Winery Tools and More

On our ride out to the winery today I saw what appeared to be an old steam driven tractor and I started thinking about the advancements that have been made to farming. I then began to wonder if the winery was still using the traditional methods to harvest the grapes for the wine or if they had moved onto more modern techniques we can see today elsewhere. To my amazement they still use the hand picking method there instead of using a machine. The only machine they use is one that trims the top of the plant to a certain height, but they still trim the side by hand as well. Sadly, we weren’t able to see any of these tools due to situations that were out of our control. After researching some of the traditional tools they use I have noticed that they use a knife similar to that of a pearing knife and shears. Another interesting thing was that they do not treat with herbicides but they did make a natural fungicide out of orange peels. Beyond the agricultural tools used I learned that almost all wine grape plants here in Italy have been grafted onto an American variety and we could actually see the two different types of stems.

-Colton Bausch