Can Tourists Participate in the Grape Harvest?

Yes, and harvest is one of the few jobs on a farm where a visitor can be genuinely useful within about ten minutes. What we run is a vendemmia didattica, an educational harvest: a guided half-day in small numbers where every step gets explained before it is done, because picking is delicate work and the vines are the estate's living.

Families are the group we see most, and children usually take to it faster than the adults. Nobody needs any experience. The first crate is always the slow one; by the second, people have the rhythm. We work in English and Italian, from two people upwards, right through the harvest season.

What you can expect

• Shears, a crate and a row of your own, beside the people who pick here every year.
• An explanation of how ripeness is judged: by sugar, by acidity, and by chewing the seeds.
• Your fruit followed into the cellar, through destemming and pressing, past the fermentation tanks, following the real rhythm of the working cellar.
• A guided tasting with our instructors, among them Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine and our own winemakers.
• Lunch in the vineyard, at the same table as everyone else.
• Something for the children at every stage: cutting bunches, carrying crates and, above all, the tub.

What Happens During a Harvest Experience?

The day follows the grape: out of the row, into the cellar, into the glass, onto the table. The whole experience lasts about 180 minutes.

1. In the vineyard. We start with the vintage and the ground it grew in, the sandy clay and marine fossils under these hills. Then shears and crates, and you pick.
2. In the cellar. Your crates go where all the fruit goes: through the destemmer and the press, past tanks already working. It is the loudest and best-smelling fortnight of our year. This part follows the real rhythm of a working cellar, so what you see depends on the day.
3. Grape stomping, when the day allows it. The pigiatura, barefoot, with the fruit of that morning. It runs most often in the opening weeks of the season.
4. Tasting and lunch. How to look at a wine, smell it, taste it and say something useful about it, taught over four courses in the vines.

The order of the day bends to the weather and to whatever is being picked and pressed that morning.

Good to know before you come

• Closed, comfortable shoes. The rows are on a slope and the ground is uneven.
• Clothes you can stain. Grape juice takes a few washes to give up.
• Tell us about allergies or intolerances when you book, and again before the tasting.
• Gluten free, vegan and vegetarian menus on request at the time of booking.
• Teens from 4 to 17 are welcome and usually beat the adults to the tub.

September or October: Which Month Should You Choose?

Both months sit inside the harvest. They just feel like different holidays.

September, at full speed

September is the loud month. The cellar is running by seven, the whites are coming in, and the estate is as busy as it gets, which is what most visitors are hoping to see. Afternoons still reach the mid-twenties, the light is long, and evenings are cool enough to eat outside comfortably. The vines are green, the countryside is still wearing its summer colours, and there is a village festival somewhere most weekends.

Come in September for the activity, the outdoor lunches and the noise.

October, quieter and prettier

October slows down. Mornings often start in mist, days are shorter, and rain is a real possibility. What you get in return is the best light of the year: vineyards turning red, amber and gold, and towns that have emptied out. The late Sangiovese is still coming in while the first ferments are already working, so you see two stages at once. Olive oil and truffle season begins.

Come in October for the colour, the quiet and the food.

Either way, the actual picking days depend on the year. That is exactly why the experience runs across the whole season rather than on fixed dates.