Grape Harvest
Throughout Tuscany, September is the month of grape picking, one of the merriest and most joyful harvests in the farming world. Wherever you look, you can see vineyards bursting with lush red and golden grapes and groups of people working their way down the fields as they pick them, filling up their baskets with the ripened harvest. Tractors have today replaced the characteristic oxen-drawn wagons of the past, but even so, it is still an impressive sight to see these huge carts, overflowing with grapes, being trailed along the narrow country roads. You can even smell the fermenting taking place when you walk by the farms. The countryside is dry and parched after the summer and the leaves are already beginning to change colour before finally falling when the autumn proper sets in.
Experience the real meaning of making wine by work together with the farmers in the vineyards, picking the grapes and bringing them to the cellar. You can also assist the farmers in starting the process of squeezing the grapes and learn all the secrets of the fermentation stage before passing to the ageing. As in the tradition you may have a pick-nick lunch in the vineyards with Tuscan dishes.
Celebrations and festive events are held in many country areas and give visitors the chance to enjoy themselves as wells as taste the local wines. The most popular annual events are held in Impruneta, Greve in Chianti, Panzano in Chianti, etc...

Olives Harvest
Olives are harvested in the months of November, December and January. But sometimes in Tuscany, the harvest can begin as early as the end of September. Our early harvest means that the fruit is less ripe, and therefore produces less oil, making Tuscan olive oils a bit more rare than others. The less ripe olives also account for the prized peppery taste of our oil. Of course, we love this special oil, and its arrival is always cause for celebration.
In Tuscany, the olives are always picked by hand, Tuscans do not believe that an olive that falls to the ground is worthy of our fine oil; such an olive could be damaged and spoil an entire pressing.
Because it is done by hand, olive harvesting is difficult work. Usually, the entire family, and often their friends, are called upon to pitch in with the farm workers for the harvest. Nets are spread under the trees, baskets tied around waists and the atmosphere is extremely bucolic and joyful. Traditional lunch is directly at the olive grove. Home-made delicious dishes are served on red checked table cloths. The result is a family/friends reunion very pleasurable. You can participate in the harvest as much or as little as you want and if you tired you can always relax under a tree. Once the fruit is off the trees, it must be rushed to the press in order to avoid spoilage.
Here in Tuscany, as in most of Italy, the olives are pressed at a communal mill which is called a Frantoio. At the frantoio, many growers bring their olives to be pressed, but each grower is proud of his olives and comes along with them to the mill, to be sure that only his harvest goes into the pressing. Each grower must make an appointment for his pressing, and sometimes his entire family and friends comes along to await the final product and taste the first oil of the year.
Picking olives can be physically exhausting, nobody expect that you pick large quantities, but hope that you will enjoy this way of intense contact with nature. You can enjoy a day harvesting or even a week. After the pressing, the "gold-greenish fluid" is bottled and you will have your own bottle to bring home.
Often after the pressing a evening party is organized directly in the olive grove to celebrate once again the gift of nature.
The harvesting can be organized for groups as well for individuals, contact us for more information.