La Ripolina

In the first days of October 2019 I visited my friends in Tuscany, I met the year before, as participant of the „Siena International Photo Awards“. During my stay at the agriturismo “La Ripolina” in Buonconvento, Camilla decided to start the vintage in the family vineyard and she agreed that I attended this event with my Leica. The photos of this day in the vineyard show how Camilla, the boss of the vineyard collects the grapes helped by family and friends. Although it’s hard work and sometimes unexpected problems have to be solved, the joy of companionship and team spirit are obvious. The pictures of collecting the grapes are only a snap-shot of creating a new vintage. A lot of other necessary steps and decisions during the year are still missing. But if they all happen in the spirit of this special day, we will surely receive a well-balanced wine reminding us of the hard work, the sun and the wonderful landscape of Tuscany. We will be able to taste the love for the grapes and the sustainable contact with nature. It will make the people smile as you can see it on the pictures despite the hard work. As it needed time for the grapes to mature and the juice to end up in a wine bottle, my photo book took some time until the pictures were chosen and all the pages were designed. The value of the bottled wine increases over the years and so will the value of this book. Eventually the wine becomes perhaps cloudy and sour and the pages of the book are fading, but until then we both will hopefully have created at least a lot of good harvests. Dear Camilla, many thanks for your confidence in my work.