The Grape Harvest: The Most Awaited Time of the Year
Harvest is the heart and soul of the winemaking process. It's a crucial moment for the winemaker, marking the transition from tending the vineyard to creating fine wines. It's the period when the grapes are harvested, typically at LE LASE between early August (Chardonnay base sparkling wine) and early October (Canaiolo Nero late harvest), depending on the grape variety and soil and climate conditions. It's a phase that requires great attention and precision, as the degree of ripeness of the grapes is crucial to determining the wine's final quality, color, and aromas.
Determining the ideal time to harvest the grapes. This decision is based on analyzing the sugar, phenolic, and acidic ripeness of the grapes, along with factors such as the grape variety and the desired wine style. A few days before harvesting, samples of a given variety's grapes are taken and sent to the analysis laboratory in Orvieto. We also conduct our own tests in the winery. These are intense days... ostimeters and refractometers constantly in operation, and a constant coming and going between the vineyard and the cellar...
When all the organoleptic parameters are perfect and the weather is on our side...we can start dancing! 😉
We start early at dawn
At first light, our vehicles and all the winemakers are already ready among the rows.
The hottest hours of the day are avoided—the harvest usually ends around 11-11:30 in the morning— primarily to help the people working in the vineyard, but also to naturally lower the harvest temperature of the grapes and thus preserve the freshness of the berries.
In some particularly dry years - during the month of August - we preferred to harvest at night, by moonlight.
Always under the constant supervision of the agronomist and Marta, the grapes, harvested strictly by hand, are placed in small baskets that are then emptied into the "tipper" positioned in the central row. 
It all seems so simple and banal, but it isn't! During the harvest, team spirit is everything. A collective and coordinated effort is needed to ensure an efficient harvest. At LE LASE, our daily motto during harvest time is "we start together and we arrive together." If a pair of winemakers falls behind along the row, the pair ahead is always ready to help. At the end of the rows, all winemakers must arrive simultaneously.
Once the tipper is filled, the tractor driver is ready to empty it into the harvest wagon located at the headland closest to the harvested rows.
Everything is ready in the cellar
The cellarmen are ready to wait for the second tractor driver who drives the grape harvest wagon.
The destemming phase begins, which separates the grapes from the stalks. This operation must be carried out delicately, so as not to compromise the quality of the grapes and to leave the stems intact, to avoid the release of unwanted substances into the first must. .
The grapes were then pressed to obtain the actual must.
Depending on the type of wine (white, red, or orange), we'll undergo different processes (crushing, pressing, maceration), always meticulously supervised by Marta and our winemaker. The process continues with fermentation in temperature-controlled steel tanks, where the must is transformed into wine through the action of the yeasts.
Each batch of grapes is vinified separately to preserve and enhance the differences between the parcels, resulting in wines with distinct aromatic and flavor profiles. This is the case, for example, with our Chardonnay: same grape variety, same clone, but in two different parcels with similar soil but different exposures. This results in two different ripening periods and, therefore, two distinct vinifications.
Various processes will then follow for each batch of wine. Punching down, pumping over, racking, etc., etc. In short, the road to maturation and then refinement is still long. Some wines—like our Thesan , for example—will be aged for several years before being bottled.
Every harvest is a story of men and grapes, of toil and hope...
A sore back, tired arms, heavy legs: that's how you feel after hours, days, and weeks spent in the vineyard, under the scorching sun, bent over the vines cutting the bunches of grapes. But the physical toil and constant efforts are amply rewarded: the harvest is, above all, satisfaction. It's the culmination of a year's work, the tangible result of the decisions made during the previous twelve months and the activities carried out. It's the best way to understand how the entire year went in the vineyard.
The grape harvest, finally, is a tradition .
Like every year, a cycle concludes, but it also marks the beginning of further work in the cellar. As always (almost always!), our land has been generous, gifting us its finest grapes, which we must carefully process to enhance their characteristics, flavors, and aromas. On the last day of the harvest, when the last bunch of grapes has been destemmed, we celebrate the Harvest Festival in the cellar. It's a joyful moment among us, with lots of laughter and relaxed faces.
Above all, a moment of thanks to all those who, every year, in the fields and in the cellar, with their work ensure the final product reaches an excellent level of quality. The best way to be together, according to our philosophy: simply and genuinely, like one big family.
Cheers!!