VendemmiaThe warm weather held up and the pickers were working feverishly to bring in the red grapes. At the beginning of each harvest season, the rows are checked individually to decide the best time to pick. But as the days wear on, after the vineyard manager declares first this row then that one ready for picking, the decisions become more general. At a certain point each autumn, Carlo, the vineyardist, smiles broadly and waves his arm in a great arc toward the vineyard, and says proudly, “Sono pronti!”
This declaration that all of the grapes are ready would be the final push, the long days of working in the field and in the winery, cutting literally tons of grapes from the vines, hauling them by gondola to the waiting crushers, then watching as the purple juice is pumped to the fermen
