Dry stone walls and new vines

Also this year, due to the autumn heavy rains, some of the stone walls that support our vineyards have collapsed. Therefore their reconstruction is now necessary and it will take a big job and a huge effort to carry on the spot the new stones, using the monorails of the Cantina 5 Terre, and then to place them, using the ancient technique coming from past generations.
One of the walls that has collapsed last autumn is particularly high and it caused the fall of a large volume of earth that must be now removed to the upper level by using the legendary “Cavagnola”, (small wicker basket woven by hand) which will be filled with earth or stones of small and medium size (“the recausi”), fundamental elements for the proper drainage of rainwater.Our ancestors used to raise billions of cubic meters of earth and rocks by using the “Cavagnola”, defying the law of gravity, keeping up an area that otherwise would have collapsed down to the sea centuries ago!
In addition to the walls we are also committed to plant new vines, which will begin producing the first bunches in 3 years’ time, reaching the maximum of their production only in 5 years.
The new vines’ varieties are “Bosco”, the endemic vine that distinguishes our wine and “Arbarola”, particularly suited to the production of the legendary sweet wine called “Sciacchetrà“.
The plantation of the new varieties is done manually in the old way, digging long and narrow holes, called “trenches”, using the ” rampino ” (strange pitchfork hoe with a short wooden handle).
Inside the trench, before planting the vine, we put mulch (leaves, grass and straw) and soil in order to facilitate the new vines take root. The new plants will need to be watered during the hottest periods of summer for at least a couple of years.
It is only thanks to the reconstruction of the stone walls and the planting of new varieties that we can ensure the continuity of our family tradition that, in a more global view, means the future of the Cinque Terre!