The 2021 harvest is now well and truly behind us, and, as always at this time of year, our wine is sitting quietly on its lees. In our vineyards the pruning is under way, and the first of the Christmas gift pack orders are being prepared. Christmas orders for our export markets left the cellar some weeks ago. Indeed, with the global shipping problems that exist (and not to mention the post-Brexit delays on goods entering the UK), our overseas importers started to ship quite a bit earlier than they normally would.

Having said all that, preparing orders this year has been much more of a challenge than normal as there have been delays on nearly every product that we have ordered. Not only have prices increased on cartons, bottles, capsules and corks, but currently our label supplier can’t even get the paper that they require for printing! It’s fair to say that I have never taken the supply chain for granted (we normally hold buffer stocks), but at the moment trying to plan for wine bottling can be something of a logistical nightmare.

Meanwhile, on the weather front November was largely dry, until the final few days of the month. Skies were bright and clear, albeit that temperatures were distinctly chilly and autumnal. The first day of December is wet, and so our vineyard team have moved inside to catch up on a bit of labelling (and yes, we do have a bit of label stock left!)

Today is yet another sunny day, although from Friday onwards, three days of rain is forecast… we shall see. The good news is that this will almost certainly be our last full day of harvest, unless our picking crew can pull off some miracle. (On the very first day the team established a new bodega record for collecting grapes from pergolas by hand – 24,500 kilos in 8 hours – not bad going!). By the time the rain arrives (assuming that the forecast is correct), we will have everything safely collected, and we will continue with the wine making process, as well as a full programme of deep cleaning.

As the day progressed, we were making some headway, but it very soon became apparent that there might be more picking left for tomorrow, or at least more than we thought. Of course we are quite happy that we have more kilos, which will help to compensate a little for the low yield of grape must at pressing.

Yet another day of wall to wall sunshine, but marked by a very chilly night and early morning. I am not exactly sure what the overnight temperature was, but it must have been close to single figures (in °C, which would be close to 50°F).

Yesterday I mentioned that the yield of grapes per hectare was more than anticipated (but that the yield of grape must per kilo of grapes was lower). With at least another full day to go, a quick bit of mathematics was applied, based on kilos already collected. It transpires, that even with the lower amount of juice per kilo, that the net result will be that we will still probably fill more tanks than we originally anticipated. In terms of physical tank space this does not present a problem, however, the products and materials that we use for fermentation might be stretched to far. A quick bit of top-up ordering was required. Indeed, many of the products could be sourced locally, which I guess is not unusual for a wine producing area at harvest time. By tomorrow we should have everything that we need.

The work day itself was relatively quiet, by recent standards, and once again without any incident worth mention. Maybe one more full day for our harvesting team (who have been picking grapes like locusts!), and then it’s possible that there might just be a few remnants left to gather on Thursday morning. We will see.

Apart from the trucks that deliver our pallets of grapes the rest arrive in transport of all shapes and sizes. A few years ago our smallest ever delivery was in the back of a Fiat Panda!! (Admittedly it was only the remnants of the main delivery). However, I have never seen grapes delivered in a horse transport before, not exactly a horsebox, but still used for moving horses (I think). Suffice to say that it had been well cleaned, and so we won’t be making an ‘equine cuvée’ this year.

The fact that I am writing about transport is because Monday was a hugely uneventful day, which from at least my point of view is actually a very good thing. That’s not to say that the cellar wasn’t busy, because it was. It simply means that everything happened as it should.

The one thing that stands out from the vintage so far is that the yields are quite low. That doesn’t mean that the number of kilos is down, because this is quite the contrary – the yield of grapes per hectare is up. What I mean is that when we actually press the grapes, the volume of juice is not as high as it usually is. Normally, in a year where the yield of juice per kilo is low we would expect higher quality wine, with more concentrated must, but in 2021 it would seem that this is not the case. The juice is sweet, as it always is, but it is not particularly viscose and the potential alcohol is still quite low. Indeed, I would still stand by the prediction of my post on Saturday – somewhere between 12% and 12.5%.

After a long, exhausting night in the bodega on Saturday, we had our fingers crossed that Sunday might be just a little less hectic. The day itself started with bright sunshine, albeit (as has been the pattern this summer), temperatures in the low to mid 20’s (70-75°F). Indeed, the night had been quite chilly, and so sweaters were needed fist thing, for our journey to the bodega.

However, after two and a half days focusing on the vineyards, it was time to start a little work inside. The first tanks were racked, and the clean grape must moved to new tanks ready for fermentation. Our fermentation never starts immediately simply because the juice is too cold (having been chilled rapidly in order to help the wine settle). It usually takes at least a few days for the temperature of our tanks to recover sufficiently for seeding.

Our day ended in the early hours of Monday morning, with everyone feeling just a bit jaded after a hard weekend. Thankfully Sunday was not quite as hectic as our peak on Saturday evening, which is probably just as well. The good news is that after this busy weekend we have probably crossed well into the second half of our harvest.

Saturday, as always, is a crazy day – when everybody wants to pick their grapes. It all started well enough, blue skies, a good, well-prepared bodega team, what could possibly go wrong? Well, not much to be honest. Despite the kilos of grapes flying in by the tractor or van load, our guys managed to stay on top of things.

It wasn’t until nearly 9pm that we had a slight disaster when the truck delivering our grapes lost a pallet. As we manoeuvred an adjacent pallet we didn’t notice that they were ‘interlocked’ with each other, so when we moved one, it tipped the other! For transport the pallets are only wrapped with a little film, and so once they start to fall they don’t stop. A cascade of grapes, ending on the floor!

I asked myself the question – do we now have to declassify this pallet to Viña de la Tierra (vineyard of the earth)? OK, that’s just my sense of humour, but at least my comment raised a few smiles…

Joking apart, Saturday turned out to be especially busy (mainly because of the half day lost on Friday), and the presses were actually working throughout the night. We know that Sunday will also be busy, but hopefully not quite as much.

On Friday morning we opened our shutters under grey, cloudy skies with cool temperatures. All fingers were tightly crossed, as the threat of rain loomed over us.

I mentioned yesterday that I make a post about our grapes, and their quality. For the last two years, we have had what I describe as a-typical vintages – warm, dry summers resulting in low yields and very high alcohol. In 2019 and 2020 it was not uncommon to see albariños of 13% or even 13.5%, whereas several years ago, the ‘norm’ would perhaps be nearer to 12.0% or 12.5%.

So far, it would appear that we will might produce wines that are much nearer to the previous level – my early prediction would be nearer to 12%. The grape must is certainly not as thick and viscous as the last two years, the result of a much cooler summer and just a little rainfall in recent weeks. Obviously we will be able to make a much better judgement of this in a weeks time, when we have all of our crop safely gathered in.

As far as day two, was concerned, it turned out to be a half day of picking, as the rain arrived more or less as forecast. It was really just a short, but significant downpour, and by late afternoon the sky was already clearing. Of course, we did not want to gather damp fruit, and so by lunchtime vineyard work was suspended for the day.

Picking started on Thursday under bright, clear blue skies. Of course, we hope that this sun might continue for a while, but the forecasts are very uncertain to say the least. Our plan for today is to bring our own grapes in on large trucks, with our cases already loaded onto pallets in the vineyard. In this way they can be quickly forklifted on and forklifted off. Less journeys too and from the vineyard (14 pallets per truck), and less labour in the bodega to offload cases. Historically, cases have been unloaded by hand, one by one, and with many of our smaller grape suppliers, this is still the system that we have to use!

Beautiful weather aside, our first day was not without incident. A few technical difficulties with equipment, which, despite having been tested, decided to play up on us. Firstly the machine for cooling the tanks would not start up (we needed to change a digital thermostat). Later, our case washing machine kept cutting out, but then eventually, and quite mysteriously, it decided to work again! (It might have been the moment when I threatened it with a hammer!)

Apart from that, there was no easing gently into the first day – from lunch time we were inundated, and spent virtually the whole day playing catch up, just managing to keep our heads above the water. It was a bit tiring to say the least.

I will write more tomorrow about the grapes, and the quality of our 2021 harvest.

Historically, Spanish people tend to take their summer holidays is fortnight blocks, often on fixed dates. In other words visitors to Galicia might arrive for the first two weeks of July, and then a second, new group might arrive for the second two weeks (extending throughout August in exactly the same way). These blocks are known, and referred to, as ‘quincenas’ and I must say that it continues to amaze me how many people still follow these very rigid patterns (although this is likely dictated by business summer closedowns).

A day or two ago was a big changeover weekend, as the calendar ticked over from July into August. Unfortunately for us,  with this changeover came yet another change – to the weather!

The first few days of the month have been dreadful, with leaden grey skies, rain, drizzle and cool temperatures. This is not good news for our vineyards. The grape bunches themselves are now fully formed, and normally, during the heat of August, we would hope that the vibrant green berries would be transformed into luscious, ripe, golden fruit. However, in these cool temperatures, and with the level of damp, cool air that we have, it’s fair to say that the overall quality of our 2021 harvest now hangs in the balance and could go either way.

Since the last week of May, and up until today, the weather has at least remained dry. Temperatures, however, were still struggling at around the 20°C mark (68°F), and it wasn’t until the second week of June that the thermometer finally hit the mid-to-high 20’s C (75-85°F). The good news is that these conditions proved to be almost perfect for flowering, and by the time that today’s rain arrived, the bunches had already started to take shape, with the small berries starting to grow almost to the size of peas (actually more like ‘petit pois’ at this stage!). Of course, this recent combination of rain and sun has meant that the vine plants themselves are extremely vigorous and the canopies are thick with vegetation. There will clearly need to be some thinning of leaves over the coming month or two.

On the business front things are also looking much brighter, as a few important markets slowly emerge from this disastrous pandemic. New orders have been arriving thick and fast, and to be honest we have almost been struggling to keep up. No sooner do we bottle a new tank, than the whole lot is out of the door! I think it’s pretty fair to say that we are not complaining….