The 2023 harvest: extreme drought
The 2023 harvest will be remembered for an extreme drought and for a lot of close attention to the vineyard; in fact, there has been a sequence of very dry campaigns. In the words of Paco de la Rosa Torelló “even though we have taken advantage of every litre of rain that has fallen on our estate, we have never seen anything like this” and “we have adapted the green pruning this year to the conditions of very low rainfall”. Between the end of the 2022 harvest and September 2023 the amount received has been 387 litres per square metre, very inferior to the average of 550 litres.
Harvest at night to avoid the high temperatures
The harvest on our Can Martí estate started in the early morning of the 8th of August, 5 days later than the previous year due to the mild temperatures in May and June which led to a slower maturing of the grapes, and it finalised on the 9th of September. With the partially nocturnal harvest that we practice every day, and which has come to stay, we maximise the use of the night’s lower temperatures. Between 05:00 and 13:00 there is a difference in temperature that can be up to 15ºC.
Verema nocturna a la Finca Can Martí de Torelló Viticultors
The weather during the 2023 harvest
In the middle of the harvest, we suffered an intense heatwave with temperatures up to 38ºC which lasted a week. This period of high heat was followed by two days of rain in which we had 18 litres per square metre and celebrated the reduction of the temperature. This water was well utilised by the parellada grapes and the estate’s centenary olive trees.
The production of grapes for the 2023 harvest
In 2023 the production of grapes has been lower than the previous year due to the drought but has been of very good quality without diseases. There was a worry that the drought might affect the quality but the wines resulting from the harvest are excellent, as much for the corpinnat base wines as for the still wines.
Our estate’s red garnacha (grenache) stand out, a variety that is destined to have an important role both in our sparkling corpinnat and in our still wines.
Garnatxa negre de la Finca Can Martí
A great job by our viticulture and oenology team
Tremendous work by the viticulture and oenological teams, respectively led by Quim Isart and Marc Martin, spearheading our 71st harvest since we started to produce the first bottle of sparkling wine.
