Work in progress:
we add to the compost heap the dry leaves and woody stems from the pruning of the vines.
The dark compost is around 4 months old. The leaves and small branches are turning into humus, thanks to the action of fungus and bacteria.
We are preparing now to prune the vines: the winter season, with the loss of leaves, allows us to concentrate on the architectural structure of the vine, to observe and study closely the plants in order to understand what is needed to be done to best obtain the fruit for the next harvest.
The biodynamic calendar
The instincts that guided us in the past in our decisions of when to plant, when to sow and when to harvest, not only in the management of a vine but in the life cycle of all that grows to nurture us, we have lost but we can rediscover these rhythms again through following the phases of the bio-dynamic calendar. The period of the pruning of the vines, the exact date and time, is dictated by this calendar, this is our next step for Fico 2016.
Cold winter days in the Fico vineyard
Throughout January we have experienced extremely low temperatures, the like of which we haven’t seen for many years, one morning we registered -7°C in the vineyard. This has meant that up until mid morning the ground is covered in frost, which, lays like fine embroidery on the plant shoots growing from the rich underlying manure.
The colours of the trunks and branches of the vine, particularly vivid at this time, make a striking contrast with the cold sharp greys of the frozen early morning dew.