“There is no great wine without a great vineyard behind”
Paolo Galli
The Sustainability
Climate, soil, exposure, varieties, history, traditions and family of Le Ragose perfectly represent the French world “terroir”, that more than anything else represents a quality production. As a confirmation that Le Ragose was a particularly suited place, in the following years, documents proving the presence of vineyards in that place 400 years earlier were found (picture represents the document).
This is important because 400 years ago irrigation systems did not exist and people used to plant vineyards only in suited places, in order to produce quality and healthy wine. Still today, Le Ragose doesn’t use irrigation and practices a sustainable agriculture and production also with the use of the pergola Trentina semplice to “naturally” protect the grapes from sun burns, hail and wind.
For us, sustainability is the basis for growing grapes and it is the most important requirement for the respect and safeguard of the ecosystem.
In order to protect the environment, Le Ragose adopts several practices, such as the elimination of the weeding and the recovery of waste in order to produce compost, that can be later utilized as fertilizer. Moreover, in order to fight the main parasite of the vine, the “Tignoletta”, we use the method of the “sexual confusion controls” in the vineyard. Finally, during the packaging of the bottle of wine, we mainly use light glass bottles, in order to reduce the environmental impact.
We’ve been adopting the certification National Integrated Production Quality System – SQNPI, that certifies agricultural and agro-industrial production according to specific technical standards and mandatory phytosanitary indications for the wine sector.
On the international level, the organization that provides the guide lines in the wine sector is the “International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV)”. The OIV defines sustainability as a “global strategy on the scale of the grape production and processing systems, incorporating at the same time the economic sustainability of structures and territories, producing quality products, considering requirements of precision in sustainable viticulture, risks to the environment, product safety and consumer health and valuing of heritage, historical, cultural, ecological and aesthetic aspects”.
As for the OIV, also for us sustainability is the respect not only of the environment, but also of the economic and social aspects. For us, the protection of the total eco-system is the basis for the production of quality wines, linked to the place, the traditions and the history of the Valpolicella Classica.
Furthermore, in Le Ragose there is a continuous update on sustainability themes.
Marco Galli, one of the two owners, takes care of the technical side since he is both agronomist and oenologist.
The nephew Marta, PhD in Management and Innovation, researches about Sustainability in the Italian and International wine business at the Catholic University of Milan.