The best vineyards of Italy? To put them in line is the Bigot Index, which measures their quality

The Nebbiolo San Lorenzo vineyard of Gaja and the Barbera Barturot vineyard of Ca’Viola in Piedmont, the Refosco Buttrio vineyard of Vigne di Zamò (of Oscar Farinetti), the Tocai Bert vineyard of Azienda Agricola Sturm and the Sauvignon Lungo Strada vineyard of Russiz Superiore in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the Merlot Forra Alta vineyard of Tenuta Nozzole, in Chianti Classico and the Sangiovese Oliveto vineyard of Tenuta La Fuga, in Montalcino, both of Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari, in Tuscany, and the Pardoniga Mandrolisai vineyard of Bentu Luna winery, in Sardinia: these are the first vineyards judged above 90 points (out of 100) by Indice Bigot, the system developed by agronomist Giovanni Bigot to measure the quality of a vineyard, presented just one year ago in Castello di Cigognola, together with Angelo Gaja, one of the most renowned producers of Italy and of the world, and Stefano Poni, professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza.
“In this year of application - says Giovanni Bigot, agronomist and researcher from Friuli, founder of the Perleuve company - the method that I have developed through years of observations, data collection and studies has been welcomed by many wineries aware that great wines are made in the vineyard. Many wine producers have expressed interest in knowing it, precisely because the application of the method, which underlies the Bigot Index, allows to identify the tools necessary to progressively improve the quality of the grapes obtained, in that vineyard, according to the oenological objective. In fact, it indicates the best way to do it, as it photographs the status quo and highlights what should be improved”.
Bigot's Index, explains a note, was created in order to meet the need, more and more felt by wineries, of knowing in a reliable and scientifically validated way the real quality of their vineyards, an issue not easy to be defined, faced until now in a vague way, taking into consideration a single factor, as if it was the determinant one. It is a method to evaluate, from 0 to 100, the qualitative potential of a vineyard, by taking into consideration the viticultural factors having a direct influence on the quality of wine: production, exposed leaf area (Sfe), the ratio between leaves and production (Sfe/kg), health of grapes, type of bunch, water stress, vigor, biodiversity and microorganisms, age of the vineyard. Among these parameters, the vegetative-productive balance (Sfe/kg) is highlighted with high average scores with values between 1,5-1,9; while the aspect on which we will certainly still have to work is biodiversity, especially as regards the ability to observe it in a simple but objective way. For the monitoring, Bigot has developed the App 4Grapes, which allows to have under control at any time the ampelopathological, qualitative and productive situation and to collect the necessary data to obtain the index values of each vineyard.
“It all starts from the observations made by people who constantly live the vineyard and, with method, have the ability to make observations that, thanks to appropriate subsequent interventions, can improve the quality - continues Bigot. These data come to us through the App 4Grapes, we process them and send to the company a descriptive card with the details of the single values and the final score for each monitored vineyard. At the end of the first year of activity, we gave companies the Bigot Index Certificate, a precious parchment which includes information about the vineyards examined, with the relative evaluation, the points to be improved and the factors in which it reached an excellent level”
Given the great interest towards Bigot Index, the third level of the monitoring course of Academy 4Grapes, which Giovanni Bigot founded at the end of last year, has been dedicated to this topic. The stated goal is to train “Ampelonauts”, that is people who observe with attention, method and dedication their vineyard and understand its needs.