The wait is over
It hasn’t been as easy growing cycle: Spring frosts, storms in June, the threat of a sudden cold front, or gota fria, with the sudden violent rainfall they can bring…but the wait has been worth it because we’ve had two magical weeks with pleasant temperatures during the day and colder nights, and Mother Nature has rewarded us with our Tudelilla Garnacha, perfectly ripe and with a good alcoholic strength, remarkable fruit and all ready to get into the winery and turn into wine. The moment has arrived. It’s the 15th October and we get up at the crack of dawn so we can be in position in the Tudelilla vineyard at 07.45 just like every day of the harvest.
Family, the harvest is underway!
The day is starting to dawn but it’s still dark outside when the team of harvest pickers arrives. They are eight in total, but they’re joined by the Valdelacierva women’s team (Julia, Lucia, Allende and Emma), plus Fernando and José Luis (Cuchara) the viticulturist. We are all part of the team which looks after our most treasured estate throughout the year round, and time flies by because we’re so excited to be harvesting the fruit in Montepedriza. We’re still taking all necessary precautions and keeping a safe distance from each other because of Covid. Our team’s health comes first.
At last, the grapes are in the winery
Between 8 and 10 o’clock in the morning and with an outside temperature of 9ºC, we manage to manually harvest the whole estate: seven boxes full of grapes which will return to the winery in a temperature-controlled lorry (where they’ll remain for 24 hours) to preserve all their aromatic properties and avoid any oxidation. Once the grape bunches arrive at the selection table, each berry is checked for imperfections and destemmed manually by hand before going into 700 litre wooden vats or tinas. By 20 October all the must is in the vats and slowly beginning to ferment, with manual punching down of the cap by José and Sergio who don’t take their eyes off the vats until it’s time to rack off the wine.