Here we are again reporting what happens at Castello di Gabbiano during this intense harvest period, in the vineyard, in the cellar, in the barrel room…
The use of harvesting machines is always a topic of discussion: machine yes machine no? As for all the great questions of life, even in this case the answer is not absolute.
In some case hand-picking is important, necessary and irreplaceable. In some case the machine makes it possible to reach and exceed a grape quality level that hand harvest would not allow.
Today, high technology provides us with particularly “smart” harvest machines – they can work excellently only in vineyards managed smartly throughout the whole season, where the grapes are selected at birth and grow healthy. There, whatever the climatic conditions during the harvest period (the greatest pitfall are the rains in September), whatever the extent of the vineyards to be harvested, the use of machine allows you to greatly reduce harvest times, therefore being able to delay the harvest date, allowing a complete ripening of the grapes.
Although there may be grapes damaged by a hailstorm, by a water stress, the harvest machine will detect them and leave them on the vine. When we say “smart” machines, of course, we refer to the intelligence of those who designed them, but it is inevitable to be amazed and interpret these images (the stalks after the machine passage) as a proof of finesse and sensitivity on the part of the machine!
