Wine, natural and divine
Making your own wine is like a dream to us. During our lifetime we visited, presumably like a lot of you, a lot of vineyards. Admiring the grapes, the leaves, the beautiful surroundings and of course tasting wines. Learning about wine making, I do have a background in hospitality in which I have been taught about wine knowledge, is one thing. But putting it into practice is completely different. Books can not help you with it, they are just a useful guide. In the area where we live now, in the Costa Blanca, you have a broad variety in micro climates and other factors. You really need to learn not only about how to prune your grapes, but to fully discover all the factors that influence your vineyard in real life.
Be flexible, stay cool at all times
Last year was wonderful and we enjoyed our barrels with a lot of wine. Both white and red were, and still are, wonderful. This year is completely different probably because of many factors. We had only half of the previous harvest and as a consequence half the amount of wine with that. We learned that the area, the whole zone from the coast to Alicante and Valencia suffered the same problem at some point. Namely, winegrowers had only half of the harvest compared to last year. Perhaps this is just for winegrowers who work in an ecological way, this could be, because we are merely connected with winegrowers that work in an ecological way. But, knowing Spring was very dry and so was Summer which could also have been of big influence. We tried to compensate for this with our irrigation, but nevertheless. Maybe another reason could be because we tried another way of pruning. Do know that experimenting does not necessarily mean that it will improve things of course. Another factor was that birds greatly enjoyed a serious amount of our grapes. Once they put their beak in it, the grape will lose its liquid and it is no longer of use to us.
Our friend who made a self made scarecrow advises us to do the same in our vineyard. So, in terms of numbers, this year we have about 40% less yield. But it seems to be wonderful wines again, we now smell the fine odor in the deposits and our regular tasting makes us smile. So, quality again, yeah!! People can come again to taste our new wines next year. In the meantime we still have some bottles in our cellar to enjoy for tastings and guided tours for which you can subscribe. Whatsapp Mónica +34.601983929
Talking about lower yield, for example our apricots and peaches were also less than half of the amount compared to last year. Nature decides what it will give you, just wait, prune and see. And be grateful, next year will definitely be different again.
Artisanal it is
The whole process of winemaking is in our hands and on our finca. It is indeed made in an artisanal way. We not only harvest from our own vineyard, but in and near our bodega our exquisite wines are homemade, tested by tastins during the months of maturation ( a very lovely job I can admit) and later bottled and stored. It is our pleasure to try and taste our wines, The whole process before you can enjoy this beautiful and earthy drink.
The process from the grape into your glass of wine is an adventurous journey for us and will ask for our commitment and attention during the whole year. With things such as pruning, irrigation, working the soil and later on the winemaking, helped by our Spanish friends in our network who have vineyards themselves.
And winemaking could easily bring you to the physiotherapist in my experience. Once I tried the old fashion way of stamping the grapes with feet, which I did for 4 hours (!). It ended in a lovely white wine but also a lot of pain and therapy. I learnt.
Next year one of the major projects will be to extend our vineyard. Our grower already knows our wishes and in January he will deliver new vines. Of course the search for what you need and will order is a job in itself. Variety, amount, where to plant, preparing the land. A very interesting project.
Talking about wine makes me thirsty and makes me look at our orange trees with a lot of green balls in it. Those green balls will turn into orange balls in about a month, ready to make orange juice, love it!!
Read in the next blog about oranges!!
But for now, Salud!!
