Harvest 2020: Success on the finish line
We cannot talk about the harvest 2020 without talking about the growing conditions during the whole season and without mentioning Covid therefore:
The winter between 2019 and 2020 was very mild and the amount of rain fell was modest. This allowed us to work with more calm, attention and dedication than usual to prepare each vineyard and each olive fields for the spring / summer 2020 season.
Then Covid hit Italy in March and all our lives stopped. All of our certainties and habits were cancelled and we had to adapt to the new situation. Fortunately the Italian government allowed us to continue to work and instead of working in the office, in the cellar or preparing orders we all worked in the vineyards and Olive-orchards to finish all the works that are done in spring.
Each operation went smoothly and efficiently, the only problem we had was at the end of March, due to a winter tail that brought very low nocturnal temperatures to all of Tuscany for 4 nights at the very beginning of the budding time which created some minor frost problems in our vineyards
Fortunately, our vineyards are in very well exposed areas and even if we were very worried we had no serious problems in our vineyards.
During these days many of our colleagues winemakers, which have vineyards in lower areas or with less fortunate expositions, had to start fires between the vine rows every night before the sunrise to avoid bigger damages.
The spring period until the beginning of summer was very similar to a very well-known vintage: the great 2016.
The moderately rainy start of season guaranteed good water reserves in the soil, thanks to which the vines, the olive trees, the forests and every plant around us have fructified with great generosity and vegetated with a never seen before luxuriance…nature was really beautiful during this period and we lived in a postcard for 3 months!!
The summertime, was very sunny and bright, the maximum temperatures were high but never reached alarming heights … in few words, everything looked perfect besides the lack of rain.
So September arrived with very healthy grapes but very thirsty vines.
Due to the thirst, the vines slowed down their metabolic processes and the ripening of the grapes was slightly delayed, if we consider the amount of sun and light received.
As in the films, it is in the final that the fate of the story told is determined, even in our work as farmers / winegrowers it is the last weeks that determine the good outcome of the year, and right on the finish-line, in mid-September the rain finally arrived! 
Both, us and nature in general, including vineyards and olive groves, took a sigh of relief!
In a few days, every sign of water stress vanished, the grapes finished their ripening and the picking, which until then had only moved timid steps, put into fourth gear and ran very smoothly until the first half of October, date we finished. 
The grapes harvested were very healthy and perfectly ripe, with even more lively acidity than we imagined! Excellent for giving wines with a long life ahead, fresh and dynamic textures.
In short, 2020 will be a year that the whole world will remember, unfortunately most will remember it for all that Covid19 caused, however we at Nittardi, although aware of the world condition and the current year, will remember it for the great teamwork done and for a great harvest, “won on the finish line”.
Cheers.