When we talk about organic weed control in the vineyard, the first temptation is to think of it as a simple substitution: before, a chemical product was used; now, something else is used instead. In reality, the subject is much more interesting, and also much more concrete.
In organic farming, it is not only a matter of “not using” something, but of completely changing the way we look at the vineyard.
Grass, for example, is not always an enemy. It can become one, of course, if it competes too much with the vine, if it retains humidity at the wrong times, or if it makes it difficult to work between the rows. But it can also be a resource: it protects the soil, hosts beneficial insects, keeps the vineyard environment alive and helps create a more stable balance.
The real question, then, is not: “how do we eliminate everything?” but: “how do we properly manage what grows?”
And this is where organic weed control comes into play, or rather a more conscious approach to soil management, where mechanical work, grass cover and daily observation of the vineyard become essential tools.
Why say no to chemical weed control
For years, chemical weed control was a widely used shortcut: quick, effective, convenient. You pass through, apply the product, the grass dries up. Problem solved. At least, apparently.
The point is that in the vineyard, as in nature, problems never really disappear: they often just move elsewhere. Soil treated aggressively can lose biodiversity, vitality and its ability to breathe. Beneficial organisms decrease, the soil becomes poorer, and balance is broken.
And when balance is broken, the vine becomes more fragile. There is also a very concrete environmental issue: the pollution of water, groundwater, ditches and soils. Everything that is applied in the field does not magically remain there, still and motionless. Rain, wind, the slope of the hills and the natural movement of water do the rest.
This is why choosing not to use chemical herbicides is not a romantic gesture. It is a precise agricultural decision. It means accepting more work, more passes through the vineyard, more attention. But it also means having a different relationship with your own land.
In my case, this choice is part of a broader philosophy: working organically, using grapes from our own production, following every stage of the process and prioritising quality over quantity. It is not a technical detail, but a way of making wine.
Mechanical weed control: more effort, fewer shortcuts
Mechanical weed control is a practice that is easy to explain, but less easy to do well. Essentially, instead of eliminating grass with a chemical product, specific tools are used to work the soil, especially in the under-vine area, the part closest to the vine itself.
It may sound simple, but I can assure you it is not. Working under the vines requires precision: the grass must be contained without damaging the plants, compromising the roots or disturbing the soil too much.
You need to enter the vineyard at the right time, in the right conditions, taking into account the weather, grass growth, humidity and the state of the vine.
It is slower work. More tiring. More expensive, too. But it has one enormous advantage: it does not sterilise the vineyard. It accompanies it.
Mechanical weed control makes it possible to keep competition between grass and vines under control without turning the vineyard into bare, lifeless, impoverished soil. It is a less drastic, more thoughtful approach.
Grass cover between the rows: biodiversity, balance and life
One of the most important aspects is the choice not to manage everything in the same way. Mechanical weed control is mainly carried out under the vines, while the area between the rows can remain grassed. This creates a fundamental difference.
The grassed inter-row becomes a living space. Not “disorder” to be eliminated, but a useful environment. Insects, microorganisms, pollinators, spontaneous herbs and roots that hold the soil and contribute to its structure can all find their place here. On hillsides, this is even more important, because the soil must be protected from erosion and from the increasingly irregular effects of the climate.
In a territory like Costigliole d’Asti, between the Langhe and Monferrato areas, the vineyard is never just a vineyard. It is landscape, identity, ecosystem. Vines exist within a context made of hills, woods, fields, ditches, insects, blossoms and seasons. Every agronomic choice has an impact that goes beyond the row.
Leaving the inter-row grassed therefore means giving space to biodiversity. And biodiversity is not just a nice word for conferences: it is a form of natural defence. The richer and more varied an environment is, the more capable it is of reacting, compensating and resisting.
Copper, sulphur and treatments: using only what is strictly necessary
Organic farming does not mean doing nothing. It means working with different tools and a different logic. For vine protection, the most traditional contact products are copper and sulphur, used carefully and without excess.
The point is not to treat a lot. The point is to put the plant in the best possible condition so that it needs treatment as little as possible.
A more balanced vineyard, with living soil and a well-managed microclimate, can be less exposed to extreme situations. This does not eliminate risks, because the vine remains a delicate crop and today the weather is increasingly unpredictable. But it helps build a healthier system.
My goal is to reduce interventions to a minimum and obtain clean, healthy grapes, able to arrive in the cellar without bringing along anything unnecessary. The difference begins there, long before vinification.
Zero residues and cleaner wine: what it really means
When we talk about residues in wine, we need to be serious, without creating fear and without oversimplifying. The point is not to frighten those who drink, but to explain a choice.
Working without chemical weed control means reducing at the root the possibility that certain substances enter the production cycle. If chemical herbicides are not used in the vineyard, those residues do not become part of the story of the grape and the wine. It is a simple, almost elementary reasoning. But a very important one.
For Emanuele Gambino, wine must be the expression of a land, not the result of a shortcut. It must tell the story of the grape variety, the vintage, the work and the territory. Everything unnecessary should be avoided.
This does not mean making wines “left to chance”. Quite the opposite: it means being even more rigorous. In the cellar, cleanliness, attention, technology when useful, respect for timing and measured interventions are all necessary. But the starting point always remains the same: bringing in healthy grapes, grown from healthy vineyards.
Organic viticulture does not have to look perfect. It has to be alive
There is a somewhat false image of a “beautiful” vineyard: perfectly tidy rows, bare soil, no grass, everything as clean as a garden drawn with a ruler. It is certainly a reassuring image. But it does not always describe a healthy vineyard.
An organic vineyard may appear more dynamic, more alive, more variable. It may have grass between the rows, spontaneous flowers, areas that differ from one another. This is not neglect. It is life.
True care does not mean total control. It means being able to accompany an ecosystem without impoverishing it.
This approach is particularly important today, at a time when viticulture has to deal with hotter summers, concentrated rainfall, dry periods and increasingly unpredictable vintages. Living, covered and well-managed soil can help the vineyard cope better with stress. It does not perform miracles, but it builds resilience.
The consumer often does not see it. But they drink it
There is one aspect that deserves to be said frankly: all this work is often invisible to the final consumer. They see the bottle, the label, the glass. Perhaps they read “organic”, but they do not always imagine what lies behind it.
Mechanical weed control is not something “to talk about” just because it sounds good. It is a practice that changes the way the vineyard lives. And if the vineyard changes, the wine changes too.
Perhaps it is not perceived through a technical phrase during a tasting. Perhaps no one says: “I can taste the mechanically worked under-vine area.” But one can perceive greater cleanliness, a certain authenticity, a coherence between what is being drunk and the place it comes from.
Less chemistry, more responsibility
In essence, organic weed control is not a trend, nor is it a magic solution.
For me, it also means communicating that the vineyard is not a factory, but an organism. It means understanding that soil is not an inert support, but a fundamental part of wine. It means working with grass, with the climate, with insects, with biodiversity, with the limits and possibilities of nature.
Fewer shortcuts, more work.
Less chemistry, more balance.
Less appearance, more substance.