Binding with “strope”

Tying means securing the vine shoots to a support system, guiding their growth, and ensuring proper vine development.
This operation is carried out by vine-growers between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, when the plant is still in vegetative rest.
In the Piana Rotaliana, it is still possible to find the traditional practice with the use of natural ties (in local dialect called strope) obtained from the willow tree.This plant, with reddish wood, is usually grown along ditches or in wet places. Very flexible, it is used to make a knot to fix the branches to the pergola wire.
It is an art that requires expert hands: in fact, the knot must be tight enough on the wire, to avoid wind-induced sliding, but not on the branch, to avoid damages during the growth phase.
An operation with “slow times” like those of the vine, which is beginning its slow awakening.