Tuscan Harvest Watch 2011 - live the harvest as it happens across Tuscany

Aug. 30, 2011 - PRLog -- Terroir is a vital concept for Tuscany, as it is for Bordeaux.  The soils, the prevailing weather systems and altitude all vary significantly from zone to zone, as do the approaches to the vineyard and winemaking.  Tuscan Harvest Watch will follow the grape harvest and the making of wine in key zones around the region: Chianti Classico, the historic area between Florence and Siena; Chianti Rufina, the most important of the Chianti sub-zones, close to Florence with a cooler climate; the Upper Maremma with the influence of the sea; and the Lower Maremma, from the sea to inland Pitigliano and to the south of  Mount Amiata.  

The following estates will be contributing their reports:  

I Veroni, Pontassieve, Chianti Rufina

Caparsa, Radda-in-Chianti, Chianti Classico

Massa Vecchia, Upper  Maremma

Sassotondo, Lower Maremma

The website is already live with accounts of the season so far: the advanced spring, the summer which developed perfectly marred only by selective hail storms and the recent heat wave and how it is affecting the grapes in the final weeks of the season ...  

The web pages are available in:

English - http://winefriend.org/home/tuscan-harvest-watch-2011/

Italian - http://winefriend.org/home/tuscan-harvest-watch-2011/vend...

These webpages will be of interest to wine importers, sommeliers, restaurateurs, wine writers, wine students,  and consumers and lovers of wine generally.  While individual producers will write up the harvest after the event and companies will summarize the conditions in general, this website will provide a week by week account of the harvest as it develops and in the words of the producers themselves.       
Tuscan Harvest Watch 2011 - live the harvest as it happens across key wine zones of Tuscany, central Italy’s most important wine producing region.

# # #

www.winefriend.org is created and written by English wine writer, David Way. The website focuses on the wines of Italy and France, with a particular interest in the wines of the Tuscan Maremma - from Bolgheri down to Pitigliano. David has taught wine appreciation courses and conducted wine tours in and around the picturesque Tuscan hill town of Massa Marittima, as well as conducting Italian wine tastings in the UK.