Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (January, 2015)

29 Jan Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (January, 2015)

Al gener, tanca la porta i encén el braser. (In January, close the door and turn on the coal heater. A Catalan saying)

How does the year fire away? Ambitious, sunny and hard-working!

Weather has been very generous with us, still it has adhered quite well to what you expect from the winter. Early January saw some cool days, however deprived of any dramatic temperature leaps… Moreover, you could find mushrooms in some forests! Late in January, temperatures started to drop, with chilly nights and minor snowfalls on the mountains les muntanyes (Els Ports, Prades, la Mola de Colldejou, Serra de Llaberia and the crest of Montsant).

As a consequence, we view a typical winter scenery, perhaps, with a bit more grass than last year. However, we bet you remember that we had heavy showers at some moments last autumn! Which enhances the rugged beauty of Priorat.

The season also encourages to turn hand to typical winter chores: ploughing and pruning twigs. Vines are totally asleep, so this is the right moment to get them shaped towards the spring wakeup. And this month some of you, our vine guardians, had a chance to take part in the winter-pruning master class guided by our winery employee Sergi. The participants enjoyed the insightful and entertaining practical experience in the lap of nature. To follow up, we are sharing here the scheduled activities for adopters in 2015:

• Green-pruning: 24 May – screening the best twigs.
• Trimming: 19 July – smartening the vines up.
• Grape harvest / pairing master class: 13 September – cropping grapes is the most unforeseeable task in viticulture, so if we might not be able to crop grapes on that day, we’ll make up for it with a wine-and-local-food pairing session.

In 2015, we’ve also decided to give you a glimpse of our winery’s history. So we’re going to capitalise on our vast photographic archive. Today, a picture dating back to January, 2007. Tractor ploughing of our Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard. At that time, the plants were very young however well shaped. Can you see how rugged the Priorat soil is, with those scary massive slate rocks? (Over the time, they get gradually cracked and turn very fragile)…

Well, a few words about our network and media life. On Instagram, we have a new outstanding picture that has drawn some attention: a winter sunset at our Grenache vineyard. On the other hand, we’d like to modestly tell you that we appeard in the LaVanguardia paper, this is why some of you have joined us recently as vine adopters! Some corollaries followed: we’ve been given some radio coverage at Ona la Torre (Torredembarra), where the famous wine populariser Ruth Troyano; at La Xarxa; and, finally at Onda Cero Tarragona, with a live-broadcast tasting of our wines.

With another cold month ahead, which is February, we’re looking forward to the new season of warmer and genlter temperatures!

#elporró d #reis amb @soniaferrer @onaalatarda parlem d @CellerDevinssi regala una vinya, @ACSommeliers i @clarasumi http://t.co/nY1Q4eZpTY — Ruth Troyano Puig (@rtroyano) January 12, 2015

D’aquí a pocs minuts escolteu el @JordiUstrell a @laxarxaradio parlant de #ApadrinaUnaVinya #Priorat #Devinssi pic.twitter.com/vM5NtHWibH
— Celler Devinssi (@CellerDevinssi) January 5, 2015

Arriba #laciutattgn Actualitat #BonsVins amb @CellerDevinssi i parlem de la PNL 95.3fm http://t.co/xuVEYqForu amb @PabloAlcarazG — Onda Cero Tarragona (@ondacerotgn) January 8, 2015