Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (September, 2015)

01 Oct Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (September, 2015)

El juny és blader i el setembre raïmer. (June makes wheat, and September makes grapes. A Catalan saying)

Well yes, September 2015 seems to have adhered to what the saying states. Being one of the most important factors for successful grape harvest, the weather did its job and made the harvest slow down throughout the month. The obtained grapes were plentiful and healthy. We managed to crop all Grenach and Cabernet plus a share of Carignan (younger vines).

Since the harvest has been so gradual, we were able to ferment our wines in quite cosy conditions. Think that we are still waiting for the old Grenache slope, which is generally slow to ripe. A curious fact: there are experts who have observed that over the last century, grape harvest has been increasingly earlier. We had thus the utmost case of the 2011 vintage, when we cropped grapes from our old slope in August.

As you know, September is one of the most attractive months for wine tourists, because of the grape harvest. Last year we already felt this trend and this year it continued. Meaning more visits, more tours and more activities. First, we’d like to thank those of you who took part in the grape harvest master class! You made a sizeable input to the progress of our harvest. We’d like to have your feedback regarding the activity! And below, you’ll find some pictures taken by our vine adopter Yolanda.

A special mention to two activities. In mid-October our old vineyard hosted a wedding ceremony of a Russian couple – for the time being, we’ll keep secret the details, because this is a tourist product being developped by our vine guardians Natalia and Ivan. On the other hand, a few days later, we set up a master class of Catalan cuisine for a group from Moscow, in collaboration with our neighbours’ restaurant Les Figueres.

Highlights

• We’re preparing an event related to grapevine adoptions that will take place in Barcelona, we’ll let you know soon. Stay on the alert.
• We’ve already collected 20 reviews at TripAdvisor, which ranks us top among the seven Gratallops businesses.
• We’ve amassed over 3000 followers on Instagram!

Images from the past. One of the first wine tours at Celler Devinssi, September 2007. Our guests punching down the hat for IL·LIA 2007, fermented in barrel.