Date & Time
Monday, December 6, 2021, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Name
Gut Feeling
Martin & Adriana Lichtenberger Gonzalez Simon J Woolf (The Morning Claret)
Description

Meet Martin & Adriana - an Austrian & Galician, husband-and-wife winemaking team. And while they are both technically trained enologist, they’re also, and above all, farmers. They live on the farm where Martin grew up, and for Martin, the farm is part of who he is. “We’re completely seasonal because that is just the way it is” explains Martin, “the seasons dictate our daily lives - we have to collect our firewood this autumn, for example, to make sure we have what we need for winter”. But this connection to the place, goes beyond the practical. It is a connection of the sort you have with an old friend. The natural rhythms of that particular place are part of who Martin is. He feels it. He is connected to, and a part of, the community (animal, human and vegetal) that makes up that place. And like with all living things, a lot of that very real connection is felt. "We recently had two interns who joined us from Geisenheim who kept asking about the ‘rules’ to follow in the vineyard - how many eyes do I leave on the branch while pruning? But there isn’t a recipe. That's not how we farm. We grow and make a lot on instinct. You have to feel it. For example, I arrived in the vineyard the other day - again with the interns in tow - and I knew something was wrong with the last row of vines that border my neighbour’s land. I felt it and when you looked closely you could see the vines had gone into overdrive. We realised that the neighbour had been ripping open the soil on his side and the vines were distressed. It is this gut feeling, this instinct, that you can’t learn at school and which has helped me make some of the best decisions of my life”. Join Martin and Adriana, and hear first hand what difference trusting their gut feeling has made in their lives as farmers and as winemakers.