The vintage

no harvest,
      there is no wine!!


The word harvest comes from the Latin "vindemia", which means to pluck (demere) the fruit of the vine (vinea).

There are written references to the harvest, in ancient Egypt more than 5000 years ago, it was a way of uniting, symbolically, the spiritual with the earthly.



It consists in the collection or harvest of the grapes with which the wine is made. Collecting the grapes, transport to the cellar, re-pressing, fermentation and subsequent pressing to extract the wine.
Winemakers and winemakers make the decisions to determine the characteristics and quality of the wine that will be produced.

The grape harvest is related to the degree of ripening of its berries.

   

       The fruits, the optimal concentration of sugars, acids, tannins and natural components, which will then determine the characteristics of the wine once it has been made and preserved: the aromatic nuances, its alcoholic strength, its level of structure and of body, its color or its freshness.


Harvesting depends on the degree of ripeness of the grapes and the variety. The sugars and acids in the grape grain give the optimum value for the type of wine that is to be produced. Deciding when to harvest will depend on:

     • Climatic conditions: as the latitude increases, the grapes ripen later.
     • Production area: grapes from vineyards exposed to the South ripen earlier than those exposed to the North; by increasing the height the grapes ripen earlier.
     • Type of grape: white grape vines ripen earlier than red grape vines.
     • Type of wine to be made, determined by the greater or lesser presence of some components, such as:
         ◦ sugars: a greater amount of sugar will increase the alcoholic strength of the wine produced; presenting a fair amount of sugar is essential to start the alcoholic fermentation.
         ◦ acids: acidic substances are necessary both to prevent the proliferation of disease-causing bacteria and for the subsequent preservation of the wine.
         ◦ aromatic components: they vary during the ripening of the grapes, they contribute to determining the organic characteristics of the wine.




There is the manual harvest, where the grapes are picked by hand. Those that are in optimal conditions are cut, ensuring the greatest care for the grapes and the production of high quality wines.

I The mechanical harvest, with the use of harvesters that collect the grapes. The crop must be on the shoulder.





There are places that these days become the most important event or celebration of the year.