Luberri Harvest Notes 2011

After an early flowering and a cool summer it looked like the harvest would need heat and rain to come together. The heat arrived and moved along the viticultural cycle but the rains never appeared.

The high heat in Rioja created situations of drought. The growers with old vines came through with fruit that, although with thicker skins, was full of good juice. These old vines reached deep to find resources that were unavailable to the younger vines. This fact, in addition to vigorous work in aerating the soils, allowed a freshness to permeate the vines despite the elevated temperatures.

Working with a careful regulation of temperatures allowed the extraction of positive aromas and great fruit.

The harvest is still too early to call but indications are all positive.

Ostatu Harvest Notes 2011

Harvest notes, straight from the winery:

The climatological characteristics of this vintage 2011, that will constrain the character of our wines, we can summarize them in: winter soft and low precipitation, spring with high temperatures that overtook the vegetative cycle of the vineyard in an important way, followed by a summer with peak temperatures during July and August, and a total absence of rain. The months of September and October have brought us very high temperatures every day, unusual in our area. A dry year, only 400 lit. per square meter in Samaniego, whereas we usually have an average of about 600 lit.

We began the harvest the 21st of September (the 1st of October in 2010), picking the viura and malvasia grapes, with a excellent sanity and maturation, and ending the collection of the last tempranillo grapes October 12. Due to the high temperatures, we only collected grapes during the morning, preventing grapes coming in the cellar with too high temperatures. Even so the use of refrigeration in the cellar has been very important in order to delaying the fermentations, that finally did start, and are going very well.

Today, we are satisfied with the result of the vintage, the wines are very expressive, with a true fruit . We are still waiting for the development of the malolactic fermentations, and the consolidation of the anthocyanins and tannins that in vintages of a quick ripening can represent a risk.

Clos Cibonne – interview with Claude Deforges

Clos Cibonne Harvest Notes 2011

2011 was a fairly windy year overall, but the end result was great fruit maturity. In July, the weather was relatively chilly on the Mediterranean coast of Provence, with some rain. But then August and September were beautifully warm and sunny, providing perfect ripening conditions.

The coastal area was not particularly affected by an especially warm spring, as much of the rest of France was, due to the oceanic influence which keeps conditions more stable and predictable. As such, flowering and budding occurred more or less as normal, not 2 or 3 weeks in advance as in the rest of the country.

The harvest took about 3 weeks this year, starting on August 23rd and ending on September 9th, with a team of 18 pickers. At Clos Cibonne, the grapes are harvested sequentially for the different cuvées: the grapes for the Cuvée Tendance are picked first, the grapes for Cuvée Tradition second, and the grapes for Cuvée Spéciale des Vignettes last. Over the course of 3 weeks, that leads to increasing maturity for the grapes that go into the higher-end cuvées.

André talks with Gerardo Mendez and Toni Mendez about Amizade

Dominio Do Bibei Harvest Notes 2011

Following the same trend as the rest of the north of Spain, flowering was two weeks early. This was followed by unseasonably cool weather during the summer months. The weather slowed everything down until right before harvest when the sun came back out and rushed the sugar levels back up. Rains did come down two weeks before harvest keeping everything in check and creating the conditions for a very fresh wine.

The diligent work of vineyard management combined with the Dominio do Bibei's insistence on making a simple, natural wine payed off as we are seeing extremely low pH levels with great acidity. This could turn out to be an exceptional year and only time will tell.