Fattoria Poggerino’s Unique Accapannare Canopy Treatment
Fattoria Poggerino is a small, organic, family-run winery located in the heart of Tuscany’s beautiful Chianti Classico production zone. It consists of 106 acres (43 hectares) of vineyards, olive groves, and woods, with a few old traditional stone houses and a 12th century church. Known for their attention to detail, sustainable farming practices, and strong family values, Poggerino consistently produces outstanding Chianti vintages, earning ratings over 90 points each year.
Poggerino winery stands out in their commitment to organic farming and the way they treat their grapevine canopies. A grapevine canopy refers to the collective parts of the grapevine’s fruit, trunk, shoots, cordons, and leaves. It is considered one of the most important aspects of vineyard management because the canopy directly influences the quantity and quality of the vine’s yields.
Most producers practice canopy topping, where they cut off the top of the vines. Instead, Poggerino employs a technique called Accapannamento, which is a unique process that requires the canopy to be rolled by hand.
Poggerino captured a day-by-day progression of their canopies to show their Accapannare treatment in action. Below you can see how the top of the canopies appear before and after treatment.
Rolling the canopy has an impact on the vine’s vigor, or the relative growth rate of a particular vine.
Vigorously growing shoots are characterized by having long internodes (the smooth portion of a shoot between nodes), large leaves, and oftentimes actively growing lateral shoots. If the vine produces too much greenery such as leaves or shoots, then it will re-distribute and redirect more resources to its many leaves and branches, leaving less for the grapes. The accapannamento allows the farmer to better control the canopy’s growth in a strategic way. A fair number of leaves is still paramount for photosynthesis and grapes’ growth, so balancing the size of the canopy is crucial. In areas where there is little vigor, rolling the vines creates less stress for the vines as they do not need to create more vegetation. This leads to better balance in the vineyards which means better ripening grapes in terms of sugar and phenols. Rolling instead of cutting the canopy also conveniently helps reduce the chance of disease in the grapevines. All of this translates into better and more balanced wines. Poggerino’s accapannare method highlights the extreme attention to detail they put into their vineyards and the hand-crafted work they do to create beautiful, balanced wines.
Poggerino has a rich history with Volio imports, to learn more about how this amazing winery became Volio Imports’ very first producer, check out our producer page here! Check out Poggerino’s website to see more of their beautiful winery!