The harvest has only just begun in Rioja. The remaining days, and especially the rain, will be key for the future of the crop. In this sense, if the weather gives its consent, Rioja could have another extraordinary vintage after the 2013 break, or at least that is what the technical team expects for our vineyards and our wines.
Martínez Bujanda Family
works ‘without a net’. At
Finca Valpiedra
as in
Montepedroso Estate
(Rueda) and at
Finca Antigua
(La Mancha), the grapes, and the wines, reflect the character of each vintage because all the bottles we make are from our own vineyards. Extraordinary years for grape ripening, such as 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012, have given extraordinary wines in our vineyards in Fuenmayor, and other more complicated years such as 2003 or 2006 (very hot) or the last 2013 (cool, late and very rainy in spring) have given wines with another profile, not necessarily worse, but always witnesses of the vintage.
At Finca Valpiedra we do not hide the fact that some vintages are better than others and that, therefore, there will also be wines that evolve differently, but, for us, that is precisely where the truth of the wines lies. If we were to make a vertical tasting of Finca Valpiedra we could find Mediterranean vintages (generally warmer, drier and calmer) and other more Atlantic vintages (marked by cool and rainy years) and that is precisely what we like and what distinguishes us.
In the last vintage, 2013, although it met all the technical quality parameters, we decided not to bottle our Finca Valpiedra Reserva because we were not one hundred percent sure of the wine’s future evolution. In fact, we believe that our breeding
Cantos de Valpiedra
(largely a recipient of that Valpiedra that will not be released) will be of sensational quality.
For this year, we expect, as we said, a great harvest. We have begun the harvest on the alluvial and gravelly soils closest to the Ebro where we make our Cantos de Valpiedra, while the older vines, planted on clay soils, are still waiting to be harvested for the Finca Valpiedra.
Yield control, with continuous thinning of bunches starting in July, with an average production of about 5,000 kilos per hectare -this year Rioja covers up to 6,825 kilos-, the selection of the best bunches in the vineyard and then on the winery table and, above all, as we have said in previous posts, the choice of the optimum time for harvesting, plot by plot, line by line and even vine by vine.
Blog
