vendemmia

Posted on 29/9/2009 at 13:09 - Post Comment

dutchwomanabroad

tuesday settembre 29 th 2009

love this time of the year. leaves are starting to change colors, living the indian summer. and then there is something very special about ticino. it is the moment of the year where it seems like you are in an ant hill. it started a week or so ago. everyone busy. getting together people. loading crates on little trucks. there is this humming tune in the air, like bees flying around flowers. how will it be this year, did we have enough sun, did we have enough rain, should we wait a couple of more days to get up the degrees. i am talking about the harvesting of the beautiful winegrapes we have here. whole families are on their hands and knees in the vineyards. it doesn't matter how old or young you are, there is always something to do. the elderly and small children will have the job of picking rotten grapes out of the crates, bringing empty ones, ecc, and they will be doing that under a splendid sun for days in a row. everybody in the age between the former two groups goes and goes and goes. most of them doing it as a pleasure and getting a free lunch in the middle of nature. it is a hard job, but people are whistling and talking during their labor. picking the grapes is only the beginning. traffic is jammed in the streets of the village for unloading the trucks. and hardly anybody will be upset because it is for a good cause. that's the wine we will be drinking later. i drove by one of the wine cellars in the next village on my bike after they had started the proces of wine making and i almost got drunk and fell of my bike. i was overwhelmed by the sweet, heavy air of grapes fermenting. the first days the odor is almost nauseating, and then after a week or so, you start smelling the scent of wine essences. and now we just have to wait to be able to taste whatever nature gave us this year. but looking at the weather, it'll be a great year. 

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