The Organic and Regenerative Agriculture facilitate the reactivation of natural cycles within the agricultural land: only in a vital and rich soil, from a microbiological and mineral point of view, is possible to get healthy, resistant and balanced crops.
It’s a set of techniques and good agricultural practices that allows to produce healthy foods with lower production costs, but is also a proposal of social change through the involvement of the social fabric in the production processes carried out by farmers and ranchers. The strongest features of organic agriculture are its independence from fossil fuels and its reliance on the locally available means of production. Working with natural processes increases cost-effectiveness and the resilience of the agro-ecosystems to climatic stress.
All the work is based on in-depth business analysis, with an optimization of rotation and alternation, use of mechanization and appropriate application of technical tools like compost and fertilizers fermented spray, prepared for the defense of the plants, and compounds for animal nutrition.
Our experience
The adoption of organic farming techniques make it possible to manufacture by ourselves all the organic preparations needed: agricultural waste and those arising from the grapes processing (marc, stalks, dregs, prunings and other plant materials) are transformed into compost with the help of our earthworms. The compost thus obtained is used to fertilize the vineyard, improving soil structure and also obtaining the organic preparations used for the microbiological fight. Our compost, indeed, is macerated and aerated until we have a product called “compost tea”, a preparation rich in useful regenerative microorganisms to counteract the degenerative ones (downy mildew, powdery mildew, botrytis, etc.). In order to improve the microbiological fight techniques we started a collaboration with Dr. Zaccardelli of C.R.A. (“Research Centre for Horticulture” of Pontecagnano), who worked for years on “tea” compost trials. Dr. Zaccardelli has also performed the analysis on our compost, obtaining excellent results.
The plant protection improvement made by the compost is both consequent of direct intaking antagonistic microorganisms developed during the composting process (like the thermophilic bacteria of the genus Bacillus, very used in the biological control), both in consequence of the growth stimulation of antagonists microorganisms already residing in the soil. These microorganisms hinder the development of bacteria and phytopathogenic fungi in the soil, through mechanisms of competition for space and nutrients and the production of antibiotic substances. Even the aerial part of the plants appears to be better protected, thanks to the induction of resistance phenomena in crops, by the action of specific microorganisms that develop around the roots.
During the wine making process, the slow working cycles typical of craft-natural wine are respected: only the best grapes are selected; decanting and racking are carried out respecting the lunar cycles and the seasons; the aging is made on fine lees, without high pressure filtrations. Particular attention to the consumers health is placed during the vinification, by not using unnecessary and expensive chemical additives, with the exception of sulphites which are still decreased by 90% compared to the normally recommended doses. Their presence in our wines, as witnessed by analysis, it turns out to be very low and the company, in the future, intends to totally eliminate sulfites.
Also with regard to our products packaging we pursue ecological and hand-craft solutions: the cap is made by a bioplastic material obtained with biopolymers of sugar cane, completely recyclable, finally embellished with a hand-made capsule in colored shellac. For the next bottlings we are committed to use capsules from fully biodegradable materials such as jute and beeswax.