Field trip to the Museum of Wine.

Saturday 29^th September 2018 was a very amusing and educational day for all the pupils from Vigolzone Secondary School. The teachers took all the classes on a nature walking trip to the Museum of Wine at the premises of Mr. Pizzamiglio, a passionate lover who opened free of charge this singular tradition-linked museum years ago. As soon as we got in, we saw some pictures showing the hilly area around there from above and thee-dimensionally. Once over the stairs, Mr. Pizzamiglio showed us two tools with a large handle and a double pointed end which were used to plant or insert the new grapevine plants into an old plant already in the ground. Today the new grapevine plants are inserted in American grapevine because they are the only ones which can resist a terrible parasitical insect which would destroy grapes harvests in the past. After that, he showed us a barrel containing pesticide – the poison and products used today did not exist once – and also showed some blue powder which it was made from.

Later, we saw some photos of feet grape-stomping in the “navassa” (big ship), a dialect word for a wooden ship-shaped bath where grapes were pressed by people’s bare feet. Our guide also showed us some travel barrels carried on mules and mainly used by Alps soldiers to carry grappa. We also saw some tools to taste wine from the barrel through the top hole. In fact, the tool was syringe-like but longer and larger. Mr. Pizzamiglio showed the tools, which are illegal today, to make wine sparkling. Today wine is still made sparkling but through fermentation. We could observe the bottle capping machines and the decanting machine from the demijohn to the bottle.

A pupil asked if the saying “Small barrel makes good wine” is true and our guide replied that it is not true. If a 75 ml bottle is used, its wine will not be so good as in a “Magnum” bottle, which is bigger.

Finally, at the end of the visit, he took us to the museum library where there was a very particularized map showing the fields owed by a noble family. It was so precise because it was useful in political or convenience marriages. Differently, other maps only showed the fields owed.

Furthermore, we saw tractors empty cases of grapes into the grape-stomping machine, where the refuse was let apart and the juice came out.