harvest

Wine tourism and organic wine sales are booming but climate change is an unpredictable threat for wineries

Fewer seasonal workers to be needed this summer as tens of thousands of hectares damaged due to frost

Mediterranean climate, awareness and sales in northern Europe contribute to doubling amount of eco-friendly hectares of grape in 5 years

Events include wine tasting, vineyard visits and cultural outings

Organic producers are paradoxically the ones most badly affected, as some try to grow new resistant varieties to avoid using chemicals

Hail and heavy rain has damaged many of the crops they would harvest, and their situation has been made worse by the extra lockdown

Catalonia's unique wetland area left reeling after wind and rain threaten its rice fields and precious flora and fauna

Penedès, home to cava sparkling wine, is largest Catalan winegrowing region

The county in central Catalonia is bringing in its grapes with production expected to rise by 40% to 1.4m kilos

Raimat winery gathers grapes manually and in the dark

Raimat began picking grapes on Monday night, starting a season that promises wines of ‘excellent quality’

Producers of sparkling wine from Catalonia's Penedès region have chosen the brand name 'Clàssic Penedès' to identify their product. This variety is not Cava but rather a sparkling wine produced under stricter regulations to ensure the product is of a higher quality. Wine under the Clàssic Penedès name can only use grapes which are 100% organic and which come from the Penedès wine appellation. Josep Maria Albert, the President of the Penedès appellation, announced that this year the grapes in this region are maturing particularly early and, as of this week, some vineyards are already manufacturing the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varieties of wine. The winemaker stated that this season, due to weather conditions, "there will be between a 10% to 15% drop in the quantity of wine from last year, but, despite this decrease in production, the wine will be better quality".

The Penedès wine appellation is expecting “excellent” wines from this year’s harvest. Catalonia’s most important viticultural area has already started harvesting its chardonnay grapes and is expecting to harvest the other varieties in the next few days. The weather this year has been favourable for the appellation, with a “very healthy” crop that despite a reduction in volume, will be sufficient to fulfil the 22 million bottles normally produced by the wineries.