Heroic Vineyards: very high or very old
Finally we have a law that protects heroic vine growing , those historical vineyards attached to the sides of the mountains.
Di Donatella Cinelli Colombini
Wich are the vineyards that can be considered heroic? Those that give more work than grapes, those that have great landscape, social and historical value but are not very profitable.
This vineyards will probably be abandoned when the old people that cultivate them out of passion will die. For this reason a decree that recognises the value of heroic vine growing and economically supports it’s essential for its own survival.
HEROIC VINEYARDS IN SWIZERLAND ARE STRONGLY SUPPORTED BY THE GOVERNMENT
In Switzerland I saw vineyards so steep and so tiny that they don’t even allow any sort of mechanization . When they told me that the treatments need to be done with an helicopter and so all the producers have to decide together for organic or conventional cultivation I realized what this meant economically and socially. Then they told me that the government helps heroic vine growing with financial incentives . A strategy that avoided the abandonment of the vineyards, protected the landscape and increased the quality of swiss wines .
HEROIC VINEYARDS IN VALTELLINA
Also in Valtellina I saw this kind of vineyards, where dirt is transported by helicopter on the rocks, cultivation is very hard and manual. The scenary in marvellous, but th
e prices of the wines and the contribution of the government are not even close to the swiss ones, so the vignerons are really heros.
HEROIC VINEYARDS OLDER THAN SIXTY YEARS.
Just like heroic are the producers that protect historical Vineyard, those planted before 1960 that today give very little quantity of grapes but wines with great personality and complexity. Usually this are remote vineyards planted with local grapes that are worth cultivating only because of their quality.
LAW DECREE ON HISTORICAL VINEYARDS
The law decree just approved describes the characteristics that a vineyard has to have to be declared heroic and to access economical support from the government. Will be protected vineyards in small island, those that protect the territory like terracing and cultivations that respect traditional methods of cultivation in specific territories.