The finest red wine grape bunches of the season were carefully harvested by hand by an elderly couple and their adult children as their small grandchildren watched the work that one day would be at the core of their existence.

For this particular wine producing family, they took pride in hanging the grape bunches, one by one, on ropes that hung from the rafters of their barn as they believed that this was a much higher quality practice than laying the grapes out on straw mats which was the other way to induce the drying process (appassimento) to take place for the grapes that were destined for their much beloved Amarone della Valpolicella wine; at first it was a great way to achieve ripeness in the North East area of Italy, in the Valpolicella winemaking area outside of Verona, as full ripeness of grapes eluded many winemakers in that area in the past.