Paolo e Cristina Baudano in posa con calici e bottiglie di vino rosso
Paolo and Cristina Baudano look into each other's eyes, smiling.

Making wine

We are Cristina and Paolo. We take care of the land to make wine.

Putting on the label is the latest in a precise series of actions: observing, feeling, monitoring, planning, squeezing, fermenting, surveying, tasting … beginning again. Actions linked in a cycle, always repeating and never the same.

Stillarsi 3. a. tr. In com. usage, frequent the fig. expression stillarsi il cervello (to still one’s brain), to engineer oneself, to strive to succeed in solving difficult problems or situations (cf. the analogous expression lambicarsi il cervello (to rack one’s brain)): why should I s. my brain in such difficult things? (Ed. Calandra); absol., not com., stillarsi to obtain, to do something; more raram. with the object of the thing, to study, to search subtly, to arzigogize: it’s an hour they’ve been in a meeting, who knows what they’ll have stilled!; Stillano the way to come to a head (Giusti).

Notes and annotations on the winery's agricultural calendar

To observe is to know

Observing is the best way to understand.

We look at the clouds on the horizon to know if and when hail will come, we look at the color and texture of the soil to know how much moisture it has held, whether we need to have the tall grass help us hold it or release it from the vegetation to evaporate. We look at the color of the grape skins to see what flavor and color our wine should have.

Observing the same patches of land every day for years has meant learning more and more about what and how to look at. It has delivered to us a knowledge that goes far deeper than measurements and embraces a complexity greater than the dogmas of enology.

Sketch of Guyot pruning technique

Working is caring

That this hill ridge is a unique place we have known since childhood. Long before the whole world recognized its value and uniqueness.

We take care of it the way we do it best: with our labor. The effort of a handmade operation, the ingenuity of a novel solution to tame the most unruly shoots, the skill of using a motorized vehicle that does not destroy the surface layer of the soil. Often the simple patience of waiting: these are the most effective tools we put in place to respect the integrity of the environment that is both our home and our craft.

Logical outline of decisions to be made in winemaking

To choose is to create

Growing vines to make wine is a matter of choices. Starting with the one to stay here and work the land. A progressive chain of small decisions, which we share every day.

Remove a few leaves, at that point, arrange a shoot, prune only when the vine rests, leave the tip of the bunch. For how many hours, or minutes, macerate the peel in the must.

Some of these decisions are dictated by practicality, respect, common sense. Others come from our taste, our idea of wine, our desire to create something that, before any other, pleases us.

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