Tenute Rubino > Press Area > Announced > The Harvest of Women in Salento

The Project of Tenute Rubino

'The work of the women in the vineyards is a valid example of precision viticulture and is essential to redefine also in Apulia a new and more progressive concept of enological quality. The Renaissance of the Apulian wine is under the eyes of everybody but – as 'The Wine Advocate' writes – it still has to be discovered and known by a lot of people. To communicate the territory and the quality of the wines is not enough: new communication strategies are required to disclose to the great public the garden of delights of the Salento enology. Behind great wines there is not only the territory, the climate, the grape variety: there is the work and the experience of the people, there is a culture, a history and a way of life that flourish with sensibility, care and attention, beginning from the working in the vineyard. The identification of the whole of these factors as the essential key to get quality and prestige represents the winning card to promote the growth of the whole sector of the quality wine in this country, especially in time of crisis.'

The grape growing is a constant factor throughout the history of Apulia and particularly of Salento. Here the civilization begins with vine and wine; and likewise, this wonderful land, surrounded by the sea, is deeply rooted in vine and wine; and still, it is in vine and wine that this country wants to trace a future of development and growth. This is a story of generations engaged in realizing production, economy and even technical and productive progress; nonetheless, this progress has often left in shadow the work, considering it as a marginal and irrelevant element within an underdeveloped and massive farm subculture; on the contrary, those who work in the vineyards have to be considered as the true protagonists of the evolution of an enlightened elite sector, with a high added value, namely that of the modern viticulture at the service of the quality enology. Only by putting a stop to the underestimation of the work and by exploiting the professionalism and experience which are expression of an identitary culture and of a passion of the territory, it is possible to promote and enhance the production of quality wine in Apulia. The development of the enology in this region, the coming of a new generation of entrepreneurs and a new awareness of the crucial role played by the work inside a productive process focussed on the excellence, have given rise to important experiences of change and innovation.

On the basis of these considerations, Tenute Rubino has undertaken, in the countryside of Brindisi, a project of valorisation of the work in the vineyards as one of the factors qualifying the productive process, especially as far as the farm sector is concerned. The whole of the farming operations of targeted viticulture is carried out by women, according to an experience and sensibility handed down from mother to daughter: the manual skill, the precision of the intervention, and the speed of execution are the qualifying and identitary elements which – along with the pedoclimatic conditions of the region or the features of a grape variety – contribute to determining the specificity and the uniqueness of that wine and of that winery.

'The harvest of women in Salento is a valid synthesis to draw the attention of the public opinion, of the enological critic and of the consumers. Our primary aim – says Luigi Rubino – is to make more and more explicit the way towards the quality, emphasizing the points of strength of our territory: the pedoclimatic conditions, which are particularly favourable to vine growing, the great enological value expressed by the Apulian ampelographic heritage (Negroamaro, Primitivo, Susumaniello, White Malvasia and many others), and last but not least, the specialization of the farming practices carried out in the vineyards. The work in the vineyard is essential to reach new qualitative targets and this awareness urges us to put in the foreground the people working in the vineyard, beginning from our women, an important resource that help us in the research of the quality and in the definition of a new image of the Apulian wine in Italy and in the world'.

'We want to offer a tribute of sincere gratitude to these women who work together as a team – continues Luigi Rubino – and speak the same language, sharing with us the same vision. They have kept alive the ancient link among vine, wine and community which this land has all along expressed and which we now have to innovate and fortify, enhancing its value and its uniqueness. First of all we have to rediscover the anthropological and cultural aspect of this ancient link, which is an authentic expression of Salento; then, we have to enter in the merits of the farming activities, in which every intervention is carried out with the rigour and the sensibility that are peculiar to women, with perseverance and true devotion'.

In Tenute Rubino women’s work is organized in teams: they pick bunches in harvest time and carry out all the other farming operations on the plants, namely the thinning, the pruning and the defoliation. These agronomical practices require care, skill, attention and the women of Brindisi have reached a unique and unparalleled level of experience and preparation. They know each other all along, they often belong to the same family and their sense of membership and of pride of their land can become – with Tenute Rubino – a significant element of the winery’s communication. Their faces, their gestures and their smile reveal the harmony of those realizing a better way of life, thanks to a hard and specialized work, remaining in their homeland and preserving their own culture. The awareness of the value which is finally recognized to the farm work, and particularly to the work of women in the field, in Italy and above all in the South, acquires an extraordinary importance of great symbolic and perspectival meaning. 'The path of growth and of qualitative evolution of the Apulian wine – explains Luigi Rubino – is important both for companies and workers. To assign the right role and the right visibility to the workers in the vineyards is a necessary premise to keep alive the farm activities, as well as the vine and olive growing; we should not forget that our landscapes are shaped by centuries of agriculture, and are the magnificent fruit of a balanced relationship between men and nature. To give space to the work and visibility to the workers in the vineyards can contribute to the safeguard of our environmental heritage, of our landscape and of our culture'.

'Opening the Estate of Jaddico to the public, – concludes Luigi Rubino – allowing wine tourists and winelover to attend the picking of the Susmaniello bunches, let them observe and appreciate the meticulous work of our women workers in the selection of the bunches, are all signs of a great confidence that we feel in the future of this land, but also and above all, signs of a coherence with this true 'Renaissance' of the wine produced in Apulia, which – as it has been rightly stated by Robert Parker – it is surprising, but it still has to be discovered and known.'

Brindisi – September 2009
Press Agency GRAN VIA Società & Comunicazione
info@granviasc.it www.granviasc.it

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