To run a vineyard at Leuta is a full time effort. The season starts with pruning to set the vines to reach an optimal combination of quality and quantity. As the temperature rises, at the beginning of spring, the vines start sprouting. At this point it is critical to keep the trunk of the vines clean from any buds that may have sprouted. We call this operation “scacchiatura”, it actually means to clean manually all the young buds that are coming out from the trunk of the vine. We do this in order to force the vines to concentrate on growing branches that will carry the grapes and thus avoiding any waste of the vine’s energy to grow unneeded vegetation. Together with scacchiatura we start spraying some products – we are an organic farm – mainly sulphur and copper – to avoid the proliferation of fungi that will deteriorate the leaf wall. Which is deadly important for allowing the grapes to ripen. Last but not least, during this month, we start working the soil. We keep on mulching the grass and the old branches in order to reintegrate the organic elements of the soil; being organic we cannot use any pesticide or other chemical stuff, so we have to use a mechanical system to get rid of the grass that eventually will steal elements from the soil. The next steps will be in May, with many other tasks performed in the vineyard.