Narrowboatboy’s Big, Bad Blog...Narrowboat & Travel blog based on Lancaster Canal

So today, Friday 13th, has been the second and final day of the 2019 Vendemmia for the organic Syrah wine of the Doveri Cantina, near to Cortona. An early six o clock start saw us sipping coffee and munching creme- pastries, a usual pastime before a busy morning in the vineyard....and was it busy, wow....In the cool of the morning I watched many big strong, rough looking girls and boys scurrying up and down the rows, snipping away at the bunches of ripe grapes as the morning sun came up and before long the crates were overflowing and were being loaded on the awaiting truck. I thought it best, as a non paid-up union member, not to get too involved so I took on a self-appointed overseeing management role otherwise I’m sure I could have lost a finger or two or worse, at the bottom of one of the longer rows where no-one would have heard my pathetic whimpering screams. So, after an hour or so watching (managing) this impressive spectacle of organised labour the boss and I returned...

There are probably a number of folk out there that have a fair bit of wine knowledge but as some wise old scabby pigeon once told me “you never stop learning...” so I thought I’d share my wine experiences and knowledge with you as this week we had the Vendemmia...the Italian word used only for the harvest of grapes for wine production. Per  vendemmia  si intende la raccolta delle uve da vino, in quanto nel caso delle uve da tavola si usa semplicemente il termine raccolta. This in short is the day when the grapes are declared as ready for harvesting as they can be, the moons is in the right phase and the man from Del Monte has said  “YES”.  At this point in time you need a crowd of folk to pick them, some clean plastic crates to put them in and a big truck to take them back to the ‘Cantina’ for processing...and just for all you wine romantics il just quash this notion right now....it’s hot, sweaty and hard graft to fill up the crates in the hot suns...

Im sorry Father but it’s been nearly a year since my last confession...well 9 months or so...the time it takes to make a baby👶 , grow an avocado 🥑 , mature a wine🍷 , develop an ulcer🤷🏿‍♀️....errr, or none of the above.  Yes, I returned to the sunshine state of Tuscany 🇮🇹in the deep south of the Mediterranean homesick blues and have been here that long, contemplating and capitulating life as we know it. So now, as we head out of the summer sun and into the autumnal shade I thought that maybe it’s about the right time to put finger to keyboard again and spend a small amount of my loose time lolling about with my creative thoughts to blog critical comment and witty repartee as and when the mood takes me. So I looked back at my last post for a reference point to start from and saw the world at the time of my last post was being slated for being in such a mess, so, a good nine months on I’m glad all that is now behind us and the future is now looking incredibly ros...