Vendimia in South America!
Our friend and winemaker of Lagar de Codegua in Alto Cachapoal, Chile, January 2020.
The harvest season in the Southern Hemisphere has been completed, the picking, pressing and fermentation started since early March and continued through early April. We reached out to our friends in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay to get some insight about the 2020 harvest. All of them agreed that it was a difficult one for obvious reasons of the current social context we live in. They also agreed that 2020 harvest overall is of good quality, in one case perhaps the best of the 21st century. Let’s dig into the details from our harvest report from report from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
Argentina: In Mendoza, hot temperatures, lack of rain with dry winters has been the trend. Chief winemaker Sebastian Zuccardi gave us some insight:
“The 2019 winter was warmer than usual and the spring as well, therefore we started to harvest a bit earlier. The quality is there but the harvest was 15%-20% smaller than other years…there’s equilibrium, balance, freshness and acidity…as I always say the work is done consistently in the vineyards throughout the year, every details adds up, if the vineyards are healthy you can have climate variations every year and still produce quality grapes.”
Chile continues to experience drought with hot summers and dry winters, need of rain is becoming a major issue. Winemaker Benjamin Leiva of Lagar de Codegua in Alto Cachapoal who we visited in January 2020 tells us:
“In Alto Cachapoal, we are blessed that we are close to the Andes Mountain range and we have cold air circulating specifically at night as it helps to have the cooling effect from the mountains. We are also blessed that we have access throughout the year to water , in comparison with more arid valleys in Chile. For over five years the drought was been an issue in wine-growing regions in Chile. 2020 was a solid harvest, excellent quality with freshness, acidity and the maturity of the grapes was outstanding, specially for some of my favorite varieties that we have: planted such as: Grenache, Mouvedre, Tannat and Syrah…as you know I love Syrah and this year is outstanding.”
Then we go south to Itata Valley and ask winemaker Felipe Garcia of PS Garcia how was the harvest in Itata?
He states: “ 2019 winter was dry , no rain, as the past 9 years in Chile, summer was a bit harsh as well, we ran out of water to irrigate in early February hence we picked 2-3 weeks ahead of the average year. The quality is good, the acidity is there, the fermentation took longer than expected but the tannins are balanced and the fruit is outstanding, smaller harvest but great quality.”
Uruguay: influenced by the Atlantic coast breeze and sunny days and cooler nights viticulturist Néstor Merino of Pizzorno Family Wines gave us some insight of an extraordinary year in Uruguay, he says:
“The 2020 was the best harvest in decades, the vintage has allowed us to elaborate wines that will be remembered for equilibrium, intensity and finesse. The best harvest of the 21st century and perhaps in our history as a producer”
2020 will always be remembered as the year of adapting to new social conditions for reasons we all know. We can also all agree that climate conditions are unpredictable nowadays and we have to adapt each year to lack of water access, hotter temperatures with minimal or no rain. Good news is that at least the 2020 winter has brought rain and snow accumulation in the Andes mountains that gives a sense of optimism looking into the 2021 growing season. Water is life!