CORPINNAT begins the smallest harvest in recent years

August 16, 2020

Harvest

Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, August 2020.- The wineries of the CORPINNAT collective brand have begun the 2020 harvest, marked by a scarce crop as a result of the downy mildew outbreak that has hit the vineyards of the Penedès very severely. Macabeu and Parellada, two of the basic historical varieties for making sparkling wines, have been the worst affected, while Xarel·lo has withstood the outbreak better, although its production will also be significantly reduced.

The CORPINNAT wineries put this year's reduction in the crop at between 60% and 70%, depending on each vineyard. The downy mildew outbreak has had more devastating effects on organically farmed vineyards, as all CORPINNAT vineyards are, since this type of agriculture does not allow synthetic chemicals to be used to fight the fungus, apart from preventive treatments that respect the environment, natural resources and grape quality.

Wineries such as Gramona, Recaredo, Torelló, Sabaté i Coca and Mas Candí began harvesting the earliest historical varieties, such as Macabeu, last week, and in the coming days they will pick Xarel·lo and later Parellada, the three basic traditional varieties used to make CORPINNAT quality sparkling wines. The brand's other wineries – Llopart, Nadal, Huguet de Can Feixes, Júlia Bernet and Can Descregut – plan to start harvesting on their respective estates this week. At all the wineries the harvest will continue until the second week of September with the latest-ripening varieties.

This year's exceptionally scarce harvest has once again highlighted the effects of climate change on the vine's growth cycle, with more extreme and unpredictable conditions such as droughts or persistent rain and high temperatures. Indeed, excessive rain during the spring and early summer months caused constant humidity on the vines, which encouraged the appearance of downy mildew without the wineries and growers who farm organically, like all those in CORPINNAT, being able to do much more than they did to prevent it. The fungus has been especially aggressive because, in addition to the leaves, it massively affected the grapes themselves, as the outbreak appeared at the most delicate moment of flowering.

For the wine sector this has been a particularly hard year because, in addition to the downy mildew outbreak, it has suffered severely from the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, with a significant drop in sales that has forced the wineries to scale back their activity. Safety measures have also had to be taken to protect workers' health and, in this respect, the CORPINNAT wineries have committed to a safe harvest by ensuring that all pickers show no suspicious symptoms and have all the protective equipment they need to do their work with minimal risk. Whether through the public health system or through the wineries themselves, all the seasonal workers taking part in the CORPINNAT harvest have undergone PCR tests to rule out possible infections.

Despite all these setbacks, and thanks to the 100% hand harvesting required by CORPINNAT, the scarce grapes that reach the wineries this harvest will be of good quality. Selecting the grapes vine by vine and then sorting them on the selection table at the winery entrance are two further methods of guaranteeing the highest quality standards

Production will be affected in volume, but the usual supply is guaranteed, at a very high cost for both winegrowers and wineries, which have sparkling wines from previous harvests that have been resting in the cellar for months and years to meet the minimum ageing periods before being released. CORPINNAT sparkling wines are released with a minimum ageing of 18 months, but all the brand's wineries have sparkling wines of 30 months or more on the market, since long ageing is one of the distinguishing features of these sparkling wines.

The oenologists of the CORPINNAT wineries agree that the downy mildew crisis has been a test of endurance for winegrowers in the face of the force of nature responding to climate change. In this regard, they maintain that the organic agriculture practised by CORPINNAT wineries and winegrowers remains the way to find the necessary balance that will allow us to enjoy exceptional sparkling wines that respect the landscape and territory where they were born and raised, “and the best way to ensure that the vineyard endures over time in the Penedès and that our children inherit healthy, fertile land”.

“and the best way to ensure that the vineyard endures over time in the Penedès and that our children inherit healthy, fertile land”