2020 was a precocious vintage in terms of the growing cycle and phenology: early budburst, early flowering, early fruit set and veraison. Spring was accompanied by twice the average rainfall. Harvest started for us on the 8th of September, and we finished on the 4th of October—two weeks earlier than the average in the last 20 years. The wines are characterized by great energy and are extremely forward fruit— a great antidote to the events of the year. The Garnachas are very charming and full of vibrancy. Otherwise, possibly one of the great years for Syrah, Provechón and Mazuelo.
The beautiful side of 2020 was our total confinement to the vineyards, where we got to know our parcels more intimately. We used the time and space that the Covid pandemic afforded us to be in the vineyards for extended periods, to stand back and look at what we have built and taken ownership of and to think about the future. This was also an opportunity for our sons to be more involved as they both returned to study at home.
Here’s a video of Norrel made whilst we were all putting out grape moth pheromones in our amphitheatre vineyard at 920m altitude.
All four of us got Covid right at the very beginning of lockdown and losing our sense of smell for over two weeks was quite concerning: every morning we dashed to the kitchen to see if we could smell mustard or coffee and couldn’t smell a thing. As a family, food and wine are primary pleasures as well as our main source of income, so to have absolutely zero smell was astonishing and a little frightening. After a fortnight of this, our sense of smell returned as it had gone – with a smell of burning – and we have since used essential oils to hone our sense of smell.
Our son, James, did some shoot tying when he wasn’t studying at home for his degree.
