Harvest Season 2021
Tuesday 17 August. The bell tower of Sant Sadurní marks the rhythm of a new day. It’s five in the morning. We put on our reflective vests and headlamps and prepare our harvest gloves. At the doors of the winery, 38 of us gather to head out to the vineyards. The harvest has begun at Recaredo.
We feel a sense of anticipation, but also nervousness. We’ve carefully prepared the winery and logistics to harvest all our vineyards by hand in accordance with the most exacting standards. Hand harvesting is very labour-intensive, but the time we invest in this process is well worth it: it’s more sustainable than mechanical harvesting and also allows us to carefully select the fruit.
The silence of the night is soon broken by the snip-snip of scissors and the sound of boxes being stacked with care in the wagon. The grapes will be very fresh when they reach the presses. By exerting gentle pressure on the fruit, we’ll obtain a balanced must with character – the starting point for making our long-aged Brut Nature Corpinnats.
The first berries of Xarel·lo and Macabeu confirm our gut feeling: we’re looking at one of the best vintages in recent times, with perfectly healthy grapes, an extraordinary citric acidity, and a wealth of aromas and nuances that rekindle our optimism. If it weren’t for the lack of rain and the resulting low yields, 2021 could have been a dream vintage.
At Recaredo we practise dry-grown viticulture, a system that respects the scarce water resources available in the Mediterranean basin. In 2021, nature has not been very generous in terms of rainfall, especially during the spring. This resulted in yields 35% lower than we’d forecast: an average of 4,693 kg of grapes per hectare (the maximum allowed under Corpinnat rules is 12,000 kg/ha).
Fortunately, the wisdom of experience is evident in the deep roots of the old Reserva Particular and Turó d’en Mota vines, which survive, adapt and continue to produce consistent yields, giving the best of themselves.
The memory of the markedly dry harvests of 2015 and 2016 is still fresh in our minds and strengthens our commitment to planting Xarel·lo vineyards in mountainous areas, seeking higher elevations, more rainfall and a marked contrast between night and daytime temperatures. We also remain firm in our decision to cultivate varieties that have historically defined the Penedès region, with long growth cycles and an extraordinary ability to adapt to the Mediterranean climate.
Eco-innovation projects
Recaredo’s vineyard team implements eco-innovation projects that focus on climate change adaptation, including shading of grapes in certain vineyards (depending on sun exposure), night harvesting, and bush vine cultivation, which allows for natural aeration of the grapes and better protects them from the sun’s rays.
Recaredo’s Vintage Year
