This Is Italy
De harvest or the grape harvest has started again. A very busy time for the farmers has arrived and the crates are being removed from the shed again. Friends and acquaintances are asked to help, but that is of course only with the smaller winegrowers who cannot (yet) afford paid workers.
Young and old help with the picking, which is quite an event. The work of the past few months is crowned with the full, heavy bunches of grapes that are removed by tractor. The real work begins in the period after October, because all kinds of things can still go wrong.
After the picking there is a delicious Italian lunch ready, made by the lady of the house. Of course accompanied by a delicious wine from our own cantina. Living in a region like this is certainly not a punishment, while driving through the hills I enjoy the sweet smells during the grape picking.
Even though the traffic is occasionally held up by a tractor loaded with bunches of grapes, it reminds me of the delicious glass of wine that is waiting for me at home. And let's be honest, since we moved to Italy our wine consumption has increased considerably.
During the summer months, the wonderfully refreshing Verdicchio wine made from a grape variety grown only in Le Marche. The 'golden water' is sold in bottles of 5 liters at a time. Which we then store in one-litre bottles in the fridge (unfortunately never for long).
Autumn time: time for red wine
Now that autumn is approaching, I am already looking forward to a nice red wine. We regularly try out a 'new' wine for us. Today the wine is bottled. In the past, the damigiane used. These are large mouth-blown bottles in different sizes and colours. There are various stories about the name. Damigiana is said to be a corruption of Dame Jeanne, as a tribute to Queen Jeanne of Naples.
She was expelled and ended up in 1347 in her conté (county) of Provence (southern France), where she sheltered from a violent storm and was offered a bed for the night in a glass blower's manor, somewhere between Draguignan and Grasse.' The next day, the queen insisted on visiting the bottle factory. A bit confused by the high visitors, the glassblower blows a huge bottle, with a capacity of about ten liters, during the demonstration. He decides to manufacture the big bottle and wants to give her the name Reine Jeanne (Queen Jeanne). But modest as she is, the Queen insists on naming the bottle simply "Dame Jeanne." To protect the large bottle, the glassblower covered it with willow wood.
A Panda full of damigiane
Because the damigiane Nowadays they can no longer be used to store wine, I regularly see them outside an apparently abandoned house. With some trepidation I once rang the doorbell and a toothless farmer opened the door. In my best Italian, I asked if I could buy a bottle from him.
He took me to the shed and there turned out to be many more inside that he didn't do anything with. On a whim I made an offer and the Fiat Panda was fully loaded. I never knew so many bottles could fit in such a small car!
Once I got home I started washing and rinsing my 'treasures', which turned out to be quite a job. Some bottles had heaps of tartar in them, very difficult to remove. They are also very heavy without content, but also very vulnerable. I remove the tartar by putting some small stones in the bottle and then gently rolling it back and forth.
Unfortunately, some bottles were destroyed during this intensive procedure. After hard work, they are now shining in the garden at our Italian house. Many guests have already taken one with them to the Netherlands to use them as decoration indoors.
A good reason for me to go out again to look for new copies. And so I regularly drive through the hilly landscape with my car behind a tractor loaded with grapes... In search of damigiane and nice wines.
Text and photos by Marion from holiday accommodation La Valle Verde
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