Storms circling on 19 September

The DOCG that governs the production of Brunello prohibits any mechanical manipulation of climate so no new world technology here in Montalcino. Weather is always different and so each vintage expresses these differences in the glass. As harvest draws close we have cut back the number of bunches on the vine so that our low yield receives the last crucial weeks of sunshine and benefits from the dramatic thermal excursion between day and night, vital for the development of complex aromatics. The bunches are scarcely protected by leaves and very much at risk from heavy rain or, worst of all, hail. Anything can happen in the last weeks of ripening and this afternoon has been nerve-wracking....