10.2 Making wine the way he liked it

The vine and the vineyard had a privileged place in Luciano's heart. And this since he was young. “He had a secret dream: – Mariuccia reveals to us – to make wine the way he liked it. He was a <man of the vineyard>, but not just any vineyard. He always said it with pride: <Great wine is made in the vineyard>, by taking care of the vines, accompanying them when they are in difficulty, supporting them in moments of development and in those of rest, carrying out the work without ever overdoing it”.
There were no other crops that interested him, not even the vegetable garden. Indeed, as a young man the idea of cultivating a vegetable garden bothered him. With the arrival of COVID and the succession of “lockdowns”, having lived through the post-war period as a child, he was afraid of not being able to feed his family and the families of his collaborators… “I remember that – Mariuccia points out – he gave in and planted tomatoes of all kinds, green beans, zucchini, carrots and large-leaf vegetables… But ultimately it was a constant frustration… They never came out as he would have liked. In short, there wasn't much feeling between him and the vegetable garden”.
“But not only; – continues Mariuccia – in the vineyard he only wanted wine vines! Woe to anyone who asked him to plant some table grape vines… But as we know, «iron is hard, but fire makes it soft» and so he too little by little changed his mind. On the other hand, on our hills there has always been a tradition of having some biodiversity in the vineyards. Until the 1950s, broad beans, peas, chickpeas and grass peas, even wheat, were sown between one row and another. And then, here and there along the rows of vineyards there were also fruit trees. This was also the case in the vineyards purchased by Luciano and therefore in the various seasons we have always had fruit in abundance…”.