Although it is still too early to gauge the quality of the 2015 harvest in Spain, it is interesting to get a status report from a prominent wine estate, in our case, Raventos i Blanc . Pepe Raventos answers our questions:
Can you give us an indication of how the vines are doing thus far?
Pepe Raventos: “In July, the heat wave was spectacular, with no precedent in our records. However the plants are resisting very well and do not show stress of any sign. It was very fast from veraison to maturity. We may have some issues with still whites due to short cycle flavours but for base wines for Conca we are surprised how well our local grapes Macabeu and Xarel.lo have resisted such a warm summer and a short rainfall season (on average 500 l, but this year 250 l so far…), from a vegetative/plant standpoint to a grape balance and low pH. I believe we should look at more than just one agriculture year so we have a better understanding of a certain región. 2013 was extremely generous with cold temperatures and rain, 2014 was average, we are now on a hot dry year…”
So for the moment are there any similarities with other recent vintages?
Pepe Raventos: “I would say 2003 and 2007 but it is still too early to say. We have a 2 day storm forecast for tomorrow!”
If everything goes well, when might the harvest start?
Pepe Raventos: “On Monday we will start with Macabeu. So far controls show a better balance compared to other hot years with 10 in sugar and 5 in acidity (in ATS). During years that are not warm, Macabeu does not reach 9,5 in sugar. Here we are talking about 3 and 3.1 ph at harvest. Xarel.los are still at good acidity higher than 6 and show 9.5 in sugar already. For Parellada it is too early. So we are ready !”
