The first year of Comenius Project “Our Agriculture-Our Europe”

September 2011 – September 2012

Many things have happened since September 2011 in the world, in Italy, in San Michele and inside our Comenius Project.

Barack Obama has been re-elected President of the United States (November 2012)

Mario Monti has become the new Prime Minister of the Italian government (November 2011)

San Michele has a new General Director (November 2012 - Mauro Fezzi)

As far as our Comenius Project is concerned we had the kick-off meeting in San Michele (November 2011), the 1^st Meeting of all the groups once again in San Michele (April 2012), with students and teachers from Italy, France, Austria and Hungary, and the 2^nd Meeting in Beaune (October 2012).

Our students could meet and make friends and we teachers had the opportunity to debate on many aspects of our work and on the main agricultural features of our countries.

We are all looking forward to meeting again in Rotholz in March 2013, and discuss climate changes throughout Europe. Therefore here is a brief summary of the weather that characterized these last twelve months in San Michele.

Rosy has been writing more than all of us on the activities in Rotholz and even on the weather aspects; it would be nice to compare the different weather situations in Beaune and Valence too.

Here we go with the first part of this summary (September 2011-February 2012) concerning the past weather conditions.

September 2011
This year grape harvesting was early. The weather was positive for harvesting because there were few rainfalls. Temperatures were higher than the average. At the Institute of San Michele we tested the sugar content in the grapes of different red and white varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Teroldego, Chardonnay, Pinot bianco, Moscato rosa).

October 2011
The weather was good until the 20^th. We had a few days of rain at the end of the month. At school we harvested Moscato rosa. This year the quality of grapes was very good because of favourable weather conditions. We pressed the grapes of other white and red varieties and we obtained very sweet juices.

November 2011
In the first part of November it rained a lot. On the 15^th temperatures went below zero for the first time in the winter. It snowed for the first time on the top of the mountains. At school fermentation of our wines finished. We decanted some wines which other classes produced.

December 2011
Temperatures were within the average for the first twenty days. At the end of the month the temperature decreased. In San Michele it snowed just a little, not as much as it usually does in this period. We started pruning the grape vines. At first we pruned a vineyard trained with the “pergola trentina” system, then we pruned another vineyard trained with the Guyot system.

January 2012
It didn’t snow a lot because of the very low temperatures. We pruned the young vines in the vineyard next to our school; we also kept on pruning older vines. We also started brewing a blond beer.

February 2012
The temperature was within the seasonal average. It snowed once in San Michele. We started pressing the bunches of several varieties (Traminer, Chardonnay, Nosiola) that have been drying in special rooms, to obtain a dessert wine. We also worked in the vineyards: we tied up the young vines and finished pruning the older ones.