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Five minutes with Sandro Gini

The Ginis are big advocates of traditional and sustainable practices. Sandro, in his former role as president of the Soave Consorzio, was instrumental in backing and achieving Soave’s Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) status, being the first Italian wine region to be awarded such by the UN.

He recalls: “When Soave obtained its GIAHS recognition, I was president of DOC Soave and did a lot of work to help achieve that goal. Now we have to do our best to maintain it. GIAHS is not just something you are awarded, but something you achieve again and again, day by day.

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“Many other winemakers come to this region to discover the wines, so there is a sensation that the area is special and has something worth preserving.

“It is very important to me to preserve the pergola method of cultivation and the culture of Soave – maintaining the biodiversity and the specific aspects of the landscape, such as stone walls and the trees through the hills.

“Some producers in the hills are changing their training system and replanting, but rather than pergola they choose guyot, because it is probably easier. But in my opinion, it is really important to retain the specific aspects of the historical area, which is the Classico area, in the hills. Perhaps you can use other systems on the flat lands, but in the hills we should focus on the best we can do. It would be interesting to put in the production rules that pergola could be the only training system in the hills.”

• Soave
• Sandro Gini
• Itlaian wine
• agricultural heritage