The Natural Wine Movement (and my Back-Label Dilemma)
As I’m sure you all know, there’s no such thing as the “Natural Wine Movement”, except in the sociological sense, ie in the same way that there’s a “Risky Sports Movement”, a “Recycling Movement”, a “Real Ale Movement”, etc. There’s not really a Secret Inner Ruling Council (even though I leaked the agenda from the...
Experiment Update: Pressing Grapes out of our Amphora / Tinaja / Qvevri
Last Saturday we pressed the grapes from our clay amphora. This is an experimental lot of about 300 kg of grapes that we crushed and fermented back in September 2011. Ever since we moved ito the current winery in Morata de Tajuña a few years ago, I’d been noticing these two old clay amphorae sitting...
Pruning, Pesticides and Natural Wine Dogmas
We’ve gotten off to a good start with the pruning this year. We started right after New Year and have finished the small upper plot of the Carabaña vineyard – about 250 vines (all white Airén variety). It took so long to do because apart from the actual pruning, we also hoed up the earth...
This Natural Wine Thing
I’ve been thinking about this whole “natural wine thing” for a good few years now and have been following posts and articles and commenting on people’s wine blogs, and I’ve even written a few posts myself. A lot of ideas and concepts have been percolating around in my subconscious during all this time and every...
Malvar Harvest 2011 (Villarejo)
Last Saturday (17th) and Sunday (18th) we harvested all grapes from our new vineyard in Villarejo de Salvanés (Spain). Incredibly, and in contrast to all expectations, we managed to pick all the grapes and we don’t have to go back another day to finish off. We had calculated at least 4 days of picking, but...
Airén Harvest 2011
On Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September we finished harvesting the Airén in Carabaña (Spain). The Good News The good news is that the grapes were very healthy and shown no signs at all of any type of infection (eg, mildew or oidium). They were also perfectly ripe (for the type of wine we’ll be...
Tempranillo Harvest 2011
All done! Grapes picked and crushed already! I have to check my notes from past years to be sure, but I get the impression that the harvest is earlier and earlier every year! Picking We picked the grapes on Saturday 27th August, and, unusually, it was a very relaxed, no-stress, no-rush, family and children oriented...
Pre-Harvest Sampling (Tempranillo)
This morning I was in the vineyard in Carabaña (Madrid, Spain) taking samples of the Tempranillo; and as we suspected we’re going to harvest tomorrow, as the probable level of alcohol will be about 13,5º. I did a systematic sampling as opposed to a quick n dirty one! ie, I walked up and down every...
A Month in the Life of a (completely abnormal) Natural Winemaker
I was thinking of calling this post something like “Crisis Management”, or “I Need a Holiday”, or “How Not to Run a Startup Wine Business”, or even “Strategic Planning? Never Heard of That!”, but in the end I thought I’d just keep it simple and to the point! I’m really writing this for myself, so...
