SANTALBA 2010 Organic Viticulture - Silver medal in Challenge Millesime Bio

CHALLENGE MILLESIME BIO

SANTALBA 2010 ORGANIC VITICULTURE, SILVER MEDAL IN THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPETITION FOR THE ORGANIC WINES

These days, in our winery we are very satisfied and really proud of our SANTALBA organic viticulture 2010, the healthiest wine in the World has received a silver medal last week in the International Annual Competition CHALLENGE MILLESIME BIO celebrated in France during this month.

The competition, one of the most important in the world, is focus only in the best organics wines. That is why, SANTALBA 2010 is into that group and also on the top of the list, certifying its excellent results during this year.

Remind that this wine, is the consequence of a long and hard I+D+i  proyect in our organic vineyard Viña Hermosa, professionals scientists from Barcelona University and official laboratories said that this wine is the healthiest one in the world because of the natural Resveratrol, 24,5 mg/liter, only with organic process and methods of vine-growing and winemaking.

Resveratrol is a powerful natural antiox that the grape skin has and taking the wine in moderation, it will contribute to get better and keep well the human health, for example:

*  Direct Antioxidant Action

*  It reduces cholesterol levels (LDL)

*  It delays the evolution of some kinds of cancer

*  It gets better the bloodstream

For further information, please download the technical sheet or some other information about us and our wines. Click here.

HARVEST CONCLUSIONS

After some months with one of the most bizarre and extreme climatology is remembered (my father says that he cannot remember nothing as extreme), harvest 2011 started. We have to wait to see the finished wines for definitive analysis, but treading the vineyards and we can draw some conclusions that we have to learn for future.

So, winter in Rioja Alta was very dry, spring came suddenly with plenty of heat, causing a rapid and early sprouting. Spring rains did not appear, and the risk of the dreaded mildew were scarce. The month of July was cooler than usual, but was also accompanied by little or no rainfall. Veraison, as expected, began very early, and after a month of August very warm and very dry September has started with light rain, but continued high temperatures. All this has led to the vineyards are generally very healthy, but also developed and stressed, and consequently unbalanced grapes. Thinking about the grapes, the situation is not very satisfactory ...

However, there are also vineyards in wonderful condition. We can say that there are three factors that have influenced this campaign as marking the difference between the good and the "not so good" vineyards. These factors are: soil,  water and the load of grapes.

In this campaign the most fertile soils, usually located in the meadows, along rivers and ravines, were better able to withstand other extreme drought conditions that have suffered. Soil is theoretically a "low production potential," but surprisingly give better grapes than others "very suitable for quality wine."

The load of grapes or producing strains this season being key to identifying the different levels of quality of the vineyards. Thus, load balancing, or performing a thinning of bunches at the right time, is allowing plants better withstand drought and have a more balanced between sugar ripeness, acidity, color, etc..

So, our vineyards "El Pocete", "Vigorta", "Carbonera", "Pontarron" and "Calvario" are very old vines with deep roots had water enough to resist the draught with a superb quality and some of our youngest vineyards certainly had some problems the last days before pick the grapes with a correct quality but not extraordinary. These young ones were the first ones we harvested and we finished with the oldest ones.

in addition, it seems that we are going to obtain the highest levels of resveratrol ever and we could make our personal record.

In general, we have obtained mid and high alcoholic wines with super deep colour, intense blackberry  aroma and strong tannins which will permit us to produce great wines.

 

Imagining wines, winemakers work, technical viticulture and winemaking at this new campaign presents difficult, at the same time exciting. It is very well selected vineyards, or areas of them have different qualities to the grapes harvested and develop separately.

Finally, we must all learn the lessons from these difficult years. We will undoubtedly improve year after year, achieving better standards of quality of our wines.

Now, Alea Iacta est



..DURING THE HARVEST

Today, we continue with the harvest, bringing grapes to the winery. Really healthy, excellent quality. The thermal fluctuations between night and day (difference between the highest and the lowest temperature) make the process easier. We are receiving the Organic grapes first because we prefer to manipulate those at the beginning of the harvest. Of course we put them in a different vat to keep the organic character. We will show you the vats during the vatting:

                                            

After that, Wine will start the natural alcoholic fermentation (the process where the grape juice change into wine) and we work the maceration then. We will try to cause a contact, as huge as we can, between the grape juice and the grapes skin, where the Polifenoles are and the antioxidants too(Resveratrol). After that, we throw the juice from the bottom of the vat to the top with the aim to break the “cap” because all the skin is floating on the top, so we will increase the contact between them. We show you the picture with the details:

                  

 

           

During the process we will tell you some more details about the wine process.

Thank you!