Today we're on the Serracapelli hill, where my estate is located along with most of the vineyards. We're getting ready to plant the last of our new vineyards–a Nebbiolo vineyard in the Barbaresco appellation.
This was previously a Barbera vineyard, but it was getting quite old and we decided to grub it up. We are planting Nebbiolo now.
These are Nebbiolo seedlings and a specific clone suitable to this kind of soil. It's not at all vigorous as it is destined for Barbaresco wine, where less vigour is indicated for a high-quality wine. Each vine will produce about two kilos of grapes. As you can see, the planting is done by hand.
We use this tool to push the seedling into the ground as far as possible, leaving 5-10 cm exposed. You can see we leave the roots quite long. They are a natural length, about 10 centimetres, to help the plants get well-established and also because the climate is getting warmer and warmer.
Spring is always warm now, so longer roots help the plant get off to a good start and have a better chance to get firmly rooted. This is the first part of planting a vineyard; it can be done by hand or by machine, but we continue to do it by hand.
HIGH DEFINITION IMAGES - DOWNLOAD
Comments