We are already in the grape harvest. We have been picking grapes at Finca Antigua (La Mancha) for a couple of weeks with good prospects, although we will not have the entire harvest in the winery until the end of October. Last year we had the earliest harvest in history and, this time, the harvest began on normal dates, about 20 days later than in 2015.
The impressions of our technical team are good, although the results of the 2015 vintage were also good, as the rapid maturation in alcoholic strength was also accompanied by phenolic maturity.
This imbalance between alcohol and polyphenol content is perhaps the biggest problem facing viticulture in Spain in recent years. There are two main keys to the fact that both types of ripening are accompanying us at Finca Antigua. On the one hand, the thermal amplitude provided by the microclimate of the Finca Antigua, with large temperature fluctuations between night and day, in a vineyard that reaches up to 900 meters above sea level, and, on the other hand, the policy followed by Familia Martínez Bujanda, with several green harvests and unloading of clusters.
In this harvest, we will have a production of around 6,000 kilos per hectare, a grape load that allows the plants to function perfectly and the grapes to reach full ripeness, preserving the necessary acidity required for quality wines.
Green pruning (eliminating secondary shoots and suckers) and green harvesting (unloading of clusters) are two of the most important viticultural tasks in the cycle that determine the quality of the wines. The plant, especially in extreme growing areas such as Finca Antigua, can collapse and paralyze ripening if there is an excess of clusters or vegetation, so its balance is essential to obtain quality wines.
The summer has not been particularly hot at Finca Antigua. Although the month of September, in which the grapes are in the last phase of ripening, has started with very high and continuous temperatures as in the rest of Spain.
Finca Antigua is an extraordinary landscape open to wine tourism, even at harvest time, making it an option we recommend to all wine enthusiasts. We have started with the small-grain Muscat variety with which we make our Naturalmente Dulce. The clusters, after harvesting, are raisined in the sun to naturally obtain the concentration of sugars that characterizes this wine of very low yields and surprising sensations. A spectacle that we highly recommend.
