Tuscan Vineyard in Bolgheri

(I have misplaced the cable for the camera, so please wait for pictures.)

Today and yesterday my host showed me around the vineyard. There is, indeed, a lot of work that they do. He has a lot of farm land where the grapes grow. The area with the house is pretty big, too. There are two houses, one big, and one small. When I had first come here in 2005, the land owners were living in the big house, and the winemakers had to live in the smaller home Now, the land owners have moved out, and the winemakers live in the bigger space, and the smaller space is left for storage. Even the big house can be divided into two apartments. He and his wife have collected a lot of art and things like this, and their home is decorated very nicely. However, because they are running the business out of the house, clutter can also collect, even though they have a separate office in the home.

In addition to the two houses, there is a lot of space for equipment. There is an unpaved lot where they have to park the tractor, and that sort of stuff. There is another big building that is divided into two. One one side is a lot of storage for wine bottles and cases that are ready to be sold. On the other side are a lot of big machines where they make the wine, helping in the fermentation. They look like big cans of soda. Also, under the big house, they have a lot of room where barrels of wine are stored (it is basically a wine cellar) where the wine gets better with age. They are still building a lot more, too. They need one more building where they will store even more wine that is ready to be sold, and is currently housed at a rented warehouse in a different location.

It would be interesting to learn the business, but it would take up a whole life. When one wants to go into business, there is nothing easy about it, and any free time would have to be devoted to the business. In fact, in the little free time we had here so far, clients came over, and they had to be hosted. A couple from Belgium made an appointment that was forgotten, but as luck would have it, the Belgians arrived before they made their way to go out the door. Later that same night we hosted a client from Switzerland over dinner. Although they were Swiss, they have a summer home in a near-by village. There is always work, and hosting. With two people running the business, and maybe one very important employee, there is a lot of divided responsibilities, and the three of them seem to do everything!