30.8.17 State of the Harvest

The harvest is now beginning to come to an end with most of the inland vineyards finished. As of yesterday over 59 million kilos or close to 85% had been pressed with an average sugar reading of 11.78° Beaumé. Picking had been accelerated as rain had been forecast and that makes picking much more difficult as the soil becomes very muddy. Heavy rain also brings the risk of cryptogamic problems, but came too late to do any damage to the extremely healthy grapes, so it was more of an irritant than a problem. The grapes can absorb some of the rainwater which will reduce the sugar level, but that was high already and it simply compensates for any loss of volume from the high temperatures. Only Chiclana and Puerto Real, which are usually last to pick anyway, have not begun but will do so shortly. The total crop looks like being around 70 million kilos, fairly normal, but a big increase on last year, but that was a smaller than average crop. The Marco de Jerez is lucky, as many other wine regions both in Spain and abroad are reporting the smallest harvest for decades, as frost, hail and drought have really taken their toll, and harvests have generally been much earlier than normal. Yet some still deny climate change.