When we first moved to “cru Montersino” just outside of Treiso, we were very
curious as to why there were hazelnut trees and not vines in a small section of
the cru. To us, this spot seemed like a great place for nebbiolo, which grown here
would qualify it to be labeled as Barbaresco.

After 18 months of wondering, in March of 2009 we woke up to chainsaws
cutting down the hazelnut trees. We can finally see are home from the road

Striped clean we soon learned after talking to the locals that Cru Montersino in
the Barbaresco zone was about to get a little larger. A long and very costly
project, only to be done by someone with lots of patience. In this case the
winery of Orlando Abrigo from Treiso

The first big step is digging up all the old tree roots. It is incredible the
investment that goes into such a project, keeping in mind the first bottle of
wine is at least 5 to 6 years away. Normally the first vintage or two is usually
released as Nebbiolo d’Alba, that means the first bottle of Barbaresco can
be up to 8 years away or longer after starting this project

Irrigation is not allowed in Italy therefor the next step is digging hundreds
of feet of trenching used for distributing and removing rain water

We lost count at 15 of how many of these rigid pipes were installed along
With cement distributing boxes

The trenches were from 4 to 8 feet deep (very OSHA approved working conditions)

After the trenching gravel was used for back filling. It appears fiat makes just
about everything one would need in Italy

After back filling the soil was turned over followed by final grading

Now the fun starts using GPS guided lasers to achieve the best positioning
for the vines. Strings are staked out to form the vineyard’s final layout for
the hundreds of poles needed to support the training wires.

The poles are pushed in to the ground one at a time, a very slow and tedious Job.
although
After 7 months it is starting to look like a vineyard, although one without vines
and row end posts yet

The first of some 3,000+ vines of nebbiolo is planted.

After planting, all that is exposed is a few inches of wax covered vine

Now that the trees have been replaced by a new vineyard, Cru Montersino
looks complete. We will let you all know when we try our first wine from this new vineyard.