The beginning of the harvest was very conditioned by the severe drought and the heat wave that took place between the end of June and the middle of July. Grapes from the lowlands showed low acidity and sugar values around the 20th of August and tannins were still a little green. Despite this, we decided to start slowly so as not to lose more acidity in the musts.
The rains of the 13th and 14th of September brought new life to the grapes in the highlands. From the second half of September onwards, temperatures began to drop, especially at night, which allowed vines located at higher points and still to be harvested to finish maturation by concentrating more sugar, maturing tannins and with balanced levels of acidity.
We decided to stop the harvest between the 12th and 18th of September to allow time for the rainwater from the previous days to be well assimilated by the soil. There was in fact a big change in the quality of the grapes when we resumed the harvest on the 19th of September. It looked like a different vintage than what had been going on until then. The quality improved daily as the days cooled down and the harvest moved to vineyards at higher altitudes.
We ended the harvest on the 15th of October with a smile on our face for the quality we managed to obtain in the last few weeks. Patience was essential in order to obtain really good and correctly ripened grapes. Another year different from all the others I had lived. Life is a continuous learning process and patience with the vines is a quality that we must preserve.
Oscar Quevedo
