(ANSA) - ROME - Covid emergency-19, night frosts in spring and the dry winter leave their mark also in a historical ritual such as the pressing of the Nosiola grapes for the Santo Trentino Doc wine and the apple harvest in South Tyrol .
The rite of pressing is traditionally carried out on the occasion of Holy Week, and marks the transition from the drying phase of the best bunches of Nosiola collected in the Valle dei Laghi, to the very long fermentation and maturation phase of this rare and precious sweet wine. This year, due to the rules of social distancing imposed by the Covid-19 emergency, the rite of the squeezing could not be carried out in its public form. But the winemakers of the Holy Wine did not give up, and they organized several small rites, carried out privately within the individual companies, or - where possible, as in Santa Massenza - on the border between them.
Meanwhile, an expanse of apple-saving lights illuminate the fields in a suggestive way on these nights in Alto Adige - Südtirol. In the apple orchards neatly arranged along slopes and hills, the fruit growers of the Vog consortium use frost-free systems to heat the flowering plants and protect them from the frost of this spring with strong temperature changes.
"At this time of year, nights with sub-zero temperatures can cause significant damage to our apple orchards," explains Walter Pardatscher, general manager of the Vog Consortium. "Spring frosts could destroy the delicate buds of the apple orchards and compromise part of the production both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view". If this does not happen, it is because when the night arrives, and with them the risk of freezing, a specific App gives the alarm to all the farmers of the Consortium who are activated immediately ". (ANSA).
