Through the Grapevine

Master Thesis Visual Anthropology - University for Amsterdam

The wine industry has been in rough waters in the last few years. Wine sales are plummeting
and climate change makes it increasingly more challenging to cultivate vineyards in many
regions all over the world. Or at least, that is what the news headlines say. What do these
developments look like up close? Are they as consequential as they seem? Are winemakers
who have to mitigate and adapt every year just as alarmed as those news outlets are?
In Through the Grapevine, we meet four winemakers - Matteo, Francesco, Katia and
Lorenzo. Matteo works for the largest winery with over 8 million bottles per year. Francesco
is the owner and winemaker of the smallest winery in Montalcino, with only 7000 bottles
annually. Katia and Lorenzo are medium-small producers with 100.000 and 40.000 bottles
respectively. Although all four of them make wine in the renowned Montalcino region in
southern Tuscany, each one of them has a different philosophy and practices winemaking in
their own particular way. The film focuses on their passion and love for their work and how
they are adapting to a changing environment. The challenges are very real. In 2023, many
wineries lost a large part of the harvest because of climate unpredictability; wild boars,
hailstorms and fungi. In the past, winemakers could respond to the problems that came their
way. Now, they have to take as many preventive measures as possible. If something
unexpected happens, it’s too late and you lose your crop.
The attitudes of these four winemakers towards the future is remarkably optimistic. It is all
about becoming better than they were before and working in different ways without harming
the environment. Throughout the film, we go back to a dinner scene with these four
winemakers. While they don’t all agree on the exact techniques of making wine, they are all
willing to learn from each other. There is however a feeling of melancholy, especially with
Katia. She admits that there is no way of doing agriculture without harming other organisms.
She remembers a beautiful day, many years ago, where she was working in the vineyard. All
of a sudden, she was struck by this feeling of sadness for all the non-human lives that have
been destroyed by humans. She isn’t negative however. She envisions a synergetic
Montalcino which is open for researchers to do soil studies. This data can then be used to
create a healthier and better environment. Her last line in the film says it all: “Farm like the
world depends on it, because it does”.