It was a long, slow spring this year; cold and rainy until the very end of May. As you may remember from the headlines at the time, larges swathes of Europe were hit by frost in April and then a couple of localised hail storms rumbled around the Veneto in mid-May. The area which produces grapes for Prosecco DOC was particularly badly hit by both phenomena. Where we are, in the town of Gambellara, only the low-lying lands were affected by the frost… and producers who work with the garganega grape were let off more lightly than those working with glera or pinot noir because garganega is a relatively late-ripening variety and therefore the buds were barely formed at the time.
Finally, the month of June brought high temperatures and thus ensued a game of catch-up in the vineyards between the rampant vines and the overwhelmed vignaiolo. The cold spring had meant that the vines were two to three weeks behind where they would normally be at that time in the year, but they were given a new lease of life by the sunshine.
A conscientious grower has one main job in June – canopy management. Garganega is a wild beast which likes to grow up and out. In Angiolino Maule’s vineyards, they like to remove the leaves which give shade to the grape bunches hence the carpet of leaves you can see on the ground in the “after” photo.
Angiolino Maule’s garganega – BEFORE 
Angiolino Maule’s garganega – AFTER
I’m writing this paragraph on July 15th – the day after a violent storm drove across most of the foothills in the region bringing hail and strong winds. In some areas (nearer to Marostica, near Bassano del Grappa) trees were uprooted and roofs were ripped off. In Gambellara, damage was widespread, especially in the westerly facing vineyards (the storm, like most do, arrived from the Lake Garda area) and particularly in guyot-trained vineyards rather than pergola where the generous canopy provides some protection.
Estimates of how extensive the hail damage was depend largely on the mindset of the person doing the estimations… but they range from 5% to 50%… Time will tell what this means for the harvest because – the silver lining – it’s too early for sugars to be formed in the grapes.
As if to compensate for last night’s violence, the skyline this morning is stunning. Dark blue hills, with fluffy white clouds lying low, dipped within each valley. The scene looked rather as if it were some child’s school project to stick cotton wool on a broody landscape.
2020 was such a tumultuous year because it made us reassess how we live our lives, but it turns out to have been an excellent vintage in Gambellara – one of the best in recent memory. 2021, while arguably less anxiety-ridden in terms of the pandemic, will be a year where no winemaker will have got through the growing season with their nails in tact. It is only the middle of July and already I can hear another violent thunderstorm that is starting to rumble around the hills, threatening to cause damage left right and centre.
Wine of the month:
Marco Turco’s “Lucifer” Pinot Noir 2020 from the Colli Berici, drunk at Osteria Bertoliana, a small restaurant in central Vicenza with a menu loaded with offal and local natural wines.
Very hard to get hold of, it would seem, because Marco doesn’t appear to have a website or even a list of the wines he makes, but if you find it, drink it!
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