Chief winemaker Mercedes García Rupérez reports on this year’s harvest experience and what the winery anticipates from the vintage.
Bodegas Montecillo, one of the pioneering wineries in the D.O.C. Rioja, has just started the harvest season. Chief Winemaker Mercedes García Rupérez shares behind-the-scenes insights.
Founded in 1870, Bodegas Montecillo is the first and oldest winery in the town of Fuenmayor
and has kept the winemaking traditions, maintaining a classic style that truly expresses the
region’s identity and perpetuates the vision of the founder, Celestino Navajas. With vineyards
located in the 3 subregions Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, the winery has its work
cut out for them this harvest season.
“Right now the team is dedicating most of their time to cleaning, preparing machinery, checking cooling systems, fermenting tanks, press pumps, etc.,” says Mercedes.
“It is the time of year that we anticipate the most and count down the days to begin. However, it is also a time of the
year that requires a huge effort and sacrifice from the whole team.”
Harvest at Bodegas Montecillo started on September 5th with the red grape vineyards in areas
of Rioja Oriental (Tempranillo and Garnacha) and later continued with the Sauvignon Blanc
grapes, a foreign variety permitted by the appellation in 2007 and utilized for blending in the
Montecillo barrel fermented white wine, that come from a plot located 0.5 mile away also in the
Rioja Oriental subzone. The following week they anticipate working with grapes from Rioja Alta,
according to the maturations of each vineyard.
The last to be harvested is the Graciano, which is the variety with the longest cycle that they
have and the one that they decide to leave in the vine until obtaining a ripe tannin. Harvest time
is quite long since they collect grapes from almost the entire geography of the DOC Rioja,
therefore from the beginning at the Rioja Oriental area until the highest plots in Cuzcurrita or
Sajazarra are really ripe, normally more than 30 days pass. However, due to higher
temperatures and lower rainfall the region has seen this year, this has been shortened causing
the grape’s growth cycle to take place in the late summer.
The vineyards selected for Gran Reserva have an earlier maturation due to the lower load of
grapes they have as they are older vineyards, normally the Reserva ones follow and overlap
with the Crianza vineyards. All this has exceptions in higher and cooler plots where its
maturation is somewhat later.
“Each vineyard is categorized by age and winemaking potential,” explains Mercedes. “Daily
maturation controls are carried out and based on the results they undergo a segmented
harvest.”
In general, due to the high temperatures throughout this summer, there will be two harvests in
Rioja. One results from vineyards that have had enough water to complete the ripening phase,
offering grapes with a good balance between sugar-acidity-polyphenols. The other harvest
phase focuses on the vineyards that have suffered more from water scarcity and have not yet
reached the technical and/or phenolic maturity. At Bodegas Montecillo, the health of their
vineyards is exceptional and they believe that there is a very good water reserve, so it will be an
early harvest with slightly higher alcohol degrees on average.
“We believe that this year’s vintage will produce wines with a high alcohol content in a large part
of Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja. However, in cooler areas the alcohol content will
remain as the average,” notes Mercedes. “But, it has been a year in which climate change has
clearly been noticed, and I think it is here to stay. This just means we will have to be able to
work with what we have and continue to produce high-quality wines.”
