2018-10-01_Reader_s_Digest_AUNZ

October• 2018 | 105

TRAVEL

Italy’s biodynamic

movement is creating

notable wines using self-

sustaining techniques and

an astrological twist

BY DANIELLE PERGAMENT

FROM NEW YORK TIMES

I

t is a hot, late summer evening in Tus-

can wine country – and, unexpectedly,

I am getting a lesson in astrolog y.

Inside a grid of cool, lush green

vines, amid hills and valleys rippling

towards the horizon, a woman in a wide

straw hat named Helena Variara is pointing

towards the sky.

“You have days of fire, air and days of

earth – the 12 constellations are our help-

ers,” she says matter-of-factly. “Our work is

to enter the rhythm of the planets.”

Technically speaking, Variara’s work is

also to make wine. She and her partner,

Dante Lomazzi, own a tiny winery 60 kilo-

metres south of Florence called Colom-

baia. “We work the soil on earth days,” she

says. “We work the leaves on water days.

he annual harvest of the Sangiovese grapes at

Colombaia winery outside Siena in Tuscany