The 2016 Harvest will be remembered due to its challenges. An atypical rainy year in Mendoza, thanks to the whimsical “El Niño” current that has put vintners and winemakers to the test. This vintage can deliver great, different wines… wines with the potential to be extraordinary. But how the 2016 wines will turn out, we still don’t know. Today we are in the middle of harvest and these are our challenges:
Harvesting the grapes in our Altos Las Hormigas estate, Luján de Cuyo
In this estate, the harvest began on March 14th, picking up the Malbec grapes. Having uninterrupted sunny days for a while helped keep a good harvesting rhythm, since all our grapes are hand-picked, we must have good weather conditions.
The harvesters protect themselves from the sun in order to work all day long
Some of the days were actually quite hot, but that didn’t stop the harvest from taking place during the morning and afternoon. The harvesters seemed tireless, coming and going with the baskets filled with grapes. After pouring the grapes into the bins that take the bunches to the winery, they are given a token that they will exchange for their payment.
Hugo, the estate’s overseer, gives the tokens to the harvesters
On March 29th, we started picking up the Bonarda grapes. Leo Erazo, winemaker at Altos Las Hormigas, explains that this harvest started later than the previous years. A fundamental piece of our wine-making philosophy is harvesting early. The wines made with these grapes really show true fresh and mineral notes. But this year, the harvest began almost a month later than in 2015, because it is equally important to achieve the necessary ripeness to pick up the grapes.
The grapes are poured into bins that take the bunches to the winery
In the meantime, at the Uco Valley…
Leo tastes the grapes from vines selected according to the soil profile they are located
Leo explains that in this area, a lower-than-usual sugar concentration is not a main concern, since the lower the sugar, the lower the alcohol. Wines with lower alcohol and higher acidity can better show the characteristics of this Terroir.
Something that caught our attention was the color of the leaves on the vines. Due to the fact that we are in the last days of March, autumn is showing up in Mendoza, and the plants are beginning their winter rest. Yellow and reddish leaves were all over the place.
Vines start to show the beginning of Fall
For those willing to perform a job for ants this year, following closely the evolution of the grapes and taking good care of the vines, there might be a reward waiting at the end of the harvest.
Our friends the ants teach us every day to keep working firmly on target despite the obstacles. They are not afraid of the rain; they are not discouraged by the weather conditions. We neither. We move forward in the 2016 harvest trusting that at the end of the road a great prize will await us and…who knows… maybe a nice surprise too.