The 2016 is already a reality in our Lagar de Cervera winery. With the Albariño grapes in Limeres (O Rosal) and Vinadeiro (Cambados), we started the latest, and possibly one of the most demanding harvests in the last ten years in Rías Baixas.

Heavy spring rains followed by a summer drought with very high temperatures significantly conditioned a growing cycle which was already fifteen days behind last year at budbreak. Fortunately, thanks to an innovative irrigation system we implemented in our vineyard and the painstaking care of our team throughout the growing cycle, we picked grapes of superb quality which stand out for their excellent condition despite the pervasive threat of disease. Production in Lagar of Cervera was clearly higher than in 2015, while in the rest of the D.O. harvest figures fall about 20% below last year’s.

Weather forecasts for the next few days are good and will allow us to maintain a constant picking pace. The grapes are harvested by hand and taken to the winery in refrigerated transport for sorting.

Meanwhile, our technical team monitors ripening levels in the vineyards belonging to La Rioja Alta, S.A., Torre de Oña and Áster on a daily basis, in order to determine the optimum time to start picking. Everything seems to indicate that we will be cutting the first Tempranillo clusters in Cenicero next week.