purchase and preserve some of these small and unique parcels in the village I was born and in the village where we have purchased our house. These parcels are often as small as a few rows, and planted to an array of indigenous varietals as a field blend, which is a big part of the uniqueness about them...
Terroir = fruit of a long-term relationship between nature and men, impossible to be replicated!
Ancient vineyards carry the wisdom of our ancestors. Exposure, choice of varietal/s, distance between vines and rows, training and pruning choices are all technical factors that, combined to the unique peculiarity of soil composition, elevation, terrain's slope direction or flatness, weather patterns, create a unique condition that becomes the "fingerprint" of what we call "identity" in a wine. In the case of our vineyards, these choices were made half a century ago in our Murera vineyard in Barumini and almost a century ago in our two parcels in S' Anei in Mogoro.
True expression of "Terroir" is experienced at its highest in wines made from rare sites such these, as long as crafted in respect of traditions, starting with vineyard practices to winemaking which focuses on a minimalistic approach.
This long tradition of inheriting a vineyard from your elders, or "stewardship," then passing it down to the next generation was something I never experienced, as my father always bought grapes to make his wines, but for some reason never invested in a piece of land to work it. My grandfather did but it went to my cousin, which did a great job on keeping it and still makes wine from it.
However, this is my opportunity to start a new chapter, and hopefully pass it down to my children, which are too young to understand the importance and seriousness of this responsibility. However, this chapter starts not with "newly" planted, but rather with "old" and "ancient" vines (and olives!), which makes it both special and challenging! Challenging because the change of "Stewardship" could be a "shock" for the vines as are now forced to "adjust" to a different presence. That is why often new owners rather eradicate and re-plant the vineyard. We are here to protect and continue the tradition, and hope to do it successfully and for generations to come!