OK, so it’s not the Murciélago Roadster, but it has an open top!

So, we finally decided to go early again – not as early as last year, but I am sure that we are the first Bodega in our zone to start picking. As I mentioned yesterday, it is never an easy decision, but after continued sampling of all the vineyards over the last few weeks, monitoring levels, we called Herminda and her team into action. (For those of you who don’t recall, Herminda does a fantastic job for us both rounding up, and managing our pickers).

Under perfect blue skies, and temperatures of about 28°C (82.4°F) the grapes started to arrive by mid-morning – looking pretty healthy considering the relatively poor, damp summer that we have experienced this year. Certainly the hot, dry conditions that we have enjoyed for the last two weeks has provided a welcome boost to the maturity, and helped to reduce the acidity, which until now, has been quite elevated.

I guess that one of the secrets to a successful harvest is organisation, and I have to say that this year we have everything planned to the last detail, so that when the grapes finally arrive, there is no big panic or fuss.

In summary, the first day has passed off pretty smoothly, but at this stage we are still only building towards the crescendo that will probably arrive on Monday, when we invite more of our grape suppliers to join the campaign.

So far, so good.

N.B. The Lamborghini is actually not ours- one of our local tractor dealers has kindly loaned it to us for the duration of the harvest to help collect grapes.