Cascina Le Preseglie
The company
The Agriturismo Cascina Le Preseglie, in the depths of the vineyards, is a farmstead of the 19th century recently restored preserving in particular the original rural architecture.
The owners offer hospitality in individual apartments equipped with highest comfort, accurately and finely furnished in Country style.
The guests can enjoy the new swimming pool on the green terrace surrounded by the vineyards and the Termarium, a spacious room with unique equipments including a Turkish bath, a Vitarium and a Vichy shower with the Dead Sea salts.
The Agriturismo offers also three big conference rooms.
The core of the company is the extremely functional and technological winery in which it’s produced: Lugana Doc and Spumante Lugana.
Guided tour of the winery and tastings can be organized upon reservation.
Innovation
After long tests and trials the company has decided to introduce into the wine-making process an inusual step: a selfwashing line for wine grapes before crushing. Through the “Grape Cleaning Unit” machine the hand-harvested grapes are sanitized before being crushed.
The goal is to produce an healthy, “clean” and genuine wine which satisfies the need of a customer sensitive to the health consciousness. The principles of “well-being”, focus of the company, take place in the cellar.
Results of the innovation
LESS SULFUR= HEALTHIER WINE
The goal of the sanitizing of the grapes is to take away ground, dust, insects and above all, traces of copper and brimstone used against downy mildew and powdery mildew which are fungi like the yeasts involved in the fermentation.
Thanks to the grape cleaning the inner yeasts are given the chance to work under ideal conditions.
This process guarantees to the yeasts a much healthier work environment and reduces dramatically the use of sulfur dioxide.
This way the grapes keep their inner characteristics including the peculiarity of their territory and the microflora which is responsible for the fermentation.
Brief decription of the innovation
The machine consists in a 8 metres steel selfwashing line for winegrapes. It is made of a vat, a conveyor belt, a vibratory mechanism and dryers.
The hand harvested grapes are dumped in a vat full of water and 1% citric acid, a mixture that keeps the berries from breaking open. This water then begins to be stirred and aerated like a hydromassage, a technique that removes far more dirt than direct washing.The water temperature can be regulated. The grapes are then fed to a conveyor to be rinsed with more cleaned water and then end up on a sorting belt with different calibre holes, a vibratory mechanism and forced ventilation that starts the drying process.
On the vibrating plate it is possible to make a manual selection.
The grapes are then sent to the press and crushed under inert gas; the oxigen is kept away in order to avoid oxidation.The must drops directly in the vat underneath the press.
