In winter, when the vineyard seems asleep, it is actually waiting.
Waiting for a precise, ancient, essential gesture: pruning.
At Fattoria di Montemaggio, winter pruning is one of the most delicate moments of the year.
It is not a mechanical task, nor a repetitive one.
It is a conscious decision, vine by vine, that determines the balance of the season to come.
✂️ An Act of Responsibility
To prune means to remove.
And in the vineyard, removing is always an act of responsibility.
Every cut decides how much energy the vine will have, how many clusters it will produce, and how the grapes will ripen.
This is where quality is chosen long before quantity.
No two vines are the same.
Each carries its own history, strength, and response to the previous year’s climate.
Pruning is a silent dialogue with that history.
🌱 Listening to the Vine
In winter, the vine is bare and essential.
And precisely for this reason, it speaks more clearly.
The pruner reads the canes, their position, their vigor.
Observes the nodes, the buds, the scars of past seasons.
Nothing is imposed — the vine is listened to.
At Montemaggio, pruning follows the natural rhythm of the plant, respecting its balance and longevity.
🕰️ Time as an Ally
Pruning requires slowness.
It cannot be rushed.
It is work done in the cold months, often in silence, with breath visible in the air.
One gesture after another, without noise, without spectacle.
Here, time becomes an ally — not an enemy.
🍇 Deciding the Wine Before It Exists
Long before flowering, long before harvest, the wine already begins to take shape.
It begins with a well-considered cut.
The structure of the future cluster, the balance of the vine, the concentration of the grapes — everything starts now, while the vineyard appears still.
🌿 A Lesson in Measure
Winter pruning teaches a simple and profound lesson:
doing less can mean doing better.
In a world that constantly pushes for more, the vineyard reminds us of the value of restraint, selection, and essentials.
At Montemaggio, pruning is not about preparing the vineyard to produce more.
It is about preparing it to endure.
Because a great wine is also born from what we choose not to do.
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