Podere Volpaio

An "organic" culture

To cherish our land: this is our goal, preserving the culture of wine. Hippocrates thought that wine was so healthy it could even be used to cleanse wounds; Podere Volpaio thinks it is essential to pass on what our fathers left us in over 2000 years of history, culture and hard work, in order to hand over to our children a land whose beauty and immense wealth are intact.

This is why Podere Volpaio relies on organic farming productions which minimise the release of waste into the soil, the air and the water, preserving the natural fertility of the land and protecting the complexity of the agro-ecosystem and its biodiversity, consuming less power.

There are four qualities which are required by European production standards (Reg. 2092/91): the best environmental impact, healthiness, the absence of GMOs and a guaranteed control and certification system. There are also other qualities concerning aspects not expressly required by the EU Regulation, but that manufacturers can choose to provide to their products: greater health and hygiene safety, nutritional content and organoleptic qualities. Respecting each and every one of these standards represents an added value for us.

Our philosophy

Guardians of our land

Our main commitment is to be the guardians of our land and our traditions. This means carrying on a viticulture which respects the environment and is in harmony with the ecosystem, according to a tradition which has been handed down for generations. The native grape varieties, which have adapted to these lands for centuries, the cultivation with a specific planting layout and traditional farming systems are essential factors in order that we may respect what we have inherited.

Safety

Specifically because of the agronomic techniques adopted, in particular the exclusion of synthetic chemicals from the production process, organic products are safer than others from the health and hygiene point of view. Several research studies show that the nutritional value of organic products is superior to that of conventional products. In particular, they frequently reported a greater presence of valuable antioxidants. Those studies which compare the taste of conventional products and of organic ones place the latter in medium-high quality ranges, which does not often occur for the former.

Quality

The good ranking awarded to organic products in competitions is increasingly common. Their quality derives from the impact they have on the land and on what the land gives back. Air, water and soil pollution, erosion and loss of fertility, loss of biodiversity, high consumption and the production of greenhouse gases, are some of the problems created by conventional agriculture, and that not even "GM" productions have been able to solve. Organic farming has proven to be the only one really able to offer solutions concerning all these problems, both through the application of the EEC Regulations, and through more restrictive rules which have been freely adopted.

Consistency

Choosing "organic" involves the entire production process, limiting choices and defining the limits of realisation. In order to be consistent, it is necessary to seek traditional solutions to plant problems and to tend towards a constantly original production process. The international movement for organic farming, for example, had sensed the uncertainties and risks inherent in the use of GMOs in agriculture; as became clear later, these are uncertainties and risks which affect the environment, human health and the actual possibility of populations to choose what to produce and what to eat. The path proposed by genetically modified agriculture is for us the opposite of the one proposed by organic farming: for this reason, their coexistence is impossible.

Honesty

Organic farming prohibits the use of chemicals (artificial fertilisers, pesticides, etc.) and uses natural fertilisers. Honesty and transparency of the production methods are required in order to verify these elements. Knowing what you eat actually means knowing how a food is produced at every stage, from the field to the table; this is possible thanks to one or more independent bodies which oversee the implementation of standards and certify this to the consumers. Thanks to inspections which involve both the production process and the final product, organic production is still the food sector which offers the greatest guarantees.