G.young, technological and very busy: today’s wine producers have the right “blend” of passion and competence. Essential skills to carry on what has always been a labor of great effort, subject to hailstorms and periods of severe drought. Here are some of the most interesting faces and stories of the moment.
Helena Lageder’s light bottle
Helena Lageder (Press Office)
Born in 1992, Helena Lageder represents the sixth generation of the Alois Lageder Estate, where it gives continuity to a tradition of almost two centuries. Its commitment is in the direction of sustainability, thanks to theuse of lighter bottles. The next step is to adopt a new bottle that weighs only 450g and which is already used for Burgundy for all wines. A robust bottle, also suitable for wines that need a long period of aging. But light: with this innovation, glass consumption is reduced from 512 tons to 425 tons, for a total of 87 tons (17%) less glass produced and transported each year. The saving for the environment in terms of carbon dioxide emissions is also important: this lower weight of the bottles is also reflected in the transport.
“For two years our wines have been equipped with natural cork: we do without a capsule or a screw cap to close the bottle, so we work completely without metal and other materials that are difficult to recycle”, says Helena Lageder, now responsible of communication and marketing in the family business. «Of course, there are already light bottles on the market, but there is hardly a bottle of Burgundy like ours that is so light and still meets the needs of a quality wine. Oddly enough, many people are still of the opinion that a valuable wine should come with a heavy bottle. The bottle also has a name. It is called Summa e we made the decision not to patent it, so that many winegrowers are motivated to use it“.
Marzia Varvaglione and augmented reality
Marzia Varvaglione (Press Office)
For the 100th anniversary of the Apulian company, Marzia Varvaglione (Varvaglione 1921), fourth generation of winemakers, created the first label in Italy that uses augmented reality technology. «It was born in the long months spent on the farm during the lockdown, when we had the opportunity and time to study and to reflect», says Marzia Varvaglione: «This is how Masseria Pizzariello, our wine of the future was born». To accomplish the augmented reality project were inspired by the territories that host the three grape varieties that make up this wine, thanks to the help of Frankie Caradonna, Art Director of the project, and Lucia Emanuela Curzi Creative Director & Illustrator.
“The floral world and the invisible fauna that inhabit the area where the vineyards arise have somehow become protagonists of the narrative experience: a sensory journey that not only evokes the creation of wine through a magical act led by a cricket, a butterfly and a bumblebee, but also the harmony between man and nature, and above all the care, love and dedication that this family has dedicated to its wine products for generations “. And this blend of Primitivo, Negroamaro and Aglianico, a single vineard, that is a wine produced from grapes processed and harvested in what the Varvagliones consider the family garden, in Italy it is the only wine of the “metaverse”.
The drones of Tancredi Biondi Santi
Tancredi Bondi Santi (Press Office)
The scion of the historic Tuscan family Biondi Santi was among the promoters of the use of drone technology in the vineyard. The application of this innovative technology offers an important means for the future management of the vineyards of Montepò Castle: thanks to thermal and multispectral cameras mounted on drones with centimeter GPS you have a unique precision in the care of plants and an overview of the photosynthetic trend of the entire vineyard in its vegetative phase. In other words, thanks to a super control, the intervention in the vineyard is targeted and different micro-zone, saving the use and quantity of treatments: an important first step. towards a future ecological management of the vineyard.
«Today we are also experimenting with drones capable of transporting over 30kg of product and spraying it with extreme precision on the leaves and bunches at an altitude of less than one meter from the top of the rows, effectively canceling the effect of the product itself. Surely in the near future we will be able to manage more frequent flights to better monitor the development of diseases of the vine: in this way we will be able to deal with every single micro-zone of the company surface ”, says Tancredi Biondi Santi.
Michele Serafini, from porchetta to wine
Michele Serafini (Press Office)
We are in Umbertide, in the Perugia area, perhaps not among the most suitable lands for wine. but yet Michele Serafini, born in 1997, is focusing a lot on this territory, so much so that he is working to have the DOP or IGP of the Upper Tiber Valley recognized. No.he Didi Blasi has always been considered the king of porchetta but for some years the grandson, managing to convince the family, has recovered the evocative historical environments which date back to 1742, part of the residence of the Bertanzi Counts, to turn it into a cellar. AND has also revolutionized the wine production of Blasi Cellars, focusing on the classic method and important reds like the Impronta (40% Sagrantino, 30% Merlot and 30% Sangiovese), a 14-degree red wine, aged 24 months in barrique and then left to rest for another 24 months in the bottle. From king of the pig to winemaker, the step is not so obvious.
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