When we think of a winery, we tend to imagine a place made mostly of vineyards, perhaps with a few olive trees and fields around them. At Ampeleia, however, the vines are just one part of a larger system made up of woods, fields and animals.
Five Grigio Alpina cows, a chicken coop full of hens and geese, our bees and our four dogs – Frank, Rocca, Macchia and Cosmo – all live here.
Each has a different role. And all of them are part of life at the estate.
Why animals are important in a farm ecosystem.
In nature, agricultural systems do not exist in separate compartments. Plants, animals, soil and microorganisms constantly exchange matter and energy.
On a winery, the presence of animals can help create a more integrated system. Animals transform part of the plant biomass they eat into organic matter and nutrients, which in turn return to the soil and contribute to its fertility cycle.
The integration of crops and livestock has been studied for many years for precisely this reason: when plants and animals are part of the same system, there are more opportunities to recycle nutrients and organic matter internally and reduce dependence on external resources.
Cows, hens and the fertility cycle.
Five Grigio Alpina cows live at Ampeleia.
Together with the other farm animals, they feed on grass and other vegetation growing on the land. Through their manure, they return part of the nutrients to the system. Manure is not waste. It is organic matter that can re-enter the agricultural cycle. When properly managed, it contributes to the recycling of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus and, over time, to soil quality.
Grazing also helps manage vegetation and the surface layer of the soil in the areas where the animals are allowed to move. In practice, they “work the land” alongside us.
We just have to be careful not to let them wander freely among the vines when the grapes are ripe: they love them!
Bees: much more than honey.
The bees at Ampeleia also give us a very tangible product: our honey.
But their importance goes well beyond the hive. Bees are pollinators and play a role in the reproduction of many plants.
Protecting pollinators also means contributing to plant biodiversity. Their presence matters not only for the vineyard, but for the entire agricultural environment and the place that surrounds us.
And then there are the dogs!
The four dogs at Ampeleia have a different role.
They do not fertilise the soil, pollinate flowers or herd the cows. But anyone who has visited us at least once knows them well.
Frank, Rocca, Macchia and Cosmo are part of everyday life at the estate. They are among the first to greet visitors and often become, without needing an introduction, part of their memory of Ampeleia.
That matters too when we talk about a farm: it is not just a place of production, but a living, real environment.
A farm as a system.
The presence of animals at Ampeleia is also connected to the agricultural method we have chosen to adopt: biodynamic farming. However, we do not think of the estate as the rigid application of a set of rules. What matters to us is how the different parts of the farm can work together: plants, animals, soil, water, insects and the people who work here.
The cows, the chicken coop, the bees and the four dogs are part of Ampeleia. Every day, they remind us that in agriculture, nothing exists on its own.
