From our blog at Bodegas Solana de Ramírez, we’re trying to connect with you and share our family winery experience. In this post, we’d like to share our experience of the grape harvest at Bodegas Solana de Ramírez.
It has been a very good year, the rainfall has been normal and abundant, it has even rained in August, and as Javier (one of the three Ramírez de la Piscina brothers) says, in August water, honey and must.
In Ábalos, we are late in harvesting, as we say, given that we are at a higher altitude and have vineyards at 700m above sea level, and when most of the Designation of Origin has finished, we are just starting.
White Grape
The white grapes were of good quality. It’s worth noting that they were healthy white grapes that took a while to ripen because this year’s temperatures were cool, which made fermentation easier to control in the winery. Now that we’re in the fermentation process, we can already see that this will be a very fruity vintage with aromas of peach and pineapple.
We’re showing you some photos of this year’s grape harvest at “La Venta,” our highest-altitude vineyard, located at 758 m. In the photo, Viki checks the quality and ripeness of the grapes.
Red Grape
With the red grapes (Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, and Mazuelo), we generally achieved an optimal ripeness level of around 14°C. Among the varieties we grow, our Mazuelo, a traditional variety from the Rioja DO, was of excellent quality this year, with a whole, fruity berry.
As a family winery with 60 hectares of vineyards, we invest year-round in vineyard care, and the recent treatments our vineyard manager, Álvaro, has performed have been essential to ensuring that, even with a lot of rain, we have whole, high-quality bunches with minimal rot.
Mateo Harvest
As a surprise, we have some very important news for you: this year was Mateo’s (the 4th generation of the winery) first grape harvest, and naturally, his parents, Valvanera and Álvaro, didn’t want him to miss out on the harvest. We’re leaving you with a few photos of this future winemaker, who is currently thoroughly enjoying the grapes and the harvest (of course, the rest of us who most enjoyed this day of family harvesting were watching this little guy).
And returning to the harvest, now with all the grapes in the winery, we’re noticing that the cool temperature is favoring fermentation, as it’s being carefully controlled with a millimetric production process. We’re all excited, trusting in the good hands of Javier, father and son, who spend the day in the winery with Adrián and Viki.
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