The Harvest of Bodegas Manzanos.
As every year, at Bodegas Manzanos we are preparing for the harvest. Normally we start the last days of August with the earliest white varieties and we usually finish almost coinciding with the Puente del Pilar which, in Spain, is celebrated on October 12. This long extension of time is due to the fact that we have vineyards distributed in different areas and throughout La Rioja and Navarra and our objective is always to collect the highest quality grapes possible.
This is why we wait to harvest each plot at the right time, neither before nor after, and our team is continuously collecting and analyzing samples from each plot to decide on the optimal moment. The quality of the wines depends on it. Borja Ripa, technical director and oenologist of our wineries, is an absolute fan of the fruit. He believes that 80% of a wine is already made before entering the winery.
This campaign is advertised differently for several reasons. A medium-short harvest is expected internationally. Less kilos of grapes are expected in general, so there will be less wine and this will foreseeably have an upward impact on its price. This is partially positive since the wineries receive this harvest with more stock than other years since we have just gone through a very long pandemic and only this year we are enjoying it without restrictions.
The smaller harvest responds to the weather this year, the hottest in a long time. The sun has burned some vines and the rains have not compensated for the successive heat waves of these months. The irrigated vineyards have not had enough water either, so a smaller harvest and smaller fruits are expected. This can result in more color in the wine.
In our case we are optimistic since our fundamental objective is the quality of our fruits that year after year guarantee the stability of style and quality of our most famous wines.
In addition, we are very excited because this will be the first year that we make wines in our Haro wineries. We are preparing the winery after the latest renovations for the micro-processing that we are going to carry out there using grapes from neighboring plots.
Stay tuned, we will keep reporting!
The Manzanos Wines team
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