Ribeira Sacra finishes harvesting successfully
After a year in which the vine growers of the D.O. Ribeira Sacra have had to fight against the mildew and hail that affected some wineries, the works of this vintage 2018, which began on September 11th, have been favored by excellent weather conditions that contributed to the optimum state of the grape and the fixation of its acidity.
They have been a total of 39 days of intense activity in the vineyards and in the wineries where wine growers were busy collecting and transporting the grapes. The harvest of the Ribeira Sacra has become, in fact, a true economic engine that generates thousands of direct and indirect jobs contributing to a sustainable development of the territory. It is estimated that it has generated close to 3,000 direct jobs and produced some three million Euros in salaries.
In this 2018 the harvest of Ribeira Sacra, has already established itself as an unavoidable media reference in the main generalist chains of the country. The news programs of TeleCinco and Antena 3 and Spain Directo de Televisión Española have moved to the vineyards to show the whole process of grape harvesting to the whole country, and demonstrating the growing interest in our viticulture. An interest that emanates from the respect for tradition and the dedication of our people, timeless values that revert to the quality of our wines and their international recognition. In this process of internationalization, the visit of a group of journalists from the EFE Agency who made recordings in the Ribeira Sacra, particularly in the area of Quiroga-Bibei, for the realization of a report on the D.O. Ribeira Sacra with destination to the Anglo-Saxon world. At the same time, a large group of journalists from different countries participating in the International Galician Wine Week, an event organized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance through the Igape, made a visit to the D.O. Ribeira Sacra where they could see first-hand the work of the grape harvest and taste our wines.
On the other hand, this year the first night harvest took place in Ribeira Sacra with two wineries belonging to the Denomination of Origin: Don Cosme and Finca Cuarta. Far from being an avant-garde eccentricity, the choice of the night to harvest is justified from the oenological point of view. The plot to be harvested was illuminated with a specific light during the previous days so that the vines did not stop making the photosynthesis during the night and that the sap flowed to the upper points of the vines bringing the best minerals of the earth to the grapes of natural form. In addition to this, the low temperatures of the night, favor that the grape reaches the cellar at a low temperature, also naturally, so as to enhance the aromatic values of the godello variety. In definitive accounts, the experience is another example of how the Ribeira Sacra combines tradition and avant-garde to improve the quality of our wines.
In this campaign they will elaborate wine under the protection of the Denomination of Origin 93 wineries and the expectations that the Regulatory Council considered at the beginning of the campaign regarding quality and quantity have been fulfilled.
The official data October 19th, completed the grape harvest in the territory of the Denomination of Origin is:
TOTAL KGS COLLECTED: 6,170,995
Red varieties:
- Mencía: 5.207.735 kgs
- Brancellao: 42.912 kgs
- Merenzao: 48.946 kgs
- Caiño: 28.899 kgs
- Garnacha: 282.751 kgs
- Mouratón: 6.231 kgs
- Sousón: 84.906 kgs
- Tempranillo: 50.945 kgs
White varieties:
- Albariño: 74.246 kgs
- Dona Branca: 3.936 kgs
- Godello: 303.009 kgs
- Loureira: 2.543 kgs
- Torrontés: 2.835 kgs
- Treixadura: 31.101 kgs