The Umbrian hills lying along the Tiber valley and the clear and fertile 'Crete' facing south of the hill of Giove (TR), are the stupendous scenery in which the approximately 6 hectares of vineyards of the 'LE CRETE' winery grow.i remember as if it were yesterday the day my father told me about that 'ancient art', his grandfather's alchemy for oozing the nectar of the gods. A small cellar dug out of the rock, inside the medieval village of our town of Jupiter.he told me how the grapes were picked with ladders, from the married vines, and brought to this place with the mule, from our often distant vineyards.a few decades have passed and, although things often change, the passion and abnegation for this art remain intact.So, cultivating the love for wine that my father passed on to me, about 25 years ago, we decided to expand our vineyards and improve them, planting both cultivars that were already present in our land in ancient times and typical of our territory, and those of international origin. It is no coincidence that the place where they lie is named loc. Piscicoli 'the foot that slips'. They thus commit us to continuous maintenance, through cleaning and tidying up the land, which has also led us over time to reforest the most fragile areas.Thus oak, acacia and conifer woods act as a barrier against landslides and instability, while at the same time creating a unique biodiversity framework for our garden, as we like to call the vineyard.Our microclimate, where the currents of the Tiber valley intertwine, causes extremely dry and sultry summers. Our microclimate, where the currents of the Tiber valley intertwine, causes extremely dry and sultry summers, and this has led us to surround and decorate our cellar with a garden of succulents and flowers on dry-stone walls amidst acave and prickly pears. In this context, the working of the soil and the management of the vines, with a density of around 4,000 vines per hectare, are still carried out traditionally in accordance with natural cycles, through targeted organic fertilisation, where mechanical surface tillage in the driest periods alternates with grassing during the rainiest periods to prevent runoff.
Even the manual harvesting of the grapes is carried out in a maniacal manner, in fact the grape harvest is carried out through the selection of the bunches of grapes at various times starting from the second week of August until the first week of October, harvesting even the same qualities in several stages to give life to different wines.In the cellar, new technologies offer the possibility of enhancing the work done in the vineyard, so as to always search for new oenological emotions characterised by a distinct personality that fully reflects the spirit of the company. We produce about 50,000 bottles of wine per year, all IGT UMBRIA, mostly composed of blends of both national and international grapes, all coming from our vineyard.
