Integrated farming

At Il Poggione, we are supporters of integrated farming and we have been practicing integrated farming for a number of years now, always trying to be as eco-sustainable as possible.

Integrated farming is an agricultural system conceived so as to have the least impact on the environment. It calls for the integration and coordination of production methods with natural resources in an attempt to minimize the use of conventional methods, which will only be used when absolutely necessary.

There are different factors involved in integrated farming. First of all, fertilization is allowed and where it is possible, we use organic fertilizers (for example, we use the by-products of extra-virgin olive oil production and the clippings created by pruning in the vineyard).

At any rate, fertilization is employed only in periods in which there is no risk of run-off caused by rain. We do this in order to avoid any contamination of the water table. All of our farming practices are intended to maintain intact the structure of the land and to prevent erosion.

The planting of grass is an excellent technique in this respect. It provides humidity to the vines (since we are not allowed to irrigate in the Brunello di Montalcino appellation), it provides organic substance to the land, and it does not impede the machines we use to tend the vines.

When it comes to protecting our vines and olive trees from insects, we use every type of protection available to us but in rationed quantities: biological, chemical, agronomical, and biotechnical. In order to maximize protection in the integrated battle, it is highly important to monitor the insect population and we do so, first and foremost, using pheromonal traps.

When the insect population surpasses a certain quantity (the so-called intervention threshold), we use phyto-pharmaceutical pesticides that have been approved by our region. The list of permissible products for treatment also tells us how much can be used. These limits serve to diminish the amounts of chemical substances present in the environment and to lower the health risks for humans and to minimize the risk of reducing the population of "useful" organisms, in other words, the ones that naturally feed on herbivores.