Everywhere you look, spring has arrived on our family farm. We recently said goodbye to the seasonal winter, although the cold left us some time ago, and the green is gaining place as the daylight hours increase. Birdsong is rising day by day and all the animals are ready to enjoy a new spectacle.

The land, the soils, the field. Everyone is looking forward to the vineyard cycle that has just begun. They seem to welcome it with their best clothes, bursting with life and color. Everything follows its time and the new season revives our senses.

The awakening of the vines

These last few days, we have seen how, attached to the vines, the canopies captivate us with their white radish and yellow. Next to them, our workhorses help us to maintain a good soil structure to help the vines develop.

If we approach them, we can already see the first leaves with different shades of green and, sometimes, red, depending on the variety of the grape. A chromatic spectacle capable of captivating anyone.

And to ensure that everything proceeds optimally, our vineyard team has been carrying out some of the biodynamic work that this season of the year requires; such as the application of the 501 silicon preparation, which will help us to increase leaf resistance to disease and enhance vegetative growth.

Application of the 501 preparation

While some apply the biodynamic preparations, part of the vineyard team dedicates the morning to grafting. You know that they are? It is a technique that allows us to guarantee the growth of our local varieties.

To do this, we select the best vines from our farm, cut their branches and introduce them into a small cut made in the American foot. Then, we tie them with natural fibers and cover them with earth.

With this, we try to transmit the genetic inheritance of our most special vineyards to these new plantations and avoid plant diseases such as phylloxera, since the American foot, which is the one that is in contact with the ground, is resistant to attack by this insect.

Grafting Xarel·lo at Vinya Gran

Stakes, a support for our historic vines

Some of our oldest vines are supported by the so-called “stakes”. Already in 2012, our most emblematic plot, the Clos del Serral, was carefully worked by placing wooden stakes to help support the old xarelos and favor the conduction of the vine in its spring rebirth each viticultural cycle.

Likewise, in 2021, the same was done with Vinya del Reguer; and, this spring, it was the turn of the Vinya del Coll, where we have placed 4,000 stake posts, one in each vine of this symbolic vineyard on our farm. In this case, the chosen wood has been acacia: very resistant and does not require any treatment, guaranteeing high durability.

Vinya del Coll

The objective of the tutors is that they serve as support for the vine, in addition to avoiding blows from animals or breakage due to their old age; at the same time that they help us to orient their branches during the spring and thus keep their clusters aerated.

In all these plots, we can be surprised by the sculptures that these old vines draw on the landscape; vineyards worked only by man and our draft horses; breathing peace, stillness, rest. Nature takes its course. Without machinery. No hurries.

Without a doubt, these are moments to be very attentive for our viticulture experts. With the cycle already underway, it’s time to be very close to the vine. Good work on time will allow us to control any circumstance that may affect the quality of our wines.

An example of this is that, due to the lack of rain, we have decided to bring forward the arrival of part of our team from Baena (Córdoba). A total of 13 people have already begun to help us with the tasks of green pruning those shoots that could be a competition for the good shoots to grow as well as possible.

An example of this is that, due to the lack of rain, we have decided to bring forward the arrival of part of our team from Baena (Córdoba). A total of 13 people have already begun to help us with the green pruning tasks, which consists of cutting those shoots from the old wood to allow all the energy and water to go to the shoots of the blur that we left in the winter pruning, which are more fertile and helps us to give structure to the plant.

Nature requires us at every moment. We must listen to it, feel it, interpret it. Only then will we get the best fruits of our most precious treasure.