Well, unfortunately, the first day of our 2026 harvest didn’t go exactly as planned, and for quite a common reason in our region…. the weather. In the last few days the forecasts had been changing almost from one hour to the next, and as often happens, the four weather apps that I was consulting, were more or less contradicting each other. Some forecast rain, others not. Regrettably for us, it was the forecast of rain that proved to be the more accurate.

Although it was overcast from the offset, the very light rain did not arrive until almost midday. This very fine rain continued for the next three hours, and despite it not being that heavy, it was enough to start soaking the fruit, rendering it unsuitable for pressing – too much residual water on the grape skins.

At lunch time we told all our pickers that work would be suspended for the day, and so after lunch all that remained was to gather the fruit that had already been harvested. Despite making this decision the afternoon proved to be quite busy, and the presses worked hard all evening. Of course, it was not the day that we had planned, but in the end it was not a bad start.