Reading the Vines Before Harvest

As the vendemmia draws near, there is one ritual that never changes at Gagliole: walking the rows, row by row, to read what the vines are telling us.

In these final weeks before harvest, Andreas and Lucas Bär spend their mornings among the vines of Panzano, checking cluster by cluster for colour, skin thickness, seed maturity, and sugar development. It is a quiet, deliberate process — one that cannot be rushed and cannot be replaced by instruments alone. Three generations of instinct meet here, in the space between what the data says and what the hand and eye can feel.

This year’s growing season has brought its own rhythm: warm days, cool nights, and vines that have responded with balance rather than stress. Walking the Conca d’Oro and the surrounding parcels, father and son compare notes on ripeness across the estate’s different terroir zones — each one arriving at its own pace, each one destined for a different wine.

It is a moment that captures something essential about Gagliole: winemaking here is not just a process, it is a conversation — between the land, the family, and the vintage still taking shape. The decisions made in these last days in the vineyard will define the character of the wines for years to come.

Harvest is close. And as always, it begins not in the cellar, but here, among the leaves.

Salute!
Lucas Bär
Gagliole Wines