This week, the 2013 harvest has finally
finished. This year took a little longer as there were a lot of grapes and we
decided to make more wine than last year. More than double the amount of last
year, as a matter of fact.
After a fairly cool summer, I expected rain
to fall early in autumn, but so far we’ve only had rain twice, and it didn’t do
much damage. Even Syrah, with its tight bunches, didn’t have any rot to speak
of.
We only had some frost a week ago, which
caused all the leaves to drop and made us speed up the end of harvest.
Fortunately, frost doesn’t affect the quality of the grapes once they’re ripe
(it does damage unripe grapes), but having them hanging in bare sun during the
day can’t be too good either!
Meanwhile, in the cellar, the last tanks
are slowly fermenting and the first wines are finished, have been pressed and
put in barrels. Fermentations are quite slow, as the weather is very cold at
the moment, which slows down the activity of the yeasts. This is not a problem,
as it gives more time to extract color and tannins and evaluate the fermenting
must. So far, colors are very intense and aromas are fruity and already quite
expressive. Now we have to wait for malolactic fermentation to complete over
the course of winter and spring to be able to evaluate, select and blend the
final wines.
During harvest we had a few visitors,
unlike last year, and they were a very welcome distraction during what was one
of the longest harvests at Lagar!
Some of the most memorable were Janesse and
Ben and their little son from “The Bottle Shop” in Colorado. During our visit
to the vineyard, the dogs managed to catch a rabbit and tore it to pieces in
front of our eyes! Animal planet live!!! I have to confess I felt quite
embarrassed, especially for the boy, but that’s nature. We’re at the feet of
the Andes, not in the middle of a big city. Apart from that it was a great
visit, and I was sorry they couldn’t stay for lunch. Maybe next year?
Henry Hudson and Joaquin Perez from South
American Boutique Imports arrived in the dark, and the electricity had fallen
out. This happens a few times a year since the area is quite remote, but this
was extremely bad timing. The staff had left already, since there was little to do in the dark. We had to receive them in a candlelit tasting room,
which looked very romantic! Anyway, they didn’t mind too much and we
had a great tasting. This is how the tasting room looks like when lit:
Another visit was from our importer in
Corea, In-Suk Chung and his deputy manager Young-jin Choi. I had never had
visitors from Asia, so we were a bit nervous at first, but what great people
they were. Very knowledgeable and very sure of their tastes, more so than most
Europeans who are supposed to come from the cradle of viticulture. Apart from
sharing a very pleasant lunch including a bottle of the 2004 Aluvión, they
handed us lovely gifts, which we didn’t expect at all! We’ll have to start
working on our “Lagar” t-shirts to be able to retribute our visitors.
Our trainee, Isaac, and his wife and
children left last Sunday for Peru and then back to Holland. They were great to
have as company and a fantastic help in the cellar as well. We already miss
them, but that’s the way harvests go. At the end of each one you have to say
goodbye to all the people that helped so much and were an integral part of the
process, but the rest of the year we have to make do by ourselves. After a last dinner (the picture shows what was left over, note the bottle of Inca Cola, Isaac has Dutch-Peruvian origins) they left for a last day in Santiago.
Just after the last grapes came in, the
rain really started. We’ve only been doing some cleaning and labeling, as it’s
raining cat’s and dogs. Speaking of dogs: they were all lying in their houses
looking quite depressed, as they weren’t able to run and play outside. To add
insult to injury, the vet came for their yearly vaccinations. The look on their
faces said it all!
