organic wine
Menu
The most busy time of the year is around harvesttime which normally takes place mid October.
First thing that has to be done is to clean and prepare the deposits for the new arrival. Wine in barrels is transferred to bottles , wine in bottles is labelled and stored away. The supply of bottles must be assured and if needed, some of the older oak barrels are exchanged for new
In the vineyard the grapes are tested daily in order to decide their maturity and the right moment to start the harvest. The ripeness of the grapes can vary from one area to another, and in the end we almost always start the harvest in one specific area.
Harvest is done by machine and usually takes place in the evening and during the night. This is done in order to maintain the grapes at a cool temperature which again helps us to control when the fermentation process can be initiated
When the machine has finished the job we manually harvest the areas with difficult access
Now starts the most frantic period . The fermentation is under constant vigilance as is the temperature of the area where the wine is made.
In between January and February the first pruning takes place, dead branches are cut off , the wire that holds up the plant when carrying fruit is lowered. This is all done manually.
The plant’s lower branch is tied to a wire and as the vine grows it will be guided manually to creep upward by the use of a double wire.
The second pruning , also called debudding takes place in spring. The task is carried out by hand and involves removing the or the young elbow shoots that give no fruit.
Depending on the weather we may have to irrigate a couple of times. De-leafing which is normally done just before the grapes start to take color is also optional, and it consists in removing some of the leaves. By de-leafing the grapes will receive more sun and it also gives place for aeration, which again helps to avoid certain plagues such as mildew and botrytis.
