Indeed, it all sorted itself out in the end. Our winery is finally almost ready and we have just rounded off our best harvest ever. As they say in Spain, everything sorts itself out.
At the eleventh hour, we found a builder who was prepared to take on the project and promised us that it would be ready in July, one month before harvesting. It was an extremely tight time frame. By the end of August, the winery was sufficiently completed to enable us to process the grapes we harvested this year. It wasn’t until the day before the authorities shut down for the holiday period that all the many necessary permits had been secured.
Harvesting began in the last week of august just as we received the final permit from the authorities. It was such a relief when the first load of grapes arrived. The winery had reached a stage of completion that allowed us to process the first grapes. Things went well, but it was really chaotic. There were 10 or so of us from Bell Cros taking care of the grapes and almost as many from the equipment suppliers showing us how the new machinery works. And the builders were there too, forging ahead with the construction work. A fantastically chaotic hive of activity and noise everywhere.
On 28 September, we had successfully wrapped up our first harvest in the new winery. The crop yielded 60,000 kg of high quality grapes (about 55,000 bottles), which is the same amount as last year. Since then, the vineyard has expanded by another two hectares, but the grapes were smaller because of the hot, dry summer. The yield was down by about 10-15% per hectare.
We are immensely pleased with the results. It has been a challenging year. We’re putting the construction project on hold for a few months now so that we can recharge our batteries. We’ll return with renewed energy and get the rest of the work completed at the beginning of next year. In spite of these uncertain and challenging times, we are pleased to report that we have a state-of-the-art winery and a strong foundation for taking our wines to the next level. It bodes well for the future.
Thank you everyone for all your hard work. You’ve made it possible!