In Humo Virtus

Our motto, in humo virtus, wants to represent the complexity of our work and at the same time its humble origins: In the Earth (resides) Virtue.
In a broader sense, fertile land that brings life or still life that generates life.
The plant residues that fall on the ground are reborn to new life with an organic process called humification carried out by millions of saprophytic bacteria. The newly activated organic substance generates fertility in the soil and allows other herbaceous and tree species to grow luxuriantly.
Understanding this process means respecting the Earth, life and its complex dynamics. Knowledge of its laws allows us to understand and manage the production processes from sowing to harvesting, from winter pruning of the vineyard to vinification. And more generally, the search for harmony also involves the family, collaborators and all those who gravitate around the company in various ways.

 

The Philosophy of Organic

Complying with EU and national laws and standards is only the first step.

Organic farming, for our company, is above all a way of thinking that, if well put into practice, leads to several benefits that we can try to simplify in the following way:
1) Keeping life in all its complexity and beauty.
2) To cultivate in the awareness of actively changing vital dynamics.
3) To produce healthy, natural, tasty food.
4) Living in harmony with the environment and its rhythms: heat, cold, light, darkness.
5) To understand the signals that life sends you.
6) Use knowledge and technologies to reduce the impact of man and his work.

The first step towards organic certification was taken in 2000, and with successes and defeats, we have recently certified the entire farm area of over 350 hectares.

 

The ingenious engine of the vine

Chlorophyll photosynthesis is the real engine of life on Earth. Green plants are able, starting from water, sun, soil minerals and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to produce vital energy and organic substance that is used for the growth of the plant itself, its fruits and indirectly by all living beings on Earth. From the vegetative awakening in spring until the pre-harvest period, it is our task to protect the leaves of the vineyard by using exclusively organic products and methods, against the attacks of fungal parasites and insects to allow the correct ripening of the grapes. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the vine leaf is present in the family heraldic coat of arms!

 

Environmental Sustainability, Biodiversity and Reforestation

In the search for the right vocation of each plot of land, we have carried out extensive reforestation work, significantly improving the layout of the ridges and the beauty of the place. The plants used are wood and fruit nuts, cherry trees, alders, ash trees. Another positive effect, but not secondary, is the enhancement of the biodiversity of spontaneous flora and fauna such as bees, roe deer, wild boar, buzzards that thrive undisturbed.

A severe problem with hilly crops is the loss of the surface layer of agricultural land rich in organic matter (humus) which is brought down to the valley by heavy rain. For this reason, but not only, the vineyards are kept grassy, in alternate rows, all year round.

In the period of October-November, when the season allows, we sow legumes and grasses that will be buried during the flowering phase (a practice called green manure) to provide both organic matter and nitrogen fixed in the mycorrhizas of the roots of leguminous plants.

The wood coming from the cultivation of the woods and the cleaning of roads and roadsides is used in the thermal power station at the service of the manor house and the farmhouse.

We are working on using the by-products of agricultural processing such as marc, pruning of vineyards and olive groves, straw and waste so that they can be regenerated back into the production cycle.

Careful to improve the hydrogeological structure, which is particularly precarious due to the soil conformation, we have an efficient, capillary and well-maintained rainwater drainage network.

 

Energy balance and ecological footprint

A photovoltaic system covering 100% of the electricity consumption has been installed on the cellar roof.
The annual production of CO2 emitted in the production cycle is mostly reabsorbed by the thousands of tons of plant material covering the company's land (first and foremost the woods).