The grape harvest in Villarrubia de los Ojos (Ciudad Real) is being brought forward to this week, and the El Progreso cooperative will begin harvesting the Chardonnay variety this Friday, followed by the unirrigated and irrigated reds and Verdejo at the end of next week. According to the president of El Progreso, Jesús Julián Casanova, the grape harvest is expected to be more than 15% lower than last year.
This, at least, is the estimate of the technicians at El Progreso, one of the main producers and exporters in Europe and which currently has more than 2,300 members, according to the surveys they have been carrying out in the vineyards in recent weeks.
Grape sampling
The last grape sampling in the field was last Thursday, where samples of the first musts of Chardonnay, dry Tempranillo, irrigated Tempranillo, Verdejo, Garnacha tintorera, Macabeo, Merlot and Airén were collected. The technicians observed that the grapes were healthy, balanced, with a total acidity in accordance with the sugar content, and with a slow ripening.
The Cooperative's president affirms that everything points to an average harvest of extraordinary quality this year. "Last year in El Progreso we had a higher crop, we harvested 85 million kilos, however, it seems that this year's harvest will be lower, although it will be average. As always, the weather is going to be key".
The curious fact is that, according to Casanova, the years in which the harvest has been earlier have been rather low in terms of production. "This is something that has happened historically, but it doesn't seem to be the case in 2021," he says. Production will be slightly lower, by 15 to 20 percent, probably "because there has been less rain and because of the plant's own self-regulation," he says.
