The Social Winery Tezze di Piave has always been attached to the term production testing and the word sustainability. We have to remember that the winery, founded in 1930, was born at the time as a concept in the mind of the first enlightened founders. The idea was not only to help each other through what has become the current cooperative approach but also share knowledge and still more to share their insights in order to lead to a constant evolution of the concept of grapevines cultivation and winemaking. This was also made possible by the two institutions, the Wine School and the Experimental Station, both residents in Conegliano Veneto, a town located a few kilometers from Tezze di Piave. The various tests carried out by the Experimental Station were made (and are still being carried out) at the Social Winery, approaching more and more concepts such as wine making and experimentation. During the 50s for example, the Social Winery carried on a project together with the two mentioned institutions that aimed to solve a discrete problem of the time; the vineyards of the Social Winery at the time were in fact designed to produce large quantities of grapes sometimes at the expense of quality.
Concrete silos
Some of the silos used during the manufacturing
Manufacturing of Raboso Passito
You can see several cases of Raboso grapes which are left to dry for the required time
Drying of Raboso grapes
Detail of some grapes in drying phase
To solve this issue was bought a new field area where were planted three variety of grapes: Merlot, Cabernet and Raboso. Each variety was bred with a different system and that was the Sylvoz, the Tendone Pugliese (Apulian tent) and the ray system Bellussi (Bellussera). The pruning systems and breeding were also diversified. The harvest of the vineyards began in 1967 and lasted till 1988, the year of the sale of the fields. The results were promising especially for Raboso Piave, getting not only an increase in the sugar content of the grapes, but also an increased quality and quantity of the grapes.
Steel silos
Somes silos used in manufacturing
Passito Raboso
A case of dried Raboso grapes used for the manufacturing of Raboso Passito
Raboso Piave
Wort of Raboso Piave used in manufacturing of Raboso Passito
Over the years the basic ampelographic variety of the area is fairly varied; not only Merlot, Cabernet, Carmenere, Tocai and Verduzzo but also Chardonnay, Pinot, Sauvignon, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, often offered as an alternative to the Carmenère. To cope with the spread of the first clones of the variety and the resulting problems on the choice of which clone to use in 1992 the Social Winery Tezze di Piave in collaboration with the Institute of Experimental decides to plant on their own land several clones of the variety mentioned above, in order to select the best one for the territory. Regarding the Raboso Piave, the situation was simpler, as the only existing clone, Raboso Piave ISV V-2, approved in 1990, was selected in Tezze di Piave from a vineyard of the family Roveda (Raboso del Piave 1921). At the ending of the study the results were published.
