Daniele Piccinin’s 12-acre (5-hectare) vineyard is located in the province of Verona, in Italy. He cultivates various grape varieties, including durella, which is also known as la rabbiosa—meaning “the angry”—on account of its pronounced acidity.
“Most wine growers use Bordeaux Mixture in the vineyard, which is a mixture of copper and powdered sulfur. While this is very effective against mildew, it isn’t great for the environment, as copper is a heavy metal that builds up in the soil and groundwater. To eliminate its use in viticulture is tough, however, as your land has to be extraordinarily rich and balanced because fungal infections, like mildew, flourish when there is an imbalance.
We’d been trying to think of an alternative to Bordeaux Mixture for a while and, one day, by chance, I met a man who specialized in the treatment of human fungal infections using plants. We got talking about essential oils and plant distillation, and, combined with my understanding of biodynamic practices, we started creating plant combinations to help restore balance in the vineyard.
That’s how our oils and tinctures got started.
EXTRACTION
Plants rich in oil, like rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, and lavender, can be put through a pot still to extract the oils. Others, though, like nettles, horsetail, and dog rose (Rosa canina) are rich in a variety of substances, but aren’t oily. Rosa canina, for example, is rich in vitamins and is particularly good at helping the body absorb calcium, so is great for menopausal women. However, since you can’t extract the essences of these plants in the form of oil, you have to use heat and alcohol to make a tincture instead.
To make a tincture, start by making an eau de vie, which means double-distilling some wine in a pot still. The result is a sort of cognac that is about 60–65 percent proof. Macerate the herbs or flowers in this spirit for 60 days, then press and put the liquid to one side.
Dry the leftover solids and start the burning process. We use our outdoor pizza oven where temperatures hit 662–752°F (350–400°C), which reduces the herb solids to a cinder. First, they go black, just like wood on a barbecue, then gray, and eventually bright white. What is really surprising, though, is how salty the white cinders are. I couldn’t believe it the first time I tasted them. This is because you’ve burned off all the water and carbon of the plant, and all that remains are its mineral salts.
Finally, put this ash back into the liquid that you put to one side, and leave to macerate for six months. Your tincture is now ready for use on plants and people.
Burning plants like this, to obtain their essence, is an ancient practice called calcination, which was used extensively in alchemy. In Italy we call it spagyria, which means removing all the parts that serve no purpose. By burning away all of the carbon, you’re left with the core of the plant—its essence—which is extremely powerful as it is a concentrated version of the plant itself.
Essential oils are potent as well. A drop of pure rosemary essential oil on your tongue, for example, is so strong that you can’t taste for the next six hours.
The dosages used of both the tinctures and oils are extremely limited. 30kg of rosemary gives about one liter of distilled water and 100ml of essential oil, which might not seem much, but I only use about five drops, together with 100ml of plant water, in about 100 liters of ordinary tap water each time I treat my vines. You can do about four harvests with a single distillation, so you might distill one set of plants one year and then another set the next.
Our first attempts weren’t very successful because, once applied, the concoction didn’t stay on the leaf long enough to have a marked impact. But then we added propolis, which is a lot more viscous, and eventually pine resin, too, which is very sticky, so now it’s wonderfully resistant to water.
It’s a slow process that takes time to perfect, but the parts of the vineyard where we’ve eliminated all treatments except for oils and tinctures are definitely more resistant than the rest. We do, however, continue to lose some of the harvest each year, plus now we have to fend off wild boar and birds that make a beeline for the oil and tincture grapes in particular.”
Rosehip tincture in eau de vie.
Daniele Piccinin’s pizza oven, which he uses for the calcination of beneficial plants.