We finally finished the harvest. We are as happy as a dog with two tails!

This harvest was demanding, we almost had to shorten the holidays so that we could start on the 18th of August. Never in the history of Raza did we start so early.

The entire wine growing year started early and the early awakening of the vines foreshadowed an early harvest. A hot year with abundant water availability meant that the grapes ripened at a good pace and, unsurprisingly, some grapes reached the optimum ripening point earlier than usual. It was the end of July, some of us were already thinking about hot sand and blue sea when the first ripening check on the Alvarinho, Trajadura, Gouveio and Padeiro grape varieties revealed what we already suspected, the harvest would not be long in coming.

During the first two weeks of August more controls were carried out and the harvest was scheduled for the 18th of that month with Alvarinho grapes from a younger vineyard taking the lead in what would become 5 weeks of intense work. Alvarinho was followed by the Gouveio, Trajadura and Padeiro varieties, which also showed that they had already reached phenolic maturity and were therefore ready to be transformed. In September, we started Avesso, Arinto and Azal, which closed the field of white grape varieties and opened the door to the later red varieties, they were vinified for rosé and red wines.

The winery is “full as an egg” and we even had to ask a friend to store us some wine as the abundance of the harvest surprised even our most experienced technicians. No one won our annual bet to guess the number of kg of grapes harvested each year!

At the winery, based on the aroma we can smell, those five weeks of intense work will be worth it. This year, the Azal grape variety is exceptionally aromatic with unique freshness and promises high quality wines. Alvarinho and Avesso have a good intensity and nice structure. Arinto, once again, dazzle us with its complexity of flavours and freshness.

We have high expectations for this campaign and we will soon bring together our extensive panel of expert tasters, who have been with us for several years, so that together we can determine which wines deserve the highest distinctions and be bottled for those who are our most important critics, our customers and friends.