The vintage of 2011 has perhaps been the most complicated vintage I have lived since my first vintage in 2003. We started with a very cool spring with little sun, and a tremendous amount of frosts (more than 11). Despite having some frost control, the last frost was in December and because of a human mistake, it went wrong and destroyed some complete blocks.
The summer was sunny but with a few hours of heat and plenty of wind that cooled down the temperature. With as a result, when we came close to harvest, the grapes were still green. The grapes that were located in the middle of the blocks were ready, therefore we had to make a great effort to only harvest the grapes that were ready.
We are now in the first week of May and we are still harvesting our Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes are still hanging on the vines and the only thing that the vines want to do is just go to sleep and they do not want to keep working to finish their grapes. This is a serious challenge for us; growers and winemakers. This is the first time we had to harvest our Sauvignon Blanc so late in the season.
Along with the frost and cold season, we were attacked by birds as never before, even in those blocks where they never appeared before…and besides the frost and bird attacks we must add that the yield this year has been very low due to very small and light weighted bunches.
But this is how it is in the countryside, where nature tells us what to do… and we must learn to live with it. The good news is that the health and quality of the grapes is extremely good and therefore we expect some amazing 2011 vintage wines. You always have to look at the positive side of all this, the technical challenges that we are facing each year, in each harvest, is very rich, we learn from this, and if we did not have those challenge, and when the wines would be very similar year after year, wine making would be very boring!!!
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