Back to work on Monday

Our tanks wait open-mouthed to be fed

2008 Harvest - Day 3 - Monday 29th September

After a day of rest and relaxation we restart the harvest once again under perfect blue skies and bathed in warm sunshine (around 26°C or 79°F if you prefer).

Today we kicked-off in our most recently planted vineyard, a one hectare site that surrounds the Bodega, very originally known as the 'Bodega' vineyard, or sometimes referred to as the 'Caeiro' vineyard (which is the name of the site). Planted some six years ago, Caeiro is only now starting to yield viable quantities of quality grapes - indeed, the sugar levels are very good, and the grapes are extremely healthy, especially when we consider the poor summer that we have endured this year.

After a very civilised lunch break on picnic tables and chairs, always taken in the shade of the pergolas, we moved on to our biggest and best vineyard - 'El Pazo', or 'El Pazo de Barrantes' to give it it's full title. We do not however, call it by it's full title as this could possibly confuse us with the another Bodega that uses the same name (to explain briefly, the other Bodega did originally own the Pazo vineyard before they sold it to Angela's father many years ago - but that's another story).

So, Herminda and her gang of pickers swarm over the Pazo like a plague of locusts (I hope she doesn't mind the analogy, she's bigger than me!), and within a short space of time the grapes start to flood into the cellar and then very quickly into the presses. I am sure that I have mentioned before that we pride ourselves on the speed with which we process our grapes, and it is never usually more than a couple of hours from vine to press - most important in white wine making.

After another busy evening, day 3 draws to a close and we leave the night shift, led by Fran, to load the last press of the day.