With most of the grapes safely in the wineries by the first week of April, Argentina brought an end to its 2023 harvest almost a month earlier than usual. The reasons for the haste date back to the early mornings of 31 October and 1 November, 2022, when frosts struck to determine the course of this unusual year.
Alejandro Vigil, the president of Wines of Argentina, director of production, vineyards and wineries at Catena Zapata and creator of El Enemigo Wines, sums things up. ‘We had an early harvest with low yields but with unprecedented balance between the malic acidity, pH and ripeness. We’re very optimistic about the wines we’ll be making this year.’
Interpreting the harvest
Following the polar cold front, which hit almost every wine-producing region in the country, expectations were low. Some were even gloomily predicting historic losses. Fortunately, however, many producers saw their vines recover in time with estimates of the eventual drop in yields falling between 25 and 30%. Meanwhile the grapes that were harvested were of excellent health and quality.
This was due to the fact that after the frosts, the spring was warm and dry as Argentina suffered from a historic drought that continued into the hottest summer in decades. Because of the heat and the lesser loads of fruit, the vines ripened more quickly.
Although by February temperatures were dropping – there was even an unprecedently early frost – the pace of ripening continued steadily, especially among the reds. In Mendoza and Patagonia, the grapes were generally harvested about three weeks earlier than normal.
‘This harvest required great precision when it came to deciding on the right moment,’ says Germán Di Césare, head winemaker at Trivento. ‘By the middle of February, we saw that everything was happening much earlier than usual, the grapes were small and not very fleshy but showed remarkable aromatic development and rising Brix degrees as well as pronounced malic concentration. By the end of February we had decided to bring the harvest forward.
To read the full article, click HERE.