Yeap, I’ve heard it many times before, wines from Cinque Terre cost too much! Well, they aren’t cheap, however, if I explain to you what an enormous work is needed to produce every single bottle of this wine, you’ll realise that the price is absolutely reasonable … or even not enough high comparing the work that stands behind this wine! Below the reasons why the wines from Cinque Terre have their price:
Vineyards
Those of you who have already been in Cinque Terre know that the zone is very mountainous and the slopes of the mountain are very steep. On this steep slopes grow grapes of Cinque Terre. The vineyards are located on terraces that are created thanks to the very elaborated system of dry stone (a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together) and this terraces system have to be maintained and improve in a constant way. The plants of grapes that grow they are not very tall and the terraces are very tight. So even keep in order the vineyards is very hard and difficult work.
Surface
The total surface of National Park of Cinque Terre is 3860 km². This is a very limited surface, so also the quantity of wine that can be produced there is very limited. And as always in such cases, as fewer products you can find on the market its price will be higher.
Grape harvest
I think that you can’t imagine how hard is grape harvest in Cinque Terre! I mean, before you’ve tried you can’t say how hard it is! I always knew that it was hard … but only after trying it by myself I realised that is really HEROIC work! All grapes are picked up manually! No tractors, no machines that will do it for humans. First, you have to pick up the best and the most beautiful grapes for Sciacchetrà and only after that the grapes for wine (white or red). As I’ve mentioned before, the grape plants are short, so when you pick up the grapes you are usually bent. After finished picking up the grapes it is necessary to bring together all the cases with grapes. The cases weigh about 20 kg each (!!!) and they have to be brought on the day-labourers backs who have to climb steep slopes of Cinque Terre with that weights!!!
More about harvest in Cinque Terre here.
Production
And the heroic work is not finished yet! Then, when all grapes are brought in the cellar, they have to be throw to the special containers – of course, it is all made manually.
And producing Sciacchetrà is even more laborious. All grapes that have been selected during the harvest have to be positioned on the big grating to dry out for about 2 months. More about Sciacchetrà here.
Price
And now, after all that work, all that weights, all that sweat how much should cost wine from Cinque Terre? I’m really curious what do you think about it 😉 However, you have to be prepared for spending not less than 20€ for a bottle of Cinque Terre DOC wine. And I think you agree that it worth them all!
P.S. All pictures and movies come from the grape harvest at Azienda Agricola Possa from Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre.
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